Edinburgh is currently beset by the festival masses and the meadows cycle lane, that runs from east to west is often swarmed with pedestrians. There also seems to be a commited number of people who are walking along and will swerve into the lane without warning or looking.

looks a little something like this

Currently cycle it about 4 times a day due to work as it saves good time on all the traffic lights on the “A700”.

The highway code seems a bit vague on who should have priority where a footpath and a cyclepath are side by side. In my eyes, they should keep to their side and I will keep to mine. Just wondered if I was being unreasonable or the pedestrians were to fault.

The highway code seems a bit vague on who should have priority where a footpath and a cyclepath are side by side.

sod the highway code. When the cycleway is over-run with pedestrians it doesnt matter how “right” you are, just ride sympathetically. You’ll get a lot less stressed about something you cant do anything about.

sod the highway code. When the cycleway is over-run with pedestrians it doesnt matter how “right” you are, just ride sympathetically. You’ll get a lot less stressed about something you cant do anything about.

I think I’ll have to disagree here.

sod the highway code. When the cycleway is over-run with pedestrians it doesnt matter how “right” you are, just ride sympathetically attack! Attack! Attack the barstewards to show them who the boss is! You’ll get rid of a lot of less stressedabout something you cant do anything about .

It’s not a hill you know!

In London town, just shout rozzers and any ex rioters will run like linford christie with his shorts on fire.

What you need are bicycle blues and twos, something like this and an air horn should suffice.

its actually illegal to dispay a blue light, but is great fun to wrap some blue celophane over strobing bike light especially when entering a dogging area,

Get a bell ?

get an air horn?

Bell helps greatly. Middle meadow walk is a main cycle route – you have priority over pedestrians – however at this time of year sheer weight of numbers will mean you can’t go belting down it.

Its not the belting im worrying about, just trying to hold an steady pace (14mph). I have a bell but find it ineffective and tend to resort to verbal warnings most of the time now.

I have wondered if it was worth asking the council to paint a huge white stripe over the paving strips to make it crystal clear.

This is a fairly common occurrence in Brighton on the cycle lane that runs along the sea front. Lots of tourists who don’t know or realise it’s a cycle lane. I don’t know if it’s the same there, but the police here say there is no legal requirement for pedestrians to stay out of the cycle lane.

Incidentally, I doubt the highway code will cover it because neither the pavement or the cycle lane is a “highway”.

However, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask people to “get out of the way”. If anyone objects, I just point out that it’s in their interests to stay out of the cycle lane if they don’t want to get hit by a bike!

Fix this and forget about pedestrians: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/20100119.aspx

^^^^^^

Use it wisely

At ten meters or less, the burst can cause injury, or even be fatal

Middle meadow walk is a main cycle route – you have priority over pedestrians

Really? I didn’t know that. Where did you get taht information?

ts not the belting im worrying about, just trying to hold an steady pace (14mph). I have a bell but find it ineffective and tend to resort to verbal warnings most of the time now.

I have wondered if it was worth asking the council to paint a huge white stripe over the paving strips to make it crystal clear

In my experience, the white lines don’t work. I used to commute from Carrickfergus to Belfast along a path which was divided by a line – left for bikes/right for walkers. The walkers didn’t seem to pay any attention to it and many seemed to view cycle commuters as some kind of urban menace. Saying that, it was still favourable to taking your chances on the roads with the Northern Irish kamikaze drivers.

Just wondered if I was being unreasonable or the pedestrians were to fault.

ts not the belting im worrying about, just trying to hold an steady pace (14mph).

Yes, you’re being unreasonable.

Hope hubs always help, stop pedaling and people quickly get out the way 🙂

Pedestrians always have priority. So you’ll just have to grin and bear it. A bell plus lots of “Thank You” will have to do.

14mph on a busy foot/cyclepath is waayyy too fast. If you’re in a hurry, use the road.

i ride as close as possible to pedestrians on the cycle path side of middle meadow walk, they soon realise they are on the wrong side.

Fair enough. Happy to be told I’m going too fast. I’ll slow it down in future.

14mph on a busy foot/cyclepath is waayyy too fast. If you’re in a hurry, use the road.

unless the police consider 14mph to be too slow for the road and nick you for impeding traffic when there is a cycle lane alternative, damned if you do….

Get one of those battery powered air horn things – thats what I did when I had to commute to work that way some years ago.

Right cheered me up that did, scaring the hell out of a few Italian tourists on the way to work in the morning !!

Cheapo bulb horn does the trick for me – seems to get a much better reaction than a bell & gets you a clown bike without the expense of going all 29er 😆

seems to get a much better reaction than a bell

can’t say I get bad reactions from a bell, just occasionally no reaction. Ooh pedestrian a way up ahead let them know I’m here, tingting, ped doesn’t look round, no response at all, getting closer tingting, nothing, getting quite close now tingtingtingting, ped still shows no sign of registering your presence, brake right down to walking pace tingtingtingtingtingting nowt. “er excuse me!” at this point pedestrian either jumps in fright and moves out of the way moaning as they go or they look round, ignore you and keep on walking 👿

Riding like this should sort things out 😉

“is great fun to wrap some blue celophane over strobing bike light especially when entering a dogging area”

thats a different form of protection any how…

+1 for Hope hubs – much more effective than any bell IME!

Definitely recommend cheapy comedy bulb horn for commuting runs on shared paths and the like. Techno-zombies (phone users, i-pod users, doggy walkers with kilometer length leads etc) don’t hear bells unless you are within one wheel’s diameter proximity of them (or their pooch), no matter how far away you start ringing.

The HONK-HONK of the comedic horn works from much farther away and seems to disperse any anger at being warned to “Please move out of the way (for your own safety, of course …. 😉 ….. )!” The modern Zombie seems to have not been brought up to recognise a bike bell, but is at least curious enough to turn around at the louder sound of the horn.

In a perverse sort of way, it also occasionally provides the owners of such horns some light relief as the wandering Zombie does a John Cleese like dance to leap out of the way, presumeably thinking they are about to be mown down by a truck …. even though you are still 30 metres or more away from them when they perform their silly walk impersonation ….. 😆

All-in-all a very good couple of quids worth of safety gear.