Now correct me if I’m wrong but generally the traffic on our roads follows The Highway Code, which is written with keeping vehicles apart while travelling in an orderly manner in mind, and on the pavements, where pedestrians walk, it’s generally a free for all with nobody really caring what anyone else is doing.
So why or why do councils think it’s a good idea to mix pedestrians and cyclist in the same area (combined cycle/pedestrian paths)? It’s a recipe for disaster if you ask me! I’d much rather take my chances on the rule governed road than the anarchistic pavement and feel much safer doing so, and anyway, it’s my choice, right?
Well some people think otherwise, like the bus driver a while back hanging off my back tyre beeping me to get onto this psycho path (AKA the pavement) when the bus lane I was in has a cycle logo at its start! Who did he think he was? Well I basically signalled him past me letting him no that in no uncertain terms was I going to ride along the pavement, especially when my intended route would have taken me back onto the same road within 100 yards, and not off around a suburb I had no intention of visiting following this path!
Even when they (the council) get a good idea and put a cycle path as a clearly separate entity alongside the walkway they screw it up by having a narrow fenced off pavement one end and a pedestrian crossing to cross the road at the other with the lane fenced off from the main road so you’re stuck to this bottleneck if you foolishly choose this particular psycho path. These token attempts are useless and just a waste of money in my opinion.
It’s about time they either created some dedicated cycle paths or more cyclists actually learn The Highway Code rather than just disregarding every sign and signal on our roads. Maybe then we’d actually get some respect, but given human nature I doubt that’ll ever happen… either way!
