Given the lockdown situation, we have more riders & walkers coming together as people try to stay local. This weekend I was riding some local trails. Its busy, there are walkers and dogs as could be expected. There were a number of frustrated riders bombing down trails shouting and gesturing to walkers to get out the way. Also heard them complaining in the car park about the walkers.

There are very few officially designated trails outside of bike parks. Most trails (Holmbury and Peaslake as examples) are footpaths. Walkers are allowed to be there. No point yelling at them because you might miss out on Strava points. I get it. It can be frustrating having a walker on an trail that’s pretty obviously for bikes, but still. It all just made for a bad atmosphere. Don’t like walkers on your footpath riding route? Ride at night. Or just be a bit patient.

What hacks me off are dogwalkers treating the TPT like a park. It’s primarily a **** path for local people to get from A to B!

Thank god I don’t have to ride in the SE, it’s bad enough with the amount of entitled dog walkers there are here, add in families taking up the whole width of the trail, bikers behaving like loons, and dog shite everywhere.

Everyone needs to wake up a bit tbh.

Don’t like walkers on your footpath riding route? Ride at night.

This – loops of Richmond Park trail are a lot more pleasant when it’s empty, even if it’s a bit sleety / generally damp.

Saw two other people on Friday evening. Looked like ultra runners.

There were a number of frustrated riders bombing down trails shouting and gesturing to walkers to get out the way.

Tossers is a more apt descriptor.

there’s conflict bloomin everywhere at the moment. Conversely to the posts above i’ve lost my rag a couple of time recently for “not having a bell” and saying good morning/afternoon, Hello, could i pass please…. ON DESIGNATED CYCLE ROUTES. it seems to be 70+ women walking 3 abreast disgusted at people below 70 for daring to enjoy the outdoors and asking to pass.. i’ve now taken the view that being mild mannered with these people is pointless and will now resort to beaving light a yobbo that they expect. Conversely to this, horse riders lately seem to be really nice!

If only more Walkers and Bikers could just stick to rule #1

I find no reason to get mad at small kids or horses. I’m totally prepared to even stop for them. It’s the entitled dog owners that most pisses me off. Some actually act like the trail is the own personal park and everyone else should adapt to their out of control dog, for example.

Then, as you say, there are people on bikes with no business who are actually dangerous. I can be far to the left on part of the TPT 5 m wide and they insist on being 3-abreast coming towards me. Then there are cyclists who insist on passing on their right like they are tunnel-visioned. Like I said, no business being on a bike. Dangerous.

Also, I’m seeing more and more runners and even walker listening to music with earphones. They can’t even hear a bell or a shout.

/end rant.

Trails are very busy round here. I see very little conflict though, just riders accepting they can’t go as fast as they’d like and walkers accepting they need to keep Fido on a close lead and sometimes step off the path to let others through.

Though I will say that the rougher and more intimidating the walker, the more likely you are to get a cheery “Morning, you alright pal, no worries mate” when you greet or thank them.

it seems to be 70+ women walking 3 abreast disgusted at people below 70 for daring to enjoy the outdoors and asking to pass.

That’s a big problem on the TPT and Bridgewater canal. Generally, the ramblers are retired folks and seem to be looking to find fault with cyclists. My parents included lol. Personally, I don’t find it reasonable for pedestrians to walk two or three abreast on what, as you say, are known cycle routes, especially the very narrow canal towpath. There are plenty of paths where cyclists aren’t allowed. However, I’ve also been told that it isn’t reasonable for pedestrians to have to behave like traffic. Presumably, pedestrians would be within their rights to just stop for a picnic in the middle of the path!

Yeah lots of contention around here. Don’t get people who run/walk on mixed use trails whilst using headphones. Quite often I’ll come up behind them ding my bell, shout politely and they still don’t hear me. Quite funny when I cycle past them and they jump out their skin as they didn’t know I was there.

Personally, I don’t find it reasonable for pedestrians to walk two or three abreast

Bloody walkers, walking two abreast. And they don’t pay road tax and they jump red lights as well.

Are 3 people allowed to walk together?

Funny times. We’ve got a couple of dedicated mountain bike trails that have been a godsend for lockdown but there have been quite a few walkers on them. Its a tempting to get (very mildly) annoyed as they can walk anywhere and I can only ride there but they cross a lot of other paths and it isn’t very clearly signed* so its just a case of riding a bit slower if you can’t see very far ahead. TBH it’s nice to see more people out. Most people are cheery IME.

* a couple of them have a “warning, cycle route ahead” triangle which I have seen one irate walker confuse with a no cycling sign.

What is TPT?

Here’s a wee question. There’s a shared path locally (folk refer to it as the cycle path, but it’s most definitely shared), it’s tarmac and about 2.5m wide. When cycling, I always stick to the left, but there are walkers and runners who insist on going to the right. It’s not an issue, I’ll happily just slow down if there’s another cyclist coming for instance, but it winds the wife up no end 🙂

I tend to think some folk do it, as they equate this path to a road really, and they’d walk onto the oncoming traffic, and can see their point.

It’d be far better if everyone did one or t’other tbh.

ON DESIGNATED CYCLE ROUTES.

Depends on what you mean by a “designated cycle route”. I regularly ride on sections of both Sustrans 70 and Sustrans 14 (c2c) and both are mixed use on the sections that are near my house: rule 1 applies to all. Our biggest issues are with motorbikes, not walkers.

I’ve had to stop riding the local trails on the weekends as they are completely full of idiots of all users groups. The last time I was out on a Sunday I had a chat with a horse rider while waiting for a narrow section to clear of dog walkers who were oblivious to everyone waiting to get through and we both came to the same conclusion: avoid the weekends! I’ve seen bikers treating it like a DH run, dog walkers with wild dogs off the lead or even worse on a stretchy lead across the trail at head height (why is the cord always black!?), runners with headphones in, horse riders with easily spooked horses on the busiest trail at the busiest time and even a fight between some OAP’s over who had right of way!

I suppose it’s the price of having the whole country suddenly realise the Great Outdoors exists. The sooner I can escape to the empty bits they don’t know about again the better.

Its a tempting to get (very mildly) annoyed

most of my normal riding group are generally very chilled out with this stuff, we understand most of what we enjoy is technically off-limits, so when we do see peeps on dedicated tracks, we slow/stop and very politley explain that they may encounter bikes at speed as they wouldn’t be expected on the trail.

back to my gripe of theold moaners- i’d never say they are not entitled to be there, on the contrary they still have right of way i understand, its; the pur bloody ignorance of being old and thinking you know it all, and not accepting that there are and will continue to more diverse user groups than you and you crochet group..

What is TPT

Trans Pennine Trail.

Linky

What is TPT?

It’s what passes for local mountain biking if you live in the godforsaken south western suburbs of Manchester.

The last time I was out on a Sunday I had a chat with a horse rider while waiting for a narrow section to clear of dog walkers who were oblivious to everyone waiting to get through and we both came to the same conclusion:

Yeah, weekends have made the TPT unusable for me for that reason.

Even weekdays is bad enough, like a normal weekend.

Are 3 people allowed to walk together?

If they’re from the same household.

I must have had enough one day when a woman dog walking quite curtly said “mind my dog” when it was running all over the (dedicated mtb) trail off its lead, to which I replied “it’s your f****** dog, YOU mind it”
I did feel a bit bad, but I wasn’t planning to tailwhip its head off. I tend to ride past peds slowly nowadays if there’s enough room without a warning, because inevitably they’ll fill the remaining space because no one can walk in a straight line whilst looking behind themselves.

Personally, I don’t find it reasonable for pedestrians to walk two or three abreast

two or three is okay, but when it’s like, six abreast, and it’s a a pretty high traffic route, and they have *zero* awareness of anything outside of their group, *and* they’re incredibly grumpy when you enquire if they wouldn’t mind if you could possibly squeeze past…

i was shouted at by someone yesterday… ‘oi mind the dog you effing dick’ i thought i gave them plenty of time and space, i held back off the pace till i saw a chance to overtake then went for it, giving them a wide berth.

i dont like this conflict, its very rarely happened to me. i walk my dogs and kids up this trail quite often too so can understand where they might have been coming from, but no need for the aggression. ive been using this trail twice a week or so for 20 years without incident. these lot come out for their once a year ramble and start throwing their weight around.

cant wait for the Trafford Centre to reopen!

It’s the ones with are completely unaware of whats going on around them, that annoy me the most. Even if it is your right of way it doesn’t mean you no longer have to take care of your own welfare, it doesn’t mean everyone else is going to do it for you. It’s invariably the same ones that go mental at you when you finally creep past, for not having a bell, when you ‘ve been behind them for five minutes saying excuse me at an increasing volume, until you finally give up and just go round them.

The guidance that walkers have priority should be **** right off. Some use it as an excuse to be awkward arseholes. Should be replaced with something like “share paths responsibly with other users and be prepared to give way way when appropriate”

But I do think with the populist politicians pitting groups against each other on top of covid restrictions has definitely made things much worse of late, there are a lot of short fuses out there.

Yeah, everywhere is seriously busy…loads more walkers, riders, horses, families, runners, couples, singles. All seem to be trying to use the same bits of land and then all getting a touch grumpy when ‘their’ peace is broken.

Great to see so many folk out using the local stuff, but equally sad to see the state the trails are being left in – just the impact of an increase in traffic and wet weather, it will recover slightly but not completely and it’ll start all over again…such is the way of things.

This thread highlights that horse riders, walkers and cyclists can all act like dicks at times. There are a few on this thread too.

Most of my riding is at night now, on canal paths, lanes and sturdy tracks. can’t quite manage to put myself in the crowds wandering the WHW or Mugdock. The singletrack is OK, but until very recently it was mush and the idea of my tyres contributing to further damage doesn’t sit well.

I do get irritated when trying to appropriately distance myself from others and are met on a wide ish path by a few other users who split either side of the track, effectively halving the available distancing.

most of the time, and maybe it’s because I grew up in Malvern, an area notoriously busy, I ride like I’m expecting someone to be meditating or doing yoga round the next blind corner…so crowds don’t bother me that much, as long as I have enough space away from them.

This – loops of Richmond Park trail are a lot more pleasant when it’s empty, even if it’s a bit sleety / generally damp.

This. Only ride there in the evenings, even Summertime evenings, its amazing how quiet the park becomes. Same goes for the surrounding area’s.

I think the key is to have awareness, whether you’re on foot, bike or horse.
What causes most issue is people not looking out for or expecting other trail users, you can walk 6 across for all I care, as long as you move over when you see someone coming towards you or hear them approaching from behind. The former is normally OK, but people don’t seem to listen out for people behind them.
Saying that, the faster moving party should be prepared to slow and give way, now is not the time to be “bombing down the trals” as you know they’ll be busy. Even when I’m running I hold back a little as I like to know I can stop quickly.

south western suburbs of Manchester.

I think I can see the problem there, too close to Cheshire and all that entails!

Don’t like walkers on your footpath riding route? Ride at night.

This- 100%. The woods within riding distance from my front door are busy with users of all shapes and sizes during daylight hours, even more so in the current climate. I only ever ride / run in them very early in the morning in order to avoid confrontation / frustration.

This thread highlights that horse riders, walkers and cyclists can all act like dicks at times. There are a few on this thread too.

Yeah I tried repeatedly to make that observation on the recent thread about Anti-Cyclist sentiment among some other road users – no single group of people are innocent of Dick Behaviour.

Personally, I don’t find it reasonable for pedestrians to walk two or three abreast

Years ago I was blasting down Mastiles Lane in the Yorkshire Dales as a group of walkers were heading up – they deliberately spread right across the lane (which is bordered with dry stone walls so I had nowhere to go) to make me come to a complete halt then had a go at me for riding there (it was a green lane open to motorised vehicles at the time).

I just ride around walking pace whenever I meet folk, gives you chance for a chat and a hello and you part in good terms. If you have to slow down on a nice downhill to do it so what? The descent will still be there next time.

That’s a big problem on the TPT and Bridgewater canal… …known cycle routes, especially the very narrow canal towpath. There are plenty of paths where cyclists aren’t allowed.

Actually, technically, you’re not supposed to cycle on the narrow towpaths on the Bridgewater Canal. I’m not saying you’re wrong to do so, and everybody does but if you look at http://www.bridgewatercanal.co.uk/todo/cycling it says:

Please note cycling is only permitted on certain lengths of the Canal towpath which have been updated as part of the Bridgewater Way

and on their map, the bit of canal I’m familiar with (Altrincham to Warrington) is shown as not updated.

they deliberately spread right across the lane (which is bordered with dry stone walls so I had nowhere to go)

How many were there? Mastiles is one of the widest tracks in the Dales!

Hope you ‘offered them some words of advice’…

How many were there? Mastiles is one of the widest tracks in the Dales!

It was a big group of about 6 to 8 – certainly too many of them to try to pass between them at any kind of speed. It was most annoying as it’s a slog of a ride (the anti-clockwise one starting from Kilnsey) for what is basically one descent at the end.