Just a couple of days ago I was out riding one of my usual routes. Rode down the steps at ‘The Banks’ between the houses and then turned left to head towards ‘The Fox’. Heading towards the newly sanitised path between the horse fields just after the houses (map shows Capstone – path straight contouring the hillside).
Confronted with a board across the entrance to the sanitised path, a few inches high and a brand new blue sign ordering ‘Cyclists Dismount’.
The sign was of the type usually seen at cycle path crossings at road junctions and a little out of place at the entrance to a country byway.
Anyone any comments or know anything?
I think the path is a byway – certainly legal for riding.
Why should I dismount?
Does the sign have any legality?
Is the sign placed by Council (or similar) or just an angry horse rider/ land owner.
How long before there is a sign saying ‘No Cyclists’ in Strines!

Those signs are advisory. (And stupid.)

Those signs are advisory.

+1

Generally traffic engineer’s code for:

“Cyclists: this is too hard. We give up. You’re on your own from here”

Confronted with a board across the entrance to the sanitised path, a few inches high and a brand new blue sign ordering ‘Cyclists Dismount’.

as above, it’s advisory and it’s usually becuase the person “designing” something cna’t think of a proper way to do it. IN the case of that particular instance, the “board across the entrance” was originally a horse stile. Some naughty random local must have taken away the other side of it and tossed it over the fence so that you can ride throught more freely

This bit is all conjecture – I think the signs/horse stile have appeared because the council turned the lovely track into a motorway and locals have complained about cycists “going too fast”. Well, surprise surprise, make a track wide and smooth and who would have through that bikes would go faster> Couple this with the riding school that seems to have started up and begu to use that track more frequently and I’m guessing someone’s trying to prevent user conflict / accidents by mandate, rather than by design – as though a sign will have more effect than thinking about the root of the problem

Those signs are advisory. (And stupid.)

You know that, I know that, but I wonder if everyone else knows that.

Or do some people think “there goes another cyclist ignoring the law” ? I do remember a UKIP candidate ranting along these lines whilst defending his party’s stance on cycling.

You never see signs saying “Motorists – get out and push”, or “Pedestrians – Hop”

I do remember a UKIP candidate ranting along these lines whilst defending his party’s stance on cycling.

It is part of the UKIP manifesto I believe:

“10.9 Local authorities should be given additional powers to enforce a ‘cyclists dismount’ or ‘no cycling’ regulation where there are safety concerns – such as on busy roundabouts, junctions or bus lanes, or where the road would be too narrowed by cycle lanes and cause
unacceptable delays to traffic.”

do some people think “there goes another cyclist ignoring the law” ?

Probably. The same folk that say that when they see cyclists filtering through traffic, riding two abreast, using shared use paths, riding the “wrong way” up one way streets (which have two way cycle lanes), etc etc etc

Meanwhile they are numb to the fact that they drive everywhere faster than the speed limit allows and happily ignore the parts of the highway code that are inconvenient.

People see what they want to see. Confirmation bias in action.

There is a similar sign just before the descent into the tunnels at Clapham, North Yorks. I think it so people on tourers and hybrids (the rest of the track is easy bridleway, part of some national network) don’t get a sudden shock on hitting the rocks, come off and complain.

I ignore it every time and no one seems to mind!

I noticed this too, it’s been there a few months now I think. I too, get the impression that somebody probably complained about how fast people are going down there as you can actually get a fair bit of speed up even though it’s not a terribly long path.

It’s a shame they sanitised it as it was a nice little piece of singletrack before 🙁

As NBT says, it’s also now far more dangerous.

So the board across the start of the track seems to be the start of a “Granny Trap” or “Horse Stile”. There seem to be several in other areas that seem to have stopped construction.

I know the one near the Banks stopped construction when it was pointed out to Stockport council that it contravened some equality act (as it didn’t have any space for a wheelchair). No idea if correlation implies causation in this case.

There a 2 of these signs going into a shared path on an underpass near me that cuts out a (frankly lethal) roundabout.

It’s out in the sticks and the only pedestrians you ever meet at commuting times are the loitering inhabitants of the traveler site over the road.

Needless to say I do not dismount.

if it is a legal route then report to the Local Access Forum for your area. Signs that are aimed at restricting access to legal routes are against guidance and the LAF should be able to push the Council into removing the “advisory” signs. This type of “principle” issue is what get’s LAF’s excited so you should get a response

I don’t think it’s a horse stile – it’s only a couple of inches or so high and if I remember correctly it wasn’t there before the trail was sanitised. I would agree it’s just been put there to get cyclists to slow down now it’s smooth.

Ahhh that took me a while to work out where you were talking about!

It definitely wasn’t there before the sanitisation, seems they’ve done something magical with the drainage there as well, It used to be a proper river down there and i didn’t expect all that shale to stick.

It certainly hasn’t down strawberry 😀

It was a horse stile, in this mode

However rather than raised metal or wooden barriers at the side it was constructed (badly) by making a rectangle with wooden beams at ground level. When I first rode it, on of the transverse pieces (i.e. across the trail) had begun to rotate. Miraculously, by the time I *next* rode it that piece had become detached from the other three pieces and some safety minded individual had tossed it over the fence to the rider’s left as you head towards The Fox Inn.

The end result is that there’s now only ONE transverse piece (already at an angle rather than presenting 2 * upright faces and a level top) across the trail, so you can ride on with little interruption

Was out last night and noticed the second transverse piece has now gone too. Someone’s admitted it was a bad idea and got rid, I reckon – I just hope they don’t do it “properly” now

Was it intended to deter people on motorbikes?

nbt. The board I saw in the location Orangejohn described was a single plank, probably only a 2 or 3 inch step. It looked more like a drainage measure or an edging to the new surfacing than a proper horse stile (it was definitely nothing like the photo you posted or the horse stiles elsewhere above Roman Lakes). Maybe we’re at cross purposes re the location.

The location I’m on about is right in the centre of this map

http://goo.gl/maps/5lQMH

Round about here

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=398170&Y=386892&A=Y&Z=110&ax=398075&ay=387170

And when first constructed, there were TWO transverse pieces. They’d started to rotate. One piece was removed. The second piece has now gone. There are two small trenches where the wood was. I’ll take apic next time I’m up that way if I remember

Yes that’s the spot. I don’t think it was ever a horse stile of the sort you showed though was it? Only a couple of planks which were not exactly an obstacle. I never saw the dismount sign though.

It was meant to be a horse stile but wasn’t constructed as above – it was just four pieces of timber nailed together to form a rectangle. I think it was intended to slow down bikes, be they pedal or motor powered.

According to a fellow STW forumite who lives locally to the location, the sign and the remaining part of the “construction” were removed by a council worker a few days ago…