Personally, I don’t, but I see it a lot, and I know it winds a lot of pedestrians up.

I came across a dad cycling with his kids the other day (one kid on a bike with stabilisers) and they were all on the pavement, he got a proper dressing down from a lady waiting at a pedestrian crossing when they all approached to cross. Although I don’t agree with pavement cycling in general, for small children I don’t think it’s necessarily a good thing to have them cycling on the road until they’re of an age to be able to do that safely. But the woman who had a go was saying that none of them should be on the pavement, even the children. I did think perhaps that dad should have cycled on the road beside the kids though.

When I was a kid we cycled around on the pavements all the time, talking when we were under 10 here, around the estate we lived on. OK, you can take your kids to the park to cycle around, but not everyone has a car and bike rack to be able to transport the kids and bikes to the park or somewhere suitable they can cycle off the road.

Do you ride on pavements/allow your kids to ride on pavements? Has it ever been a problem?

It’s just a symptom of the modern disease where everyone has to be morally outraged at the behaviour of someone else, whatever it is.

To answer your question though, yes I sometimes will ride on a pavement if it makes sense, but will do it very slowly, with due respect for pedestrians. My kids always ride on pavements, the roads terrify them. And no, it’s never been a problem.

I only ride on the pavement on the way to the park when I’ve got my kid in his bike seat and give pedestrians priority. I ride at walking pace. I get the boy to wave at everyone so even the most po-faced old miserable sacks of skin have to crack a smile.

I don’t, even if there is a shared use path I’ll generally cycle on the road unless it is insanely dangerous.

But, I don’t have kids, if I did & we were off on a ride somewhere damn right I’d cycle on the pavement, up until they were old enough to ride safely on the roads.

I’m surprised the dad didn’t tell that woman to go do one, at great length

I never do.

kids are different. I believe the law / guidance is under 16, with a wheel of 24 inch or smaller is allowed. I may be wrong on that.

when my boys get bikes with pedals they’ll be cycling on the pavement, no question of them going on the road for many a year yet, anyone that doesn’t like it can do one as far as I’m concerned. Not sure where I’d cycle with them. going 2/3 mph on the road isn’t very safe, I like to be going as quick as a can when I’m on the road, makes me feel safer.

Yes. I regularly cycle approx 20m on pavement as it allows to get from my house to the cycle path without going onto a very busy road and round a roundabout. Always carefully of course, and if there are peds I cycle at walking pace behind them.

I might stop doing it, if the peds can keep off the cycle paths – but that will never happen, even the ones segregated by hedges or gravel.

my commute takes in some pedestrian areas/pavements

if there are people around, i get off and walk.

When I’m towing the little man in his trailer is pavements whenever possible.
Not convinced car drivers would give us the room we need!
Whene I’m out myself its roads 90% of the time.

When towing the little monkey in his Croozer I’ll use stretches of pavement where the roads are busiest or generally more complicated to manoeuvre around, e.g near certain roundabouts or junctions etc.

When by myself or with a couple of mates I might only use the odd stretch here and there where again, the roads are dangerous blah blah.

Am always respectful of pedestrians though.

Two things I’ve noticed a lot are 1) the number of pedestrians who have little or no special awareness of others and 2) the number of school children on bikes who never slow down to look at concealed driveways (when riding on pavements). The latter does my head in as it only takes one driver who’s running late to nudge his car out quicker than he should and BANG 🙁

EDIT: one of the cool things about towing the little ‘un along the pavement is the number of people/cyclists/horse-riders etc that stop/wave/chat 🙂

I avoid in so far as it makes sense. I have a commute on which I can take five horrible junctions in about 100m or do a 20m cut along the pavement. I could get off and push but it sees a bit unnecessary and have never had any complaints.

Yes.

And footpaths.

kids are different. I believe the law / guidance is under 16, with a wheel of 24 inch or smaller is allowed. I may be wrong on that.

The law applies to all. But children under 10 are below the age of criminal responsibility so can’t be charged. Moreover, the usual form of redress is a fixed penalty notice, and these can only be issued to those over the age of 16.

As for whether I cycle of the pavement. As a general rule no, but I have on occasion done so.

Agree with Dazh when he talks about the modern disease of morale outrage. It seems to be a very selective form of morality. I hear motorists outraged about cyclists riding on pavement and jumping red lights, where most of them no doubt exceed the 30mph speed limit every time they drive. And I know which is more dangerous!

Yes but it’s legal here, otherwise the 1 way system would drive me mad

Yes, many many times in this here London town

mostly on the grounds of not wanting to die

I do so with minimal speed and say thank you quite a lot as I’m passing pedestrians

I have never had words with an pedestrian over this and not one of the many policemen/security I’ve cycled past has ever even looked at me

It might not be right but being polite and in control appears to minimise any problems

I try to ride on roads and cycle paths. Sometimes it seems silly though; if there are no pedestrians, the road is busy (I end up holding them up as the road is quite narrow), I’ll hop on to the pavement to let them through.

If I do ride on paths or shared cycle paths I use caution. While I know they are shared, none of the pedestrians realise this.

Hell yeah. All the time. Always have done, always will.

Yup I do, safer than some of the road layouts round here.

If I do ride on paths or shared cycle paths I use caution. While I know they are shared, none of the pedestrians realise this.

The shared path signs clearly show the bicycle above the pedestrian. I take this to mean the cyclist has priority. Or has to be really good at bunnyhopping.

I came across a dad cycling with his kids the other day (one kid on a bike with stabilisers) and they were all on the pavement, he got a proper dressing down from a lady waiting at a pedestrian crossing when they all approached to cross.

Got this for the fist time ever two weeks ago
Kids on the pavement me on the road lady literally blocking the pavement to stop them passing [ was room for this easily but she walked in the middle with her arms out wide. My kids wereringing their bells and saying excuse me . I politely asked her to move she ignored me

When she eventually started moaning I asked her if she really though the roads were safe for children of that age and asked her if she thought they had been rude or impolite or a danger to her…no reply just a repeat.

I told the kids to just get passed her whilst staring at her in a you touch my kids you die kind of a way
personally I dont ride except on the commute to school with the kids
FWIW I have been hit twice going to collect them by parents both of whim had taken a corner on the wrong side of the road and then blamed me. The head had to intervene with one o fthem who was literally searing at me at full volume with her car completely on the wrong side of the road truning into a road

I do. Cyclists on the road really annoy me.

With the 4 yr old daughter around the village, yes.

I generally ride on the road when on my road bike.

However, there is a concrete road need me that is pinch flats just waiting to happen and the pavement is brand new tarmac so…

[moral outrage]
Reading the above posts I am appalled at home many of you ride on the pavements. The last thing we need is ****heads like that getting the rest of us bike riders a bad name.
If I am a pedrestrian I will never move out the way for a bike on the pavement (well, Ok a five year old with stabilisers)
More bikes on the roads will increase driver’s awareness of bikes and lead to them thinking of us as just more traffic rather than something wierd and this can only be a good thing. The more they see us riding somewhere separate the more they will expect thins.
As someone said above car drivers don’t look when pulling out their drives, and tend to stop at roads rather than at the pavement and then again at the road, making the pavement far more dangerous than it appears. People riding on pavements tend not to be paying attention as it looks safe. This also annoys pedestrians and brings me back to the first point about getting bike riders a bad name

I’ll make up my own mind on how dead I want to be.

But thank you for clearing up your view of things. Its been most helpful

This also annoys pedestrians and brings me back to the first point about getting bike riders a bad name

i’d rather inconvenience a couple of pedestrians rather than create queues of traffic and an increased risk of a motor accident.

I take my kids on the pavement and ride alongside them on the road most of the time. This may mean I ride against the traffic, although its a quiet road by my house. I also take my dog with me to the local trials, we both go on the pavement to get to a BW, pavement again then into the woods. No one has complained yet, although I had a row with walker on the BW who got shirty when I stopped & waited for him, he pretended to be a copper, ended up in a slanging match, but anyway…

F’s me right off when cars park up on the pavement and my kids have to squeeze past, they have asked me why the car is on the pavement, even a 4 year old knows a road is there for cars to park on.

I rarely ride on the pavement when on my own and never if there’s a chance I’ll obstruct a pedestrian, but I live in suburbia so it’s less of a problem.

If I’m out with the kids they’re both attached to my bike (mid mounted seat and a tag-a-long type thing), I’ll ride on the road unless I don’t think it’s safe or I’m just nipping along 100m or so (eg off canal towpath, along pavement, over canal/road bridge, this to save me crossing traffic only to turn right). Again, this is suburbia so not very dangerous.

If the kids are on their own bikes they stay on the pavement and will for some years yet.

Sounds like the old bag in the OP needs to lighten up a bit. Could be the dad was on the pavement to keep the kids there – kids copy, I walked mine back from pre-school the other day and stepped out onto the road to go round a lamp post so they did the same (from the other side of the pavement).

Number of cyclists killed on the road by cars in 2011: 1901
Number of pedestrians killed by cyclists in the same year: 2
iirc
Quiet roads, I’ll ride on the road, main/busy roads I’ll take the pavement thanks. The arguments with folk can be fun. FTR if I’m on said pavement I never ride more than jogging pace.

F’s me right off when cars park up on the pavement and my kids have to squeeze past

Me too.

I do the kids thing but fortunately it’s very quiet local roads – she rides on the pavement and I’m alongside in the road (Nine year old). The 12 year old is roads only.

Like seemingly quite a lot of people, my commute has one of those 20 metre stretches where I can either spend a few minutes pulling out into, then back across, some very busy traffic, or I can slowly sneak around the pavement. I do the latter, being very careful of pedestrians and going very slowly. I still feel guilty doing it, though.

If I am a pedestrian I will never move out the way for a bike on the pavement (well, Ok a five year old with stabilisers)

I don’t get this attitude, it’s not like its a big deal to walk to one side or even stop to let a cycle go by.

If there’s roadworks, hell yeah.

Anyway, you can’t ride on the pavements normally, because that’s where the cars are parked.

More bikes on the roads will increase driver’s awareness of bikes and lead to them thinking of us as just more traffic rather than something wierd and this can only be a good thing.

[quote]

Fell free to do this experiment with your own kids- in general cars tend to be nicer when you have kids but i have yet to risk it on a proper main road. We use quiet roads and even then dad is riding so defensively he makes the primary position look like it is kerb hugging an no one is getting past without using the other side of the road …..will this make them like us?

Yes I do, and no reason at all to feel bad about it. But it’s one of those things where some folks do it fine, other folks do it dangerously, and maybe the only really good option is to say categorically nobody should do it.

My old commute had an iffy cycle-lane and a footpath that in 3 years I only saw about 5 people walking on (weirdly there’s a grass verge on the other side of the dual carriageway, it’s much closer to the road, it floods, it has no access to any of the pedestrian crossings, but all the peds use it instead) It’s about 3 metres wide. So hell yes I rode the footpath. When all the law is doing is making things less safe, for no benefit, I ignore it.

I would rather pee off a few pedestrians and be alive than to help motorists adjust to increased cycle traffic on difficult parts of my commute.

I don’t ride anywhere that has pavements, so no. Motorbikes, for cheeky shortcuts, sure.

My kids ride on a mixture of road and pavement depending on traffic conditions/time of day. They’re just into 24″ wheel territory, but even at that size, I’m surprised at how little consideration they get from drivers when they’re on the road. They always stop for pedestrians when they’re on the pavement.

If I’m with them, I ride on the road.

My wife has just started going riding with some friends, just for a social, none of them are “cyclists”-limited experience on a bike, and not confident or have good bike skills-i have told them to ride on the pavement as they have a 500m stretch of dangerous road before they hit the cylce path.
No way would i let my kids ride on the road, any road, anywhere.

I take my littl’un to nursery everyday in a childseat on the back of my bike. I have to go along a busy road in rush hour, and so I take the footpath. Often see cyclists without kids getting told off by pedestrians along there but they are fine with me and smile and wave at my son as he aggressively shouts abuse at them from his seat.

I wouldn’t ride him along the road – when he jumps around in his seat it can feel like someone is wrenching the back of the bike around, so if we ever do have an accident I would rather it is where the heavy traffic isn’t whizzing by.

In London, yes all the time. Sometimes you have to as there is no other way, other times it’s just sensible to do a few yards on the pavement slowly to get where you need to or you might get squished. there are quite a few cyclepaths I take that have shared pavement sections