We’re all pedestrians (From York Press)

You forgot to say when they pay road tax.

Tired cliche of a letter.

Perhaps drivers will be given more consideration when they stop using their mobile while driving, use their mirrors, use their indicators, stop speeding, etc etc.

What's that you say? You don't do any of those things? Well, y'know, while we're all making sweeping generalisations and all...

Sigh...

Yes, it's true: some cyclists disobey the Highway Code. As do some motorists.

Maybe all cyclists and motorists should be banned from using the roads, until those who continue to misbehave will learn their lesson?

Maybe when it is compulsory for cyclists to pass a road safety test, have a road worthy vehicle, have insurance for any accidents - and do not text or call on their mobiles, have ear phones in when riding so that they can hear the traffic, don't ride through red lights, swerve in and out of traffic and pedestrians - maybe then we can all be equal. As someone who just this week has been ridden into by these plagues on wheels, once as a driver and once as a pedestrian I beleive I can speak with authority - and without swearing which is all one gets when one challenges anyone on a bike! C'mon take responsibility - there are good and bad in both cyclists and drivers - but when was the last time you saw a posse of drivers driving the wrong way up a one way street, on the pavement, shouting and swearing at anyone who gets in their way?

I wonder if there's a website where you can generate automatic rants about cyclists (or men, women, white people, black people - whoever you want to write offensive generalisations about)? The Press could just stick one of those in each week and save people the bother of writing in.

Judith - pleased to hear that cyclists are not all bad. At least they don't (usually) carry guns and shoot at pedestrians, so it's not all bad, eh?

Nobody needs to ride a bike through the middle of a busy shopping street, and I can't believe that many would want to. It's just PH Hepblathering on as usual.
Get off and walk for a couple of minutes.
Simple.

JudithM wrote:
Maybe when it is compulsory for cyclists to pass a road safety test, have a road worthy vehicle, have insurance for any accidents - and do not text or call on their mobiles, have ear phones in when riding so that they can hear the traffic, don't ride through red lights, swerve in and out of traffic and pedestrians - maybe then we can all be equal. As someone who just this week has been ridden into by these plagues on wheels, once as a driver and once as a pedestrian I beleive I can speak with authority - and without swearing which is all one gets when one challenges anyone on a bike! C'mon take responsibility - there are good and bad in both cyclists and drivers - but when was the last time you saw a posse of drivers driving the wrong way up a one way street, on the pavement, shouting and swearing at anyone who gets in their way?

ZZZZZZZZZZZ

Mr Happy wrote:

JudithM wrote:
Maybe when it is compulsory for cyclists to pass a road safety test, have a road worthy vehicle, have insurance for any accidents - and do not text or call on their mobiles, have ear phones in when riding so that they can hear the traffic, don't ride through red lights, swerve in and out of traffic and pedestrians - maybe then we can all be equal. As someone who just this week has been ridden into by these plagues on wheels, once as a driver and once as a pedestrian I beleive I can speak with authority - and without swearing which is all one gets when one challenges anyone on a bike! C'mon take responsibility - there are good and bad in both cyclists and drivers - but when was the last time you saw a posse of drivers driving the wrong way up a one way street, on the pavement, shouting and swearing at anyone who gets in their way?

ZZZZZZZZZZZ

I agree Mr Happy - wish I could be bored but too busy watching out for cyclists :)

You do not you need to cycle down Fossgate when Piccadilly runs parallel, PH and his hobby-horses.

Judith M...I think you've missed out speeding in your list. When was the last time you saw a car breaking the speed limit? Mass law-breaking conveniently forgotton and on a scale that dwarfs all other road offences...

I wonder what it is that allows cyclists and pedestrians to mix without problem in big 'pedestrianised' areas in cities across Europe but it seems to cause apoplexy here?

yorkshirelad wrote:
Judith M...I think you've missed out speeding in your list. When was the last time you saw a car breaking the speed limit? Mass law-breaking conveniently forgotton and on a scale that dwarfs all other road offences...

I wonder what it is that allows cyclists and pedestrians to mix without problem in big 'pedestrianised' areas in cities across Europe but it seems to cause apoplexy here?

Any speed to me, by any vehicle, on a footpath is speeding and threatens life - and cars do not do that en masse, all the time, with no action being taken. Those that do it can and have injured fully fit people as well as children and old people. I am not, in any way, lessening bad drivers, just saying that both parties should be as accountable as the other, should pay for the upkeep of the road and be policed the same!

So the extent of incidents causing injuries by cars and bikes is broadly similar?

To any fair minded person there is simply no comparison...of course there is good and bad in both but any attempt to make them broadly comparable is preposterous...and simply exposes prejudice.

(For those that like figures I think its something around 1% of injuries caused by bikes/cars/lorries/b
uses etc are caused by bikes..so 99% by motorised vehicles)

Judith - you might not cause so much offense if you complain about "people who break the law while cycling" rather than making generalisations about all cyclists (or "plagues on wheels" as you prefer to call them).

But if you do have a prejudice against a whole group of people, it's probably best to keep that to yourself.

Has anyone thought of the effects on business in Fossgate if deliveries and collections were dependent on bicycles?
On yer bike Paul !

Today, against my own judgement, I obeyed the advisory sign to dismount from my bicycle, and pushed it up the ramp that links Sainsbury's FossBank towards Monkgate. Walking alongside my panniered bike, as close to the side as I could be, pedestrians coming down the ramp were short of room.

Slow, courteous cycling would have been more space-saving, and would have presented no danger to the passing pedestrians.

We can see this in German pedestrian zones where cycling is not banned.

We can see it also in York, where the scr*tes who ride, throughout the day, in the pedestrian zones do not actually cause accidents.

If it was ACTUALLY dangerous, the police would be more active, I am certain..... (in the same way that they don't enforce the daytime car ban along Coppergate)



,

o

Interesting one flaw in the ointment here, the reason some drivers don't drive on footpaths is that it is simply not possible, however parking on footpaths!!

Interesting one flaw in the ointment here, the reason some drivers don't drive on footpaths is that it is simply not possible, however parking on footpaths!!

JudithM says...
2:25pm Wed 12 Sep 12

Maybe when it is compulsory for cyclists to pass a road safety test, have a road worthy vehicle, have insurance for any accidents - and do not text or call on their mobiles, have ear phones in when riding so that they can hear the traffic, don't ride through red lights, swerve in and out of traffic and pedestrians - maybe then we can all be equal. As someone who just this week has been ridden into by these plagues on wheels, once as a driver and once as a pedestrian I beleive I can speak with authority - and without swearing which is all one gets when one challenges anyone on a bike! C'mon take responsibility - there are good and bad in both cyclists and drivers - but when was the last time you saw a posse of drivers driving the wrong way up a one way street, on the pavement, shouting and swearing at anyone who gets in their way?

Quite correct Judith and the letter writer. Plagues of wheels, I like it!

sensationalism wrote:
Today, against my own judgement, I obeyed the advisory sign to dismount from my bicycle, and pushed it up the ramp that links Sainsbury's FossBank towards Monkgate. Walking alongside my panniered bike, as close to the side as I could be, pedestrians coming down the ramp were short of room.

Slow, courteous cycling would have been more space-saving, and would have presented no danger to the passing pedestrians.

We can see this in German pedestrian zones where cycling is not banned.

We can see it also in York, where the scr*tes who ride, throughout the day, in the pedestrian zones do not actually cause accidents.

If it was ACTUALLY dangerous, the police would be more active, I am certain..... (in the same way that they don't enforce the daytime car ban along Coppergate)



,

o

The first point is very very correct, and is even more apparent on the A1237 bridge over the river ouse at Poppleton... because the council of the time decided to only widen the bridge on the cheap by converting the side of the existing bridge deck into a 'shared' foot/cycle way rather than actually adding a couple of meters width to the deck, there is now only about 120cm of room along there - which leads to a moment of dread when you are approaching and see there is somebody coming the othert way from the other end because you know there's going to be very little room to pass.
When cycling, I take up about 60-70cm of room (and so when passing another person, I can move out so my wheel is near the edge of the kerb so am only taking up about 50cm pavement space) - but when walking with the bike I'd be taking up 100cm or more... yet the council seems to think cyclists should dismount and walk there. Completely moronic and made up by somebody who has never been there on a bike.

--

As for Fossgate, the fact is that Fossgate IS a viable cycling route as it avoids Piccadilly along with its crush points when you have a 415, 8, 44, and a 24/26 all picking up passengers or trying to move around each other.... in addition to the added benefit that those going in the direction towards walmgate (and so can use fossgate) can go down there from Stonebow and not have to wait at traffic lights. Fossgate pedestrianisation can be achieved with a centralised and well delineated cycle lane rnnign right down the middle of the street - so long as those walking around actually LOOK where they are walking rather than "ooh look at the old buildings" or "oh that's a nice item in that window, let's walk towards it whilst looking longingly at it and nothing else".

If pedestrians had the "most priority" as the letter writer wishes for, York would grind to a halt, because every 'jay walker' who just randomly steps out into the pavement without looking would then have priority over vehicles sticking to their traffic lane. When I'm cycling right in the main centre of York (the bits just outside the pedestrianised streets), the main hazard is not errant motorists (because traffic speeds are relativerly low due to the congestion) but pedestrians not looking where they are walking or what the street signs say, or even what the traffic lights say.

last of the mandms wrote:
Interesting one flaw in the ointment here, the reason some drivers don't drive on footpaths is that it is simply not possible, however parking on footpaths!!

Agree...parking on pavements is a major blight...another common problem conveniently overlooked by JudithM.

Driving on pavements is an offence so unless they are all deposited there by cranes it seems to me as if driving on pavements is hugely more common than cycling on them (though I agree both are annoying!).