Cycling on the pavement: the context of a photograph

Photo: Stratford Herald



In the sphere of road transport, British newspapers are notable for two things. One is that they persistently construct drivers as victims, mercilessly exploited by ‘road tax’ and oppressed by extra taxes and vicious repression in the form of parking and speed tickets, then further brutalised by greedy council’s parking zones which charge you one or two quid a week for the right to park in the neighbourhood where you live – in fact it’s a marvel anyone can afford to buy a car at all, let alone a People Carrier or an Audi or a 4X4.

The other is that cyclists are persistently demonised as being uniquely badly-behaved, irresponsible rule breakers. The absence of empirical data is of no consequence; the stereotypes are available and most journalists obligingly conform to them.

When not busy jumping a red light and outraging the innate decency of a society where traffic law is regarded with deep reverence by all other road users, our stereotypical cyclist is, of course, riding on the pavement and ‘almost killing’ frail, terrified pensioners. Such offences are compounded by those cyclists who neglect to wear cycle helmets or yellow luminous vests, who are just inviting brain damage and collisions with innocent motorists.

In Stratford (no, not the heart of darkness located in the London Borough of Newham but rather the town notable as the home of Adrian Newey, famous Formula 1 engineer), there is horrifying news of badly behaved cyclists:

It has unearthed a whole range of deeper social issues relating to the debate. Issues which include, intimidation, hostility, socially unacceptable behaviour, human rights, road safety, motoring and the environment. 

Yeah, right… Pavement cycling certainly puts such trifles as starvation in Africa or turbulence in the Middle East into perspective.

The story is accompanied by a photo of a school child in uniform cycling on the pavement, and includes the blood-curdling revelation that

According to one motoring organisation - The Automobile Association - selfish pavement cycling is widespread across the country and on the increase. 

Yes, who better to offer an objective, scientific analysis of cycling behaviour than the A.A.?

The other photograph used to illustrate the story is the one shown above. For the full story the reader is invited to buy a hard copy of the newspaper (smart move) but as I’m not in Stratford-upon-Avon I am unable to do so. However I guess that the pedestrian campaigner in the photo is indignant that half the footway has been appropriated for cyclists. And I wouldn’t disagree. This is classic crap British off-road cycling infrastructure of the kind that very few cyclists like, and which makes it difficult for CTC members to sleep at night for fear they will be herded by law onto such cycle paths by big brutal men wearing Dutch police uniforms.

Although not identified, the photo shows a section of the Birmingham Road (A3400) between the junctions with Arden Street and Windsor Street. As infrastructure it is not exactly a gift to cyclists: see if you can spot what is wrong, both in the photo below and in the Google streetview picture.

This crap cycle path (which naturally requires cyclists to give way at every side road) illustrates the absurdity of transport planning in Stratford. Permissible pavement cycling on so-called ‘shared use’ footways is the first resort of the car-centric planner who is unwilling to reallocate road space to cyclists. It is irrational to invite cyclists on to footways in some parts of Stratford, and then to express indignation when it occurs elsewhere. If you won’t plan for cyclists, then some will take unilateral action to ensure their own safety and convenience. It’s the stupid infrastructure. 

The Birmingham Road is a classic example of a direct, primary route into an urban centre which ought to have segregated cycle paths built to the high standards that the Dutch manage. This is how the Dutch moved away from car-centricity in the 1970s and it’s the only way it will happen in Britain, even if just about everyone involved in cycle campaigning and transport planning remains in deep denial.

Oh but I was forgetting. In a quaint old Tudor town there just isn’t the space, is there?

This is another part of the Birmingham Road, not far from the earlier location. When I think of how sites like this could be I want to weep, I do really.

Footnote

Naturally Stratford Council and the local police are not remotely concerned when local residents take over the pavement for private car parking, as here on Bull Street (below). Complete obstruction of the footway, though illegal, will attract no censure from any passing PCSO, police officer or council official. And curiously, all those apoplectics who get worked up about cyclists on footways are strangely silent in the face of such daily appropriations.

Hampshire Police turn a blind eye to motoring criminals

For the year 2011 Hampshire saw

a massive reduction in penalty notices for using a mobile while driving. Just 1,700 motorists were caught, down from 5,152 in 2008. 

That’s just five drivers a day for the whole of Hampshire.

Pathetic, but utterly symptomatic of British policing, which is car-centric to its core.

Hampshire Constabulary does participate in zero-tolerance operations - but that’s only against cyclists.

Here’s a statistic:  

32,955 killed, nearly 3m injured between 2000 and 2010. This is 11 years of deaths and injuries on Britain's roads.

Terrorists are feeble and ineffectual amateurs compared to Britain’s drivers. Policing could make a massive difference to the carnage on Britain’s roads but the police are part of the problem (along with the House of Commons, the media and the judiciary).

Hampshire Constabulary boasts that Anti-social behaviour remains a priority 

And what’s that? Needless to say it includes action to tackle dangerous cycling on pavements. 

A police force which ignores drivers using mobile phones but is keen to crack down on pavement cyclists has lost all sense of what constitutes both dangerous behaviour and proportionality.

When you MUST wear a cycle helmet

Photo: Oxford Mail 




When you are issuing a fixed penalty notice to a cyclist it is very important that you wear a helmet and high viz vest. This will ensure pedestrians can see you and help avoid a collision while you are engaged in taking a zero tolerance to cycling like that

Because let’s face it, pedestrians are a menace. They have no respect at all for cyclists. They walk in a reckless way with total disregard for cyclists. They act like you are invisible. They step out in front of you without warning. They flout red lights and treat cyclists as if they don’t exist. Some of them are very obviously drunk (which is understandable if they live in Stratford or Leyton).

I was cycling through Walthamstow the other day and the lights were at green and all these pedestrians totally ignored the red light and treated me like I wasn’t there. I came very close to being very nearly practically almost killed. 

Luckily I managed to weave my way between them and survived (although road weaving is, I know, something which is widely deplored and loses us cyclists some respect).

If you ask me these pedestrians should be insured and have to wear some sort of identification. Most of them are totally irresponsible and wear dark clothing, which means you can hardly see them at all, especially on zebra crossings, which pedestrians should not be using anyway as they are supposed to be for striped African quadrupeds.

Fear and Loathing in Three Bridges

Horrifying news from cycling-friendly Sussex, where frightened old people are being forced to assault cyclists and trash their machines.

Yes, cycling on the footway is making a trip to Tesco intolerable:

"Some of these cyclists are doing 40 miles per hour” 

Which is even faster than Lance Armstrong on drugs!

Must be the Sussex air.

Or perhaps these high-speed cyclists are simply fleeing an animal which has now moved to southern England?

Crap cycling in Leicester

Extra signs look set to be put up in Leicester's New Walk to enforce the ban on cycling. A report to be presented to the city council cabinet recommends that councillors agree to increase the number of "no cycling" signs along the pedestrian route.

Pedestrian Elizabeth Fraser, 60, of Evington, said: "I think they do need to put more signs up but to be honest I wonder if some of them care."

A 33-year-old male cyclist from Leicester's West End, who did not want to be named, disagreed. He said: "I cycle on it every day even though I know we are not supposed to, but what's the alternative? London Road is a death trap with cars pulling out everywhere.

"I don't see why walkers and cyclists can't share the path like they do in so many other places in the city, like Bede Street and Great Central Way."

Tony Abbey from the University of Leicester Bike User Group, submitted his opinion to the report, calling for a cycle lane to be created. He said: "I have never understood its pedestrians-only status. The council's cycle lanes are appallingly haphazard."

Cycling on the pavement

This blog has always been unequivocally opposed to cycling on the pavement – yes, there’s no question that it’s dangerous.

Some police forces, especially those with a tradition to uphold, take a commendably robust attitude to pavement cyclists:

Great grandfather and World War II veteran James Gresty was chased into a bank by two police community support officers after they accused him of cycling on the path outside.

The pair ordered Mr Gresty outside for a ticking-off but when he refused they called for back-up from two officers in a nearby police van.

The police drove over the paved area outside the Halifax in Sale, Greater Manchester, and issued him with a £30 fixed penalty. Widower Mr Gresty, who won several medals during his three-year service with the York and Lancaster Regiment, said yesterday: ‘I was shocked at their attitude. They were carrying on as if I had committed a serious criminal offence.

‘They were being aggressive, rude and heavy-handed all over whether I was cycling on the pavement.

‘But I had got off my bike before I got on the pavement. I’m an 84-year-old man, not a teenage hoodie.’

Recently on Monmouth Street WC2 I witnessed this scene (above). A cyclist riding not on the pavement but in the road, enjoying the cycling-friendly environment of a city in the grip of a ‘cycling revolution’. Sadly, everyone but the cyclist and the pedestrians were committing offences.

Various commercial vehicles were parked obstructively on ‘no waiting at any time’ double yellow lines, and the taxi in front of the cyclist (reg LM55 YHJ, black cab 61233) had just driven over the pavement to get past the lorry.

You never hear much about it (I wonder why?) but driving on the pavement is an offence:

Driving on the pavement contrary to Section 72 of the highways Act 1835 as amended became a fixed penalty offence on 1 August 1999. The offence applies to all driving on the pavement.

It never gets enforced, and even parents with children who encounter dangerous drivers on the pavement can expect little sympathy or support from their local police or council.

Oh, look who followed the law-abiding cyclist and also drove on the pavement contrary to Section 72 of the highways Act 1835 as amended!






























It is however permissible to drive on the pavement when it has been turned into a car park, as here on Forest Road, Walthamstow, as part of the ongoing ‘improvement scheme’. The improvements for both pedestrians and cyclists are obvious.

Pavement cycling: the danger & the solution

The danger of pavement cycling and why cyclists should never cycle on the pavement was vividly brought home to me yesterday.

Why no one should never ever cycle on the pavement can be summed up in one word: lorries. The danger that lorries pose to cyclists is well known, yet many cyclists seem to forget this when cycling on the pavement. Lorry drivers often drive on pavements and it is all too easy for a pavement cyclist irresponsibly to enter the lorry driver’s ‘blind spot’.

Yesterday afternoon the driver of this Mercedes HGV lorry reg. YK04 FRN drove on to the pavement on Cleveland Park Avenue E17, at the junction with High Street (below). He parked there and went off down the High Street. A careless cyclist could so easily have collided with the lorry, which would have raised that all important question: was the cyclist wearing a helmet?



























Half an hour later, on Leyton Green Road, I was admiring the magnificent cycling infrastructure when suddenly the driver of this SS Builders Merchants lorry (no, not an old established Third Reich construction company but a local firm with premises in both Leyton and Walthamstow) swerved onto the pavement and roared along it rather than wait for oncoming traffic. In the third snap (below) you can see the driver re-entering the carriageway, forced there by a pavement cyclist, a ‘hoodie’, who for some reason is wilfully ignoring the splendid cycle lane, presumably on the selfish grounds that the said cycle lane is full of legally parked cars. Do take time to pause and admire the nearest stretch of pink, cycling-friendly London Cycle Network infrastructure in the third photo.



























































The other day I was in London’s most successful cycling borough, Hackney, and I am pleased to be able to report that progressive Hackney has finally cracked the enduring problem of how to stop pavement cycling. The solution is easy when you think about it. Yes, simply allow cars to park entirely on the pavement and the menace of pavement cycling is extinguished forever. Cadogan Terrace E9.

Streets clogged with clutter

It’s an old story that never goes away:

Streets across the country are being ‘disfigured’ by tens of thousands of unnecessary road signs, bollards, posts and railings, a campaign dossier revealed last night.

Civic groups said the rapid growth in ugly ‘clutter’ was blighting otherwise attractive neighbourhoods and high streets.

Detailed briefing notes released by the charity campaign group Civic Voice as part of its Street Pride dossier reveal:

• Guard rails used to protect pedestrians ‘can cause accidents or increase the risks to people - such as where cyclists get caught between them and large vehicles'.
• Bollards are used to stop cars parking on pavements when lifting the height of the kerb would achieve the same thing without the clutter.

In cycling-friendly Redbridge I came across this marvellous example of ‘shared use’ on the Southend Road (A1400). Simply stick up a sign allowing cyclists to ride on the pavement and watch as they develop their skills in avoiding both bipeds and traffic sign poles. Disappointingly, I didn’t encounter any pedestrians or cyclists on this marvellous piece of infrastructure. Why, it’s almost as if normal people prefer to use cars rather than walk or cycle!