Make Cycling easier for people who want to be Green

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

Hi guys,

I am trying my best to be a good Green citizen and have been using my bike as my main means of transport for a long time. I did however, until recently own a car which I tried to justify by telling myself I needed it for big shopping trips, taking my granddaughter out etc.

Anyway, I finally weaned myself off my car this summer and bought a trailer to pull behind my bike so I can carry my shopping/granddaughter etc with ease, and am finally managing to firm up my bum in the process.

BUT - there are so many blockages across access points to eg Peckham Rye Park, Dulwich Park, my daughters estate and other places I need to get to, that I find it very difficult with a full load to manouver through them. Some of them are actually impossible to get through because they are just too small and I have had to make big detours to find a way through.

Someone on a bike is not the same as someone in a motorised vehicle, we are pedestrians with wheels, and are allowed to access walkways (if we walk our bike!) but once we have a trailer, our access is severely restricted by these obstructions.

It is not just people wishing to live a greener life who are adversely affected by these obstructions, but they also affect people with double buggies or mobility scooters.

There are also some cycle paths in the borough that are on the roadway and have a bollard separating the cycle path from the road in places, BUT the bollard is so close to the kerb, anyone with a trike or trailer has to cycle into the traffic to get past it.

Please, Please, Please make it easier for people to live in a Greener way by taking these obstructions out, and making new cycle paths wide enough to take a trailer and putting them on the pavements to share with other pedestrians instead of making us share the roads with the very dangerous London traffic.

[Administrator]

Title changed from "Rant for our ED councillors or MP" to "Cycle paths - make them wider" to be more descriptive. A reminder that details for local councillors should you wish to contact them directly can be found on the Local info page, click the Local info tab at the top right.

[Mellors]

Here here!

I cycle to work and back every day and I couldnt agree more. I don't take the baby on the bike because its just too dangerous with a trailer and I'm not a big fan of the back seat things. Its a shame to use the car though.

Also - can we have a campaign to light up the pathways in Burgess Park at night - its pitch black and almost impossible to see your way through. The canal path from there to Peckham library is lit, so I dont see why that can't be.

Come on Southwark!

[giggirl]

I hear you! Well done you for walking the talk. Congrats on the firmer bum too.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

Changed the title admin - urs was lacking something!

[lozzyloz]

I'm all for wider and safer cycle paths and access. It would be helpful for disabled peoples electric cars too.

Will there be a separate lane for the increasing big pram and buggy traffic?

[ed_pete]

Safer cycle paths definitely. Remember this thread about the guy who had his face smashed by a scaffolding pole whilst cycling across Burgess Park in the dark ?

[Peckham native]

There is no way I'd cycle through Burgess Park and I've lived in Peckham all my life. A work colleague was attached last week at about 6.30pm. Knocked off his bike and a dog set on him.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

OOh that's horrible. I cycle through there a lot.

[Keef]

Good call for the wider cycle paths, I used to cycle loads, and would genuinely love to again for a bit of exercise, but the state of the Roads actually scares me these days!

One thing though Chav, I'm sure you're really careful, but I wince everytime I see people pulling kids in trailers behind their bikes! It makes you very long, and if someone pulled out and just missed you, they could hit the trailer, which doesn't bear thinking about.

Sorry, not trying to be over dramatic, but I hate seeing those things!

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

That why I cycle on the pavements if the roads are bad (sorry Nero!)

[Brendan]

Yeah those things frighten the hell out of me. My heart jumps into my throat whenever I see one on a busy road carrying someone?s offspring a few inches from the tarmac with no protection at all if they get hit. Especially considering how arrogant and just plain stupid 90% of the population are when they get behind the wheel of a car/bus/lorry.

A few weeks ago I saw a guy pulling 2 kids behind him as he did a right turn at the intersection by the library. He could have gone onto the pavement and used the pedestrian crossing but instead he decides to take on the busses and cars all vying for space. A bus going straight missed the buggy with the kids in by inches as he just calmly peddled on into the oncoming traffic. I just despair sometimes.

[Mellors]

That makes me so angry (the people being attacked int he park) - why on earth don't they light the Burgess Park route - clearly it would cut down on accidents (those benches and bins are a menace) and also crime. Why should we have to avoid it because the council won't sort it out and let the scum skulk about in the dark?

Anyway, about to cycle through there on my way home from work shortly. If you don't see me posting again....

[Horsebox]

Cycle paths in general are a joke. They usually double up as on street parking/bus lanes/bus stops, thus rendering them useless, or are offered as a token section of the pedestrian walkway (AKA pavement). In this latter example the pedestrians are often blind to the green colouring and the white bicycle motif, once again rendering the cycle path useless or exceptionally dangerous in cases when it can be used. I cycle to and from work everyday, through 5 of London's boroughs, clocking up about 88 miles per week. This journey could be made immensely easier, safer and more enjoyable by the provision of adequate cycleways.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

I agree

[Cllr Richard Thomas]

similarly, I also cycle and use a trailer for the shopping and a tandem with the kids. Bollards and railings on cycle paths do make life difficult - but you've got to remember why there were put there in the first place.It is usually to stop people driving motorbikes and cars where there should not be. I worked for the Natioanl Cylcing organisation CTC and its still one of the most difficult things to achieve - to design barriers that keep motorbikes out but still allow disabled access, tandems, trailers and unconventional bikes through.

[Asset]

Cyclist just got a few years for killing a pedestrian (41 year old male) wilst riding on pavement.

[macroban]

One year's suspended sentence and 300 hours community work?

[Asset]

I thought it was a bit more than that, but apparently the cyclist was special needs so got a dispensation. Still, my point was a cyclist on the pavement can kill, this was a 41 year old male that died, much easier to do damage to a 3 year old.

[Brendan]

I've been hit by a bicycle before. It fucking hurt!

But not as much as a car would have I suppose.

[blinder999]

That story has already been reported on the forum, and as I pointed out before, it just goes to show the rarity of such deaths that such a big deal is made of it - what about the ten people dying every day, three thousand every year, getting killed by motor vehicles? Nobody bats an eyelid, because it's collateral damage. Pure scaremongering and rabble-rousing to bang on about that one incident here without giving equal weight to the hundreds of other road deaths.

I ride a bike to and from work, and not a day goes by without at least one pedestrian stepping into my path without looking, often with a phone clamped to their ears. In all my time commuting I've come off twice, both times caused by pedestrians stepping into the road/cycle lane with no warning. And falling off a bike onto hard tarmac also hurts - I broke an arm once. Remonstrate with people who step in front of cyclists, and they get all self-righteous, because they are unable to take responsibility for their own ignorance and stupidity. It doesn't surprise me at all that some cyclists give up any attempt to follow the rules, because no-one else is following them.

[Horsebox]

but the motor cars aren't, in most cases, driving on the pavement. The point of this is that the guy was cycling where he shouldn't have been and as a result somebody is dead.

[blinder999]

Horsebox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> but the motor cars aren't, in most cases, driving

> on the pavement. The point of this is that the guy

> was cycling where he shouldn't have been and as a

> result somebody is dead.

one psychopathic guy cycling at 25mph downhill on a pavement doesn't have anything to do with any rational discussion about the behaviour of road users.

The legality or otherwise of careful cyclists using the pavement occasionally is not clearcut:

On 1st August 1999, new legislation came into force to allow a fixed penalty notice to be served on anyone who is guilty of cycling on a footway. However the Home Office issued guidance on how the new legislation should be applied, indicating that they should only be used where a cyclist is riding in a manner that may endanger others. At the time Home Office Minister Paul Boateng issued a letter stating that:

"The introduction of the fixed penalty is not aimed at responsible cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out of fear of traffic and who show consideration to other pavement users when doing so. Chief police officers, who are responsible for enforcement, acknowledge that many cyclists, particularly children and young people, are afraid to cycle on the road, sensitivity and careful use of police discretion is required."

If you had a look at the circumstances of all the 3000 road deaths, you'd find plenty of incidents involving utterly repellent behaviour - excuse my rant, a taxi driver deliberately tried to ram me off the road last night as I cycled through Knightsbridge.

[macroban]

Sounds good to me - fixed penalty notices for the Lordship Lane pavement cyclists.

[blinder999]

macroban Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sounds good to me - fixed penalty notices for the

> Lordship Lane pavement cyclists.

dead right - only a sociopathic moron would cycle on the pavement on Lordship Lane - have you ever said anything to these people? I confronted one on Underhill the other day - he informed me that as he works for Royal Mail, he's allowed!