[Closed] Nuisance Cyclists shouldn't use Bridleways?? an "interesting" viewpoint

Where to start?

I have some sympathy with the New Forest villagers but not that much. He seems to be advocating violence and that has to be wrong. Well, at least we know who he is and its in the public realm.

The issue of cycle paths always arouses full emotions but the fact is that most bike paths aren't suitable for road bikes. Hard to explain but nonetheless true.

http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/form.html

Everyone should fill out the complaints form on the Press Complaints Commission website.

Usually I'm not the Mary Whitehouse type but these kidns of articles are on par with the worst kind of discrimination / racism.

The law allows us to cycle on roads and bridleways. Simple as that. Encouraging violence against us simply for enjoying a healthy and productive pastime that is also good for the environment is totally wrong.

He's right of course.

"Nuisance" cyclists shouldn't be allowed on bridleways. Responsible ones should be just fine.

Charming fellow. Wouldn't want anyone to return a poke with his pool cue, would we?

Meh, click bait

Tell me if I'm wrong, but isn'tcycling on bridle ways in much of the NF national park banned? Therefore, as we all know well, forcing MTBing on to a few available tracks.

there aren't really bridleways in the NF - horses can go effectively anywhere, as can walkers.

Off-road cylists, as you say, can pretty much **** off as far as the local laws are concerned.

On-road cyclists, however, can pretty much **** off as far as the local bigots are concerned.

Blah blah blah.
+1 for it being clickbait.

Oh, and don't click through - read this:

Of course I shouldn't be here, really. I should be lying in some hospital bed with my limbs swathed in bandages, contemplating a grim future of permanently reduced mobility.

My escape was lucky, not to say – to use a much overworked adjective – miraculous. But escape I did, which is why I am able to tap this out on the keyboard instead of scrawling a few illegible words on a sheet of paper, ball-point sellotaped to heavily-bandaged left hand.

It was the cyclists, you see. To be more precise, the group of cyclists I encountered with a certain degree of abruptness during a weekend stroll across the moor.

The cyclists, who, riding in a pack along a bridleway, the noise of their progress whipped away on the breeze, suddenly appeared over the brow of a rise behind me and launched themselves down the slope at terrifying velocity.

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Not until they were ten yards away did I become aware of their presence, allowing me a microsecond to scoop the startled dog up and throw myself into the gorse bushes lining the track, a move which did neither of us much good but at least saved us from disappearing under a messy heap of cycles and bodies – and certainly emerging from the encounter as the losers.

Now you should know and understand that there is no greater advocate than I for the wider public use of our open spaces, many of which remain depressingly empty for days on end despite their beauty. But off-road bikers are becoming something of a menace.

I don't mind sharing footpaths with other walkers. Their pace is generally sedate and one usually gets plenty of audible or visual warning of their arrival. Bikers, on the other hand, tend to explode on the scene. Few see the need to weigh their machines down by even a few extra grams and carry a bell with which to announce their impending presence. In many cases they move along paths at the speed of a cantering horse – and anyone who cantered a horse in some of the places where cyclists penetrate would be accused of recklessness.

Cyclists are, I'm afraid, becoming a bit of a nuisance generally in rural areas, which is why I have some degree of sympathy for villagers in the New Forest who, finding themselves under siege yet again from the Lycra-clad hordes during a recent organised event decided to welcome the riders by scattering drawing pins on the road. Drastic measures, perhaps, but these are drastic circumstances. Cyclists are getting above themselves.

Not only are footpaths and bridleways becoming more dangerous, so are the roads ever since cycling enthusiasts decided to imitate the French and organise mass Sunday morning rides. There is a difference. France is a large country with a huge network of under-utilised roads where a peloton of 30 or 40 riders can blend into the background. We live in a small country with a congested road system where an equal number of cycling enthusiasts can cause traffic chaos.

Then there's the belief enshrined in every cyclist that somehow the normal rules and conventions don't apply to them. This manifests itself most frequently at pedestrian crossings where cycles clearly have earned a dispensation from the normal procedure of allowing priority to pedestrians.

But it also erupts on the roads as well. Not far from here is an area where the highway authority has chosen to go to the expense of installing a cycle path (shared with pedestrians) in order to protect riders from the perils of one of the most dangerous and accident-scarred main roads in the county.

Do cyclists use it? Most definitely not. Cycle paths, it seems, are beneath anyone wearing a pair of tight-fitting shorts, a brightly-coloured shirt and a pointy helmet. Cycle paths are fine for vicars or spinsters pedalling ancient, black, sit-up-and-beg cast-iron affairs with baskets over the front wheel and nothing more complex by way of gearing than a Sturmey-Archer three-speed hub. They are definitely not for serious cyclists, who continue daily to exercise their right to disrupt traffic and create the potential for precisely the kind of accident the cycle path was designed to protect them from.

In vain do I draw alongside, lower the passenger window and explain at considerable volume that if the sign says 'cycle path' then that's where they should be, rather than on the road. My words fall on deaf ears – or are met with a cheery wave of the middle finger.

I am reluctant to resort to violence but I do feel rather more persuasion is required to end the menace which is imperilling the well-being of every other road user. Perhaps a smart jab with the business end of a billiard cue through the open window will do the trick in directing the rider on to his designated part of the carriageway. I shall report back on progress.

The real problem is clueless pedestrians acting like unpredictable obstacles, a danger to themselves and others I say, why can't they just drive a car like everybody else[i]!!!!!!!!!!!!![/i]

So what actually happened was some mountain bikers cycled towards him on a path previously regarded as his sole preserve and he was so wrapped up in his own wonderfulness or perhaps indulgently watching his pet straining one out on the path that he didn't notice them till they were freewheeling towards him fingers hovering over the brakes - at which point he did the pedestrian dance, leaping about from one side of the track to the other whilst the cyclists slowed down to try and work out how the hell they were going to pass by the capering fool.

Then later when nicely wrapped up in several tons of metal and tinted glass he spots some roadies or perhaps a young couple who have decided that the gravel strewn pavement with a dotted line down the middle which does precisely nothing to deliniate a cycle path and are out for a pleasant ride and decides to give them some verbal abuse from the lofty heights of his RR before driving past them too closely but feeling he has 'got his own back' and fantasising about violently ending their riding days whilst actually being too timid to tell his wife he doesn't like her lamb cassarole

Everyone should fill out the complaints form on the Press Complaints Commission website.

The beauty of self regulation in the press is... the PCC will investigate claims of unfair representation where the story is about a named person, but not against a 'type' of person. If PPC couldn't allow papers to write any old unfounded shit about 'cyclists' or 'benefit claimants' or 'immigrants' then newspapers would end up being very, very thin.

The last paragraph is astonishing.

Winston - you have special dispensation to go to the site and post that up there
😀

Everyone should fill out the complaints form on the Press Complaints Commission website.

Done. Can't find an e-mail addy for the Editor, anyone?

There is an editorial email address on their contact us page. Having issues with a pop up on there so cannot dget it for you.

Current editor is Tim Dixon according to Wikipedia

complaint sent to the PCC, but i trust his dog was under close control?????

So i fail to understand why he had to suddenly whip the dog up???

anyone who cantered a horse in some of the places where cyclists penetrate would be accused of recklessness.

Blimey Charlie, they certainly would.

Good work Zulu 😆

Carlton Reid was on this yesterday
https://twitter.com/carltonreid/status/458974352512253953/photo/1

(Carlton's tweets are one of the main reasons I use twitter - I was going to say only, but I also follow somebody else on here!)

[img] [/img]

this guy actually looks like this, it's not a joke

Winston just brightened up my evening! The pedestrian dance!

Metasequoia - Member
The last paragraph is astonishing

usual clickbait until you get to the last paragraph
I'm sure a newspaper article wouldn't advocate violence against for example speeding motorists - sadly it reinforces some dumb drivers belief that they have a right to abuse and intimidate cyclists

Cyclists are getting above themselves

I don't buy that he walks anywhere. Or that he could throw himself into a bush.

The New Forest can go and **** itself. Seriously.

I don't buy that he walks anywhere

As I read it he lives in Somerset ? The New Forest story was the tacks on the road ? So his injuries where sustained when he jumped into the bushes, I think in hindsight he might have wished he had simply stepped to the side of the path.

Will send a PCC complaint today, advocating an attack from a moving vehicle

[i] Perhaps a smart jab with the business end of a billiard cue through the open window will do the trick in directing the rider on to his designated part of the carriageway. I shall report back on progress.[/i]

Has an offence been committed here? Incitement to all sorts of violent nasties.

Just think, someone has to live next door to this person.

My thoughts as well - have people not been arrested for similar statements on Twitter or Facebook?

Z-11 😀

What would be the cycling equivalent of the last paragraph? Threatening to put a D-Lock thru the window of a car?

I shall report back on progress.

It's you who is likely to be reported upon, you prize twunt.

What actually happened is sat at home full of misery and envy, he made up a cock and bull story about cyclists. It would take an incredibly stupid person to believe his fabrication was a real event.

I've reported the idiot. It annoys me that articles like this are allowed to air.

Another sad waste of oxygen, trying desperatly trying to make a name for themsleves with a lame story!

Another PCC report here.

Man walks dog on bridleway.

Cyclists approach.

No collisions, no accidents.

Man writes ranty article in paper theorising about how he could have been killed to death.

^ exactly! 😀

He didn't say a thing about baby robins or that it might be a childs face next, so I'm oot.

Man walks dog on bridleway.

Cyclists approach.

No collisions, no accidents.

Man writes ranty article in paper theorising about how he could have been killed to death.

this

Ranty swivel eyed **** needs a good ****ing slap across the face with a big wet salmon

Man walks dog on bridleway.

Cyclists approach.

No collisions, no accidents.

Man writes ranty article in paper theorising about how he could have been killed to death.

Always tricky taking that approach, by that measure, you have no right to get cross about any elbow-skimming close pass, near-death experience that doesn't result in an accident.

Who knows what actually happened (or didn't happen) here, though?

Not until they were ten yards away did I become aware of their presence, allowing me a microsecond to scoop the startled dog up and throw myself into the gorse bushes lining the track, a move which did neither of us much good but at least saved us from disappearing under a messy heap of cycles and bodies

Why didn't he stay where he was, he had right of way, did he think the cyclists would just mow him down, did it not occur to him they had seen him and would take appropriate action to not ride into him. Instead he does the pedestrian dance (I love that phrase) accompanied by his random motion generator of a pet putting everyone in a difficult position.

I think he needs a good dose of looking at his own behaviour and a lot less paranoia. Of course in reality he probably made it all up to fill some column inches and make some money at the expense of another group in society who aren't covered by anti-discrimination laws.

There is the perception thing- sometimes you can be approaching a walker having seen them a mile off, with loads of time and room to slow, but as far as they're concerned you're a speed crazed maniac who's going to hit them if they don't jump out of the way.

[url= http://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/the-terrible-journalists-guide-to-writing-an-article-about-bicycles/ ]As ever...[/url]

Standard click bait, bother his editor, contact PCC... But I doubt much will actually happen, has any journalist actually been sacked for simply being a prick? Its tough enough to touch them when they are actually breaking the law, just so they can spy on famous people...

Come on, think of the riders - imagine what damage an extendable lead could do to you at twenty million miles an hour!

It's the people that read this tripe and believe it that worry me.

To be fair, it just reads like a Jeremy Clarkson tirade, and most of you lot are fans of the curly mopped oaf are you not?

It just depends where your allegiancies lay. Some people just dont 'get' bikes/cycling.
Thats the saddest thing of all.