done
sealed and signed.
i just use them... signs are irrelevent.
Shurrup and sign it 🙂
yes
The first e-petition I've ever signed! 🙂
cool cheers guys it runs till August try and forward to as many places as you know. Ie local clubs,facebook etc etc etc
Done
Bad idea.
Certain footpaths should be re-designated but it should be reviewed on a case by case basis and not be across the board.
Done.
Signed and shared - Even if it is a bad idea, the more people who sigh the more awareness the subject gets and hopefully it will be debated properly leading to changes allowing access to be more widespread.
jambalaya - Member
Bad idea.Certain footpaths should be re-designated but it should be reviewed on a case by case basis and not be across the board.
seems to work well in scotland....
What about motorbikes on Bridleways is there one for that????
How would you go about appealing for a particular footpath to be re-designated?
Lets see how long it takes to get 100k signatures 🙂
You speak to the land owner and ask for it to be designated a permissive (for cycles) path, or in the case of council owned land such as urban common, you can refer to other precedents where the land owner has classified cyclists with the same rights as walkers
Signed and shared - Even if it is a bad idea, the more people who sigh the more awareness the subject gets and hopefully it will be debated properly leading to changes allowing access to be more widespread
I dont disagree but isnt this how most deals are done ?
Aim high and hope to agree on the middle ground ?
Damn right! totally behind this.
You speak to the land owner and ask for it to be designated a permissive (for cycles) path, or in the case of council owned land such as urban common, you can refer to other precedents where the land owner has classified cyclists with the same rights as walkers.
Obviously this works well im some areas but I just have a feeling if you contact some landlords in busy parts of the country it will just alert them to you and they'll quickly get the fences going up so only walkers can access the land.
I did once contact a landowner.
There is a small ford here ->
[url= http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=Lands+end+ford+twyford&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2427l3400l0l3492l8l1l0l7l7l0l229l229l2-1l6l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1230&bih=1050&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl ]Clickhere[/url]
It currently can be crossed by horse/car and there is a footpath on a small bridge next to it.
Would be a great commuting (not mtbing) route between the villages on the edge of Reading.
I suggested the footpath to the bridge should be rerouted and classified as a footpath/cycleway I also wrote that it should be down at the edge of the field so as not to disturb the horses. The land owner said not happening.
I contact the local council who said a small budget would be coming up for cycling improvements and would get back to me but never did.
what do you suggest Sandro ? I can forward you the emails.
I also started this petition.
[url= http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/council/epetitions/ ]click here[/url]
done.
Im quite happy riding footpaths as it is, I dont want to make a noise about it and risk making it actually illegal.
Do these sort of petitions ever work ?
+1 jambalaya
It's a good thing walkers have places to go where there is no other traffic at all. It's safer and calmer.
I also think a backlash against the petition is possible and cyclists would end up with less not more.
As it is, on the whole, we all get along OK and everyone gets access. In a small country with 65 million plus peeps, we got on remarkably well.
As jambalaya says there may be places where individual review is sensible, go do it on a case by case basis. Where I ride, the balance is about right.
DFWAB **
** Don't Fix What Ain't Broke
Id like to look at the emails if thats ok.
I'll speak to the people Ive been working with and see if there is some line of reasong that might work.
Im a total pessimist on the e-petition thing, if a million people can be ignored about going to war, then 100,000 can be ignored far more easily.
Are there any examples of these e-petittions working in the past ?
Posted in the other thread we were arguing in 🙂
Certain footpaths should be re-designated but it should be reviewed on a case by case basis and not be across the board.
Tried that. Surrey CC sent me this:
Unfortunately, at this time we do not have the funds available to bring the
footpath up to standard for cyclists and other bridleway users as well as
doing the associated legal processes to change the status.
What this standard is, I've no idea.
tarmac!
They will probably have to surface it so its useable in all weathers and remove any obstacles. So you will end up with that nice techy bit of singletrack being tared, smoothed and strightened.
I would just leave it as it is. Ride on with a cheery wave and adopt the cheeky trails advice.
For 99% of the time its fine.
Shedfull that is a council misunderstanding of what their legal obligations are for the maintenance of a path.
You can get a footpath re-classified as permissive for cyclists with no requirement to maintain the path anymore than it is already.
Why? We have plenty of places to go anyway.
I agre with Dobie above.
Doesnt the council have to maintain footpaths ? Including the gates and fences etc ?
Big no from me. I think walkers should have quiet access to the countryside. Carting a bike over stile after stile doesn't appeal to me anyway.
It does have to maintain footpaths, but not to an extent beyond their existing state.
They have to basically make them accessible, which means obstacles are removed, but not much more than that.
I had a briefly heated argument with a local recently - we started off loudly then buy the end of it she introduced herself with a name and hand shake and would say hello if she saw me again (after I explained about responsible natural MTB'ing)
if the petition suceeds and is passed into law would it be only mountain bikes allowed ? and still an offence for hybrids and CX bikes etc. just asking like 😕
signed
Some of the best bits of singletrack I ride are great just because of the obstacles, Id hate them to be removed, altered, smoothed.
I honestly dont think the petition will do anything, except raise some awareness which may count against us sadly.
No, its landowners who are responsible for maintaining footpaths, whilst it becomes a local authority's issue if it is then redesignated a bridleway.
So, unlikely to be a roaring success, as under the current rules, that then means the trail needs to be re-surfaced.
You could always look to rid England & Wales of the whole anachronistic system, and catch up with Scotland...
When you lose access to your local trails you'll understand why raising the profile of such causes is an important issue.
I personally don't want to be restricted to bridleways, roads and trail centres.
how many fp in scotland have been resurfaced ?
as i said above "seems to work well in scotland...." why wouldn't it work as well for the rest of the uk.
well it seems I've already signed this e-petition, how long has it been going? As I don't remember the 1st time I signed it...
We are not restricted to Bridleways in reality.
Just go out and ride.
In scotland there is no obligation on anyone to repair or maintain (most) paths apart from the core path network.
You only have to see the bike damage in the pentlands to see what can happen when there is a lot of pressure on the paths.
Also in Scotland your right to ride is a qualified one - qualified by the need to be reasonable which includes not damaging the paths excessively so not riding on some when wet for example
So its probably best left as it is then.
🙄
pastcaring - Memberhow many fp in scotland have been resurfaced ?
The classic Carn Mor Ban descent has been resurfaced at least in part because of damage from bikes caused by its popularity
Just pointing out that its not all perfect here either and some issues would arise in england given the same access rights
as i said above "seems to work well in scotland...." why wouldn't it work as well for the rest of the uk
I'd bet demand in terms of population per square mile is a lot less than in England, and maybe Wales too.
In England most 'wilderness' areas are actually pretty close to large conurbations, and lots of people want to use the open spaces.
done.
I do recognise there are some cracking footpaths to ride out there (and I do ride some, though only at night). But, as someone who also likes taking my little children for walks along footpaths, I'm rather torn on this issue. There are some footpaths that would frankly be dangerous if shared between walkers (particularly children) and cyclists. I enjoy walking on footpaths knowing it's unlikely that a cyclist carrying too much speed is going to come around a blind corner & squash my 2 yr old girl.
Because of that, I don't think a blanket opening up of rights on footpaths is the answer, but the decision should be made on a per-footpath basis. To pick a totally arbitrary figure, I would guess that 90% of footpaths would be pretty safe for cyclists and walkers to share.
So we should encourage sharing and consideration then.
TandemJeremy - Member
pastcaring - Member
how many fp in scotland have been resurfaced ?The classic Carn Mor Ban descent has been resurfaced at least in part because of damage from bikes caused by its popularity
Just pointing out that its not all perfect here either and some issues would arise in england given the same access rights
nothings perfect, but would you want scotland to go back to how it was?
How it was? its always been like this really - the land reform act codified existing practice in large part. Some more populated areas some marginal bits are now clearly open to bikes where it wasn't clear before
Right, Im off for a cheeky ride. There is almost no chance of me meeting anyone and if I do they are very unlikley to know anything about riding bikes on footpaths.
I will let sleeping dogs lie.
Done
TandemJeremy - Member
How it was? its always been like this really - the land reform act codified existing practice in large part. Some more populated areas some marginal bits are now clearly open to bikes where it wasn't clear before
so pretty much the same as england is now. guessing? 90% of riders will ride footpaths, legal or not.
No - there is no distinction between any of the paths in the countryside at all and never has been. ( footpath / bridleway etc) some landowners tried to exclude bikes from areas such as country estates and parks. An example would be the Dalmeny estate - used to exclude bikes and it was never clear if you could do so or not - now its clear bikes have the right to go there.
Never any exclusion out in the hills / unfenced land.
interesting, every days a school day.
Done
done, I already do cheeky sensibly, in the real world there seem to be few who actually know the rules, you either get pros or antis and they are pro or anti irrespective of the ROW classification.
The problem is the petition has been open since august last year and its only got 3k signatures..
Signed it ages ago. Redesignation is no good because it allows horses which have a much greater impact. There also seem to be requirements to maintain the surface in such a manner to make it uninteresting to bikes.
Of the cyclists who would like access to footpaths I imagine those who like technical challenge are in a distinct minority, so you might get access to 'suitable' footpaths but these might be the uninteresting ones. Personally I'd like to see all footpaths open to cyclists with an exception process to exclude bikes on a small number of contentious paths. I'm thinking certain Lakeland/Dales etc paths where it might just be to dangerous to mix users. Obviously such paths would need to be clearly marked on a map and have appropriate signage.
As it stands I use footpaths quite a lot but try to do so as responsibly as possible, and being especially courteous to other users.
Edit: Useful reference describing an important movement leading to the access we have today http://kindertrespass.com/
done.
They will probably have to surface it so its useable in all weathers and remove any obstacles. So you will end up with that nice techy bit of singletrack being tared, smoothed and strightened.
This happens with depressing regularity to bridleways. Keeping your head down and saying nothing won't address this.
We are not restricted to Bridleways in reality.
Under the current system of cheeky trails, we are restricted to small honeypot areas advertised by word of mouth (or internet forums), usually with no regard to any environmental or user conflict issues that arise as a consequence.
And in case anyone hasn't seen it...
http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/online-feature-access-all-areas/
I just found this please sign it.