Pushing your bike along a footpath clarification

The English equivalent were it ever to arise would look like it was written in conjunction with HMRC.

Harsh, it’s shit but it’s not that shit!

Wasn’t the pushing a bike = pedestrian something about a zebra crossing? I think that’s more applicable to pavements and not footpaths? Which considering how vague this all is I would expect to make zero difference.

I believe so – it’s acceptable to dismount and push your bike across a zebra crossing, it’s acceptable to dismount and push your bike into (eg) a pedestrianised high street in order to lock it up.

Frankly, all of this is just noise in the background. It’s like drivers yelling at you to ride single file / use the cycle lane / wear hi vis. You can give them all the facts in the world, you can read the HC out to them and they don’t give a shit. They’re not interested in being right, they just want to have a rant. Sounds the same with these landowners. I imagine you could cite what little case law there is on the subject at them all day and they’d just go “gerorrf moi land!”. Whether or not bikes are allowed / not allowed, whether the behaviour of walking along the FP with one in tow is reasonable or not, the rights and wrongs of the ridiculous English laws on the matter don’t come into it. Arseholes want to be arsey.

normally you would ride a bike so having a bike and not riding it would be unnatural.

Not necessarily – perhaps you are tired, or it has a mechanical problem. Or maybe you just fancy a push? Which of these is legitimate?

In any case it’s moot because being a civil offence the injured party (the landowner) would have to sue for damages, which would be demonstrably zero.

They’re not interested in being right

I always think these people just assume they are right. The thing they’re not interested in is fact-checking. Makes you think…

I believe so – it’s acceptable to dismount and push your bike across a zebra crossing, it’s acceptable to dismount and push your bike into (eg) a pedestrianised high street in order to lock it up.

Yeah that case law is pretty irrelevant, and is a very different scenario because the offence was someone being run down by car on a pedestrian crossing, would have been a horrific precedent if car drivers had right of way over children wheeling their bikes across zebra crossings.

The other take away in my book is that if you are on a footpath and you are riding appropriately and not acting dangerously towards other users, you may as well ride your bike as push it. Though if a landowner or rambler complains, by all means apologise and dismount if it mollifies them.

normally you would ride a bike so having a bike and not riding it would be unnatural

That reminds me… need to get the singlespeed built back up.

Re: rhinofive above

From the cyclinguk document linked above. Could it be this you recall?

In 1931, a judge in a case in Scotland concluded that, in his view: “a pedal cycle is only an aid to pedestrianism”

I was under the impression (from here) that walking with your bicycles is perfectly legal and located a 11 year old thread, where I got the impression from… olde worlde thread any thing of any use in that?

I was under the impression (from here) that walking with your bicycles is perfectly legal and located a 11 year old thread, where I got the impression from… olde worlde thread any thing of any use in that?

I actually remember that thread and frustratingly, the discussion and confusion and lack of clarity still remains exactly the same essentially. 😐

If you’re walking with a bike along a footpath that becomes a bridleway a short distance further along, that’s pretty much the zebra crossing analogy. It certainly underlines the absurdity and how outdated the English fp/be/row system is.

Think I read on here a good response if hassled is just to smile and say ‘yes it’s a silly rule isn’t it’ and carry on.

Look at this from this perspective. How many people have been prosecuted for cycling on a footpath or pushing a bike along a footpath? Answer: none at all.

How many people have been successfully sued in the civil courts for cycling on a public footpath or pushing their bike along the path? Answer: none at all.

Think I read on here a good response if hassled is just to smile and say ‘yes it’s a silly rule isn’t it’ and carry on.

Yes I agree. The thing here was that I had 3 people physically barring me from moving at all. It went beyond an exchange of words and discussion.

Spot on. Here we all are tying ourselves in knots about the minutiae of RoW legislation which suits the likes of the Ramblers and landowners who can use ambiguity to deny us access to the countryside.  Footpaths are pretty much the only comprehensive way for cyclists to use great swathes of this country and by any reckoning most of that use goes completely unnoticed and causes no problems.

be polite, be respectful. Use footpaths

It is amazing that people manage to get angry about someone pushing a bike along a bike path. Where did their life go so wrong that they think that is something worth putting energy into getting angry about.

I don’t understand people.

be polite, be respectful. Use footpaths where you believe higher rights exist and you will continue to exercise them until settled at a public inquiry”

Or maybe

be polite, be respectful. Use footpaths until RoW legislation is modernised

And if smiling and saying how silly it is doesn’t work, and they start blocking or pushing you, then point out that their assaulting you rather top trumps any silly trespass claim they are banging on about.

Seems you have to be carrying an action cam of some sorts if you’re on you your own to protect yourself against assault by farmers, although you’re not a criminal.

I had an incidient on a hike in East Riding, accidentally arriving on some farmer’s private road. I was literally threatened with bring murdered even though I was being polite. Wished I’d had my cam with me then, but it was for rides, not walks. They do seem to be getting more aggressive nowadays.

I was literally threatened with bring murdered even though I was being polite. Wished I’d had my cam with me then, but it was for rides, not walks. They do seem to be getting more aggressive nowadays.

Yes, the lockdown effect I feel.

They do seem to be getting more aggressive nowadays.

I probably didn’t help with this last year, when a farmer on a quad came charging up as we were turning off an actual bridleway onto a farm lane and accused us of riding off the BW. After a few minutes of her angrily shouting at us that we’d cut the corner of the field (we hadn’t) I replied by saying something like “So? We could go up there and wheelie in big circles around that field and you can do nothing about it, and you know it. Bye” She shouted at my mate that I was very rude and that the police were waiting at the bottom of the lane. They weren’t, obviously. What was even more amusing was that one of the boys had filled his pack with magic mushrooms from the field at the top of the hill. Her mushrooms. 😀

Forgive me if this has been said before. Alan Kind, then of the Byways and Bridleways Trust postulated over twenty years ago that
1 If you walk through a pedestrianised town centre as a Pedestrian pushing a bicycle that’s not questioned. You are considered to be lawfully going about your business as a Pedestrian.
2 Public Footpaths are for Pedestrians
Ergo you have a case for a bicycle being considered a natural accoutrement.
To my knowledge there is no case law.
Whilst carrying out government PROW surveys I was challenged by a particularly virulent North Welsh hill Farmer. My boss backed me up. I was pushing a bike across a field recording footpath problems. He was one. Folks can go stir crazy if left to fester on their own….
A friend of mine was told by a Lake District Ranger that he was not allowed to portage a canoe on a public footpath to Coniston Water, which is a field away from him. A lot of people just make it up as they go along.
For it to be illegal it would have to have a judgement made in court by a judge.
Stuff such as making a diversion round an obstruction, well that does have case law.

Was that you on Jeremy Vine OP? 1:53 into the programme on Wed 9th Feb for an account of a mountain biker pushing his bike along a FP between BWs (segment on countryside access starts around 1:40).

I was listening to Jezza by accident. Honest.

Ha! No, not me.

For an update while I’m here.
I made a report to the police.
Two police persons phoned me and a lady from victims support which was nice.

The upshot of it that not much is going to happen except that someone is going to visit them and talk to them, and tell them if they have problems to call the police, and not to cause a situation.

No witnesses so obviously I knew I couldn’t prove anything.

Let’s hope that it doesn’t happen again.
I’ll not be rushing back there to try and prove a point.
Can’t see them changing.

Might make them think though.

Might make them think though.

And if anyone else reports a similar issue, I will be taken a lot more seriously.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-countryside-code/the-countryside-code-advice-for-land-managers

I’m sure the angry farmer will be even more angry following some new guidance from the government!

I’m aware of a case where Oldham council are looking at moving a footpath through a farm due to the belligerent owner and the dogs that keep biting people

I’d throw the book at them but some people and organisations just don’t have the stomach for it

I expect many local authorities have plenty of experience of protracted and overly expensive enquiries into PROW management. My authority Kirklees certainly has form – they win some and they lose some but none of them look easy what with the access (stubborn) landowners have to lawyers, planning consultants and friends in high places.

I have no idea how they’re gonna handle the ever growing backlog of work for 2026 claims.

I expect many local authorities have plenty of experience of protracted and overly expensive enquiries into PROW management.

To be honest it should be a police matter due to the nature of the issues, however it’s GMP

Footpath and Pavement next to a road are completely different.
I’m pretty sure even walking a bike down a footpath is forbidden.
I may ride a cheeky footpath at night or in early morning.
But riding on a footpath through a farmers field in the middle of the day is just damn-right asking for a shotgun up the arse.

I’m pretty sure even walking a bike down a footpath is forbidden.

The landowners were pretty sure of that too. I was however pretty sure that it wasn’t forbidden.

It’s not clear.

I expect many local authorities have plenty of experience of protracted and overly expensive enquiries into PROW management

And let’s remind ourselves – they are protracted and stressful for all, often because so many people can be so unreasonable and aggressive.

We’ve a local issue where a private household put a metal fence covered in vandal paint across public ground, used as a path to get to two schools away from a busy road… apparently school children and families offend them! It’s going to take a long while to resolve, as I’m told they are threatening council with court if they damage thier fence, even though fence shouldn’t have been installed!

We’ve a local issue where a private household put a metal fence covered in vandal paint across public ground, used as a path to get to two schools away from a busy road… apparently school children and families offend them! It’s going to take a long while to resolve, as I’m told they are threatening council with court if they damage thier fence, even though fence shouldn’t have been installed!

Someone should keep going up there and putting dog shit on their gate handle, wear the **** down!

Or wait for them to go out or on holiday, tear the **** down

To repeat for the hard of learning. In the absence of case law and clear legal wording the matter of rights has to be settled in Court. Until then it’s a matter of opinion.
And being reasonable whilst cycling on footpaths lacking higher rights is a non sequitur.

On a more positive note, there’s a footpath near be that runs along a field for 200m and then through a gate onto some lovely (but still a FP) single-track.

I was pushing my bike along the edge of the field and the farmer came up on his quad…

Him- “What are you doing?”
Me (expecting an argument) – “pushing my bike on the footpath”.
Him (laughing) – “don’t be silly, just ride it. That’s what they’re designed for.”
😁

On a more positive note, there’s a footpath near be that runs along a field for 200m and then through a gate onto some lovely (but still a FP) single-track.

I was pushing my bike along the edge of the field and the farmer came up on his quad…

Him- “What are you doing?”
Me (expecting an argument) – “pushing my bike on the footpath”.
Him (laughing) – “don’t be silly, just ride it. That’s what they’re designed for.”

Well that’s blown the minds of some on here with their stereotypes of farmers

Landowner permission trumps right of way status. Result.

But riding on a footpath through a farmers field in the middle of the day is just damn-right asking for a shotgun up the arse.

No it isn’t

Farmers these days won’t tackle you with one in their possession as they will have them taken off them in short order.

Quite a few farmers don’t bother about the MTB riders as we carry our bike over Stiles and tend to be quiet and cause no hassle. Some landowners get triggered by bikes but they are the ones that are triggered by bikes regardless. Most are more focused on the MX and off-roaders who cause lots of damage to gates, fences, moorland etc. Often it’s why they will object to bridleways as it creates access that the MX and off-roaders can then abuse.

As for the reality my summation is

Pushing on a footpath is legal regardless

Carrying is legal regardless

Riding is fine unless asked to stop by the landowner (or his rep) then you push or carry. You can reasonably state that you believe higher rights exist, the existence of which can only be settled in court/public inquiry.

Always be polite, report any aggression to the police and local rights of way officer

Always report trail blockages/ broken Stiles, no access signage etc to the rights of way officer