Cyclists on pavements Options

[JeffG]

I couldn't find a relevant topic to post this rant in, so here goes. Although I expect this has been touched upon in one of our many ramblings around a completely different topic

Today I was driving north on the ring road towards the King's Road roundabout, when I noticed an adult couple on bikes cycling south along the pavement on the left hand side. They rounded the corner into Cheap Street, crossed the road towards the station access road, then carried on, on the pavement down to the station.

Now that access road is hardly nose to tail with fast moving traffic, so what on earth were they thinking of?

I'd be interested to hear our friendly Police Ossifer's opinion and what she might have done if she'd been standing on the other side of the station approach...

I can just about accept small children on the pavement for safety reasons (though they should be trained to ride safely on the road by their parents), but I would like to see the Police throw the book at teenagers and adults doing the same.

[Hugh Saskin]

When I was a child growing up, far far away, there was a classic late 1930s 'arterial road' some miles away which in the 1950s still encorporated cycle paths. Come the early 1960s the householders who fronted those paths had become affluent enough to afford cars - say an old Ford Pop or Truimph 8. Guess where they parked them? Parking restrictions were not enforced and, as a result, the paths became useless and were removed. I don't believe in them now, unless we are talking about the likes of Milton Keynes, but do believe in cyclists being able to use footpaths, subject to their excercsing due diligence. Otherwise, they must use the public highway with all the attendant risks that poses in busy areas.

[GMR]

When I was a child growing up, far far away, there was a classic late 1930s 'arterial road' some miles away which in the 1950s still encorporated cycle paths. Come the early 1960s the householders who fronted those paths had become affluent enough to afford cars - say an old Ford Pop or Truimph 8. Guess where they parked them? Parking restrictions were not enforced and, as a result, the paths became useless and were removed. I don't believe in them now, unless we are talking about the likes of Milton Keynes, but do believe in cyclists being able to use footpaths, subject to their excercising due diligence. Otherwise, they must use the public highway with all the attendant risks that poses in busy areas.

I bet when you were growing up people couldn't afford cars so it was either horse and cart or cycle. And I doubt in those days Newbury had even seen a car. In fact I would image that Newbury was so far from civilisation that they probably were still sharing this town with Neanderthals.... and by the looks of it some are still here

[Hugh Saskin]

I bet when you were growing up people couldn't afford cars so it was either horse and cart or cycle. And I doubt in those days Newbury had even seen a car. In fact I would image that Newbury was so far from civilisation that they probably were still sharing this town with Neanderthals.... and by the looks of it some are still here

Only our coal was delivered by horse and cart, as it happens. But I do remember as a child being a frequent guest at the USAF HQ in Ruislip - they even had chicken in the basket there - how's that for sophistication?, cheap booze (although my dad would have been more able to comment on that), candy and, of course, motor cars - loads of them. A 1950s heaven - only the Brits cycled in those parts