Watching a program last night and noticed a road sign in the states 'Yield for Cyclists' and I thought that's a refreshing change. The one sign that really bugs me in this country is the 'Cyclists slow down' as it makes us out to be third class citizens. I commute daily and use shared paths and will yield to pedestrians, slow down when passing and ring bell before doing so. The problem is that pedestrians tend to have headphones in and don't hear you and then take umbrage when you pass. The biggest problem I see is lack of education on the pedestrians part, it's a shared path so they should be as aware of the possibilty of bikes as cyclists are of pedestrians. If we all gave each other a little bit of respect things would be so much easier and how about changing the signs to say something like 'Shared path respect other users'

Agreed, sounds like a better wording to me.

"Cyclists slow for pedestrians" implies cyclists are always the bad guys. A "Pedestrians get out of the way and keep your **** dog under control" would also be good.

I think you're expecting to eat your cake and have it here. A shared use path means you need to assume that no pedestrian has seen or heard you, and ride accordingly.

irrespective of the fact it's shared use, the peds are the most vulnerable users, so have priority.

I'm not sure, however normalised cycling becomes in our urban spaces, that there will be sufficient cultural shift for a constant awareness between road users. Ultimately, we can't legislate for people just mooching around (and nor would I particularly want to).

Give and take is all we need here, I think.

The cycle path I use could do with a few "cyclists clow down" signs – it's full of arseholes who think that by riding at full pelt at people that they will miraculously shift for them or that their dog won't jump out. Some cyclists seem to treat the "shared path" as a racetrack, as witnessed this morning when two guys draughting nearly ploughed into this kid who wasn't looking where he was going. They didn't bother to slow down, call out to him or anything vaguely responsible until the last second when they all managed to swerve out of the way…

The cycle lane is currently out of action on a road near me, its a line painted on the road and they've resurfaced the road.

They've put up yet another a "cyclists dismount" sign!

wtf?? is it too dangerous to cycle on the road without that line??

i think the "cyclists dismount" sign has got to be my least favourite. Maybe i'll start putting signs up on the road saying "motorists, get out and push".

I'm still trying to figure out the "cyclists give way to pedestrians" signs. Obvious when you're travelling in opposite directions but not sure how you overtake and give way to a pedestrian?

Agreed that there has to be give and take, ideally there should be proper funding to develop and infrastructure for cyclists. It's been done elsewhere in the world very successfully but hear in godd ol' blighty the government doesn't seem to give a gnats chuff about doing it properly and just pays lip service every now and then. Cycle paths are created when the local councils have some spare paint and pull ahead's at lights are always full of buses and Taxi's. What would help is a concerted drive from the government with TV and press coverage as opposed to adverts offering loan consolidation packages, info on the so called celebs and who they've been boffing recently.

Or just learn to ride on the roads safely.

Cyclists are often to be seen behaving disgracefully.

Hence the signs.

but hear in godd ol' blighty the government doesn't seem to give a gnats chuff about doing it properly and just pays lip service every now and then

Blame the electorate.

For more on some of the commentary on infrastructure differentials between the UK (and other places) and the Netherlands, see David Hembrow's most recent blog entry:

http://hembrow.blogspot.com

My personal bugbear is being threatened and abused by pedestrians using the separate cycle lane, despite the footpath – all theirs by law – being only two feet away, because I simply ask them to make room for me.
I think the root of this is only partly public ignorance of the law and awareness of cycling, and is mainly to do with terrible planning and layout of footpaths and cycle paths in my area.
Oh, and a lot of cyclists – mainly students – using the footpaths.

Mainly on my fast evening commute to the station, but I tend to ignore the lights and time it to get through the gap in the line/behind the last one across (taking care not to frighten anybody) the pedestrian crossings.

Am I bad?

druidh – I can ride on the roads but getting thru Newcastle there's bike lanes that should be safer than playing with the traffic.

i think the "cyclists dismount" sign has got to be my least favourite

yup, really patronising.

ribena… there's a cyclist dismount sign on the path I ride to work on, it's a marked Sustrans Route ffs ! of course I never get off.

druidh, you're welcome to breathe in the stinking exhaust fumes of traffic jams everyday of your life if you wish to, some us prefer the scenic route.

Kev

druidh – I can ride on the roads 🙂 but getting thru Newcastle there's bike lanes that should be safer than playing with the traffic.

🙂

It could just be that there is an issue – perceived or real with cyclists ridding like idiots on that bit?

I know this happens on some parts of the canal towpath in Edinburgh for example. Another place I have seen signs similar is on the River almond walkway this used to be n cycles but has changed in accordance with the LRA. It is a very busy path with walkers and a bit of caution and even giving way by cycles is reasonable.

Cyclists dismount signs appear to be universally stupid. Teh one that really annoys me is on the aqueduct on the canal. If you are push a bike accross it you take up more width than if you ride the bike. All that needs is a "cyclists give way to pedestrians" sign.

IMO "Cyclists dismount" is an admission of failure by the planners – I read that as either "ignore this sign", or "use the road instead of this so called facility" – the latter also applying to anywhere where they feel the need to suggest cyclists should slow down for peds.

Edit – can't believe somebody else posted the same image whilst I was looking for it!

creating signs telling people to do something or not do something causes more problems than it solves, it creates issues where there were no issues.
there should be no signs at all; a line and a symbol separating the people and bikes as a maximum.
people should be given some credit for common sense, even if they don't have any, rather than being patronised and nannied with an assumption that we're all retarded.

people should be given some credit for common sense

Hah! Have you ever met people?

Muppets with headphones on and dogs wandering around are my biggest bugbears. I got knocked off my bike by a girl who walked in front of me on a shared path after I rang my bell to alert her I was coming up behind, after another bike in front went past her. She was yakking on her mobile. She ended up sprawled on the ground with her phone smashed in front of her. Rather served her right, I thought. More recently, on my way home as it was getting dark, around 10pm, along a Sustrans route that runs alongside the River Avon across a playing field I spotted a couple snogging on a stone seat a couple of metres away from the path. As I got level with them I saw something out of the corner of my eye and a bloody Jack Russell shot out from behind the seat yapping at me. I was going about ten-twelve mph, and slammed the brakes on, (203/180mm rotors), but couldn't stop from running over the dog, which yelped, and almost had me off the bike. How I managed to stay upright I've no idea. I didn't hang around, the boyfriend was big and was making aggressive noises about me running over his damned dog. I yelled back that they should have it on a lead. Dogs should be kept on a lead by law.

Nearly took out some ferkers collie at Lee quarry yesters, they were letting it run unleashed around the end of the black / red rollers and doubles leading on to the skills area. Lassie started to run up the doubles just as i came round the last berm, but luckily for pooch it came back to the owners when shouted.. i was just about to pop the front and and let 17 stone of fat knacker sitting atop 38Lbs of fast moving orange do its worst…