One of those odder moments

[desperance]

I was just walking home from town, and I was passed on the pavement (snarl!) by a cyclist - who paused twenty yards ahead of me, unbuckled her helmet, dropped it into a council litter-bin, remounted her cycle and pedalled away. Presumably she feels that if she keeps off the roads her own life will be safe enough, now that she's passed all her risks on to the pedestrians around her - but it was still a weird thing to see.

Comments

Weird

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

The cyclist should most definitely have given way to you. But cycle helmets are of minimal use in protecting cyclists - it'd be far more helpful to the health services for car drivers to wear racing driver helmets. I can only assume she's inexperienced, and was forced to wear the helmet by a misguided other.

Re: Weird

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Middle-aged woman - hard to force (in my experience). Interesting about the helmets, though. When you say car drivers, presumably this would apply to passengers also...?

Re: Weird

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Middle-aged women are just like anyone else - some are stubborn, some are down-trodden.

Yeah, passengers would benefit just as much from helmets.

[davidbarnett.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was full of drugs. Or perhaps microfilm for a sleeper agent to pick up later.

[farwing.livejournal.com]

I am rather fond of this idea...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Tragically, this was - of course! - the first thing to occur to me. Cyclist A drops off helmet, with its sinister content; cyclist B retrieves it. Alas, it's no use for a story, because of that very awkward moment that I witnessed: the dumping and subsequent retrieval are inherently suspicious, which runs counter to all good streetcraft. But I did still think about it. Bugger. Is there no off switch?

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

I would not worry about cyclists, as in my experience they are illiterate. And also il-ideogram-erate. (What is the word for people who can, and cannot read ideograms like traffic signs?) Signs like "No entry" and "pedestrian only" and red traffic lights are routinely ignored.

So if they cannot read them, they cannot read your books. Don't worry about them.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Oh, really. Cyclists are no more illiterate than any other person - there's all kinds of people using all modes of transport, wearing all colours of skin, etc.

I'll refrain from a diatriabe against car drivers e.g. using hands-on mobile phones, because some pedestrians are dangerous when walking and talking into their mobiles, too.

[(Anonymous)]

What I hate about cyclists on footpaths is that they think you can hear them coming up behind you and won't be distracted by mundanities in your head like what you are going to have for tea, so of course you will take evasive action! Then when you shout "Pavements are for people! Don't you bloody kids do cycling proficiency these days?" They either look at you like you are a nutter or get a tad abusive.

The fact that your cycle-by attacker was a middle-aged woman is a bit boggling to my mind!

[wishus.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that were me!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hullo, you. And you're absolutely right, of course (in the sense of "I agree with you completely, therefore you're absolutely right"). Some of them come so fast on such super-swish bikes that I actually can't hear them anyway, regardless of wherever my mind might be wandering; and besides, it is not our responsibility to get out of their way. Pavements, as you observe, are for people (well, except in Taipei, where they are scooter-parks and taxi-lanes, and somehow it doesn't bother me there, but that's a whole nother issue).

Pavements in Newcastle, though, have been entirely annexed by cyclists - not just the kids any more. I had a row about this with a friend in his fifties, who asserted (a) that it was much safer for him to ride on the pavements (which is true) and (b) that it was legal (which is not true). I pointed out that he had no right to reduce his risk by transferring it to us, but he was unpersuaded.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

There are also significant risks associated with cycling on pavements for the cyclists, too. I'm not thinking so much of being bumped off by a pedestrian, but when motor vehicle users cross over - road junctions, driveways etc. Can be "Splat!"

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

Can I say that as a regular cyclist (I cycle to and from work every day) that every other cyclist I have ever come across is bloody useless at it!

I am proud to state that I never ride on the pavements, always stop at red lights and follow all signs as if I was in a car. And it really pisses me off when I see other cyclists just scooting up and down pavements and ignoring everyone else around them.

Mind you, I bloody hate all car drivers and most pedestrians as well...

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

There's a melancholy satisfaction in learning here this seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. Cyclists in Bordeaux were fairly well-behaved (well, let's face it: they were pretty scarce on the ground, so they dared not misbehave, being clearly outnumbered) until the recent urban renewal, that led people 1/ to use bikes more often, in order to avoid some of the traffic obstructions, 2/ to ride on the pavements, because the streets were gored and scarred and mostly unridable.

When the roadworks stopped, they kept the bad habits of riding just about everywhere they felt like it, riding on the pavement when there was a perfectly good street just alongside — or, to add insult to injury, a bike lane!

So it's a general trend. OK. So we merely caught up with it. Happy happy joy joy. >:-(

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mind you, I bloody hate all car drivers and most pedestrians as well...

Oh, me too. I'm dreadfully intolerant of other people. When I take a stand on behalf of Our Side, it generally just means Me. Pavements are for people, to be sure - but I do kind of wish all those other people would get the hell out of my way. Motorists and cyclists just make an easier target, because they are (generically) boorish and crass and inconsiderate of every poor pedestrian, not just Me. So I disguise my inordinate selfishness in a concealing cloak of concern for the welfare of the downtrodden masses, which is Good.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

I spent several years cycling in and around Cambridge - the city of the bike - and even now wouldn't ride a bike without a helmet (no, I'm not afraid of an accident, but Cathie would kill me)

Roads are for vehicular traffic, including bikes. Pavements are pedestrians. Ne'er the twain should meet (can you tell I investigate accidents as a day job?)

Cycle tracks. Cambridge has (or used to have) many cycle paths and some of them are one with pavements, which is okay if you are local. Trouble is that, come summer, locals are very much in the minority and I once got into a serious discussion with this young American lad (who probably wound up playing tackle for the Raiders) who seemed congenitally incapable of understanding what the painted bike he was standing on meant. Only having my three year old daughter on the back and my two year old son on the front kept me from decking him.

Yeah. Right.

Stupidity knows no boundaries.