Pavement cyclist

As I walked into work today I walked behind a pavement cyclist. I'd seen
him coming up the hill, and it was a fairly steep hill for the bike he
was on. He still made fast enough progress that he didn't inconvenience
me at all despite a few wobbles.

He was, of course, only 5 years old and on his way to school. His mum
was walking behind him and she occasionally put a re-assuring (for her!)
hand on his back when he wobbled. His bike had one gear and plastic
platform pedals---it was raining fairly heavily---yet he went up that
hill faster than many of the adult cyclists I see. His feet only came of
the pedals once and that was when he hit the flat bit after the hill.
His mum then had to run to keep tabs on him he was going that fast.

A few minutes later I passed another child, who by way of contrast had
just got out of a car and complained to his mum that he was getting wet!

Colin

"Colin Blackburn" wrote:

As I walked into work today I walked behind a pavement cyclist. I'd
seen him coming up the hill, and it was a fairly steep hill for the
bike he was on. He still made fast enough progress that he didn't
inconvenience me at all despite a few wobbles.

He was, of course, only 5 years old and on his way to school. His mum
was walking behind him and she occasionally put a re-assuring (for
her!) hand on his back when he wobbled. His bike had one gear and
plastic platform pedals---it was raining fairly heavily---yet he went
up that hill faster than many of the adult cyclists I see. His feet
only came of the pedals once and that was when he hit the flat bit
after the hill. His mum then had to run to keep tabs on him he was
going that fast.

I wonder if they do child size polka dot jerseys?

Colin Blackburn wrote:
As I walked into work today I walked behind a pavement cyclist. I'd seen
him coming up the hill, and it was a fairly steep hill for the bike he
was on. He still made fast enough progress that he didn't inconvenience
me at all despite a few wobbles.

He was, of course, only 5 years old and on his way to school. His mum
was walking behind him and she occasionally put a re-assuring (for her!)
hand on his back when he wobbled. His bike had one gear and plastic
platform pedals---it was raining fairly heavily---yet he went up that
hill faster than many of the adult cyclists I see. His feet only came of
the pedals once and that was when he hit the flat bit after the hill.
His mum then had to run to keep tabs on him he was going that fast.

A few minutes later I passed another child, who by way of contrast had
just got out of a car and complained to his mum that he was getting wet!

Colin

Excellent! Now I think about it, I wonder at what point Pavement Cycling
becomes a Bad Thing? If we lived in a part of the world that had
pavements, we probably would have done the same with our kids.

I guess the next stage is to ride with them on the road as an escort,
and gradually wean them off any guidance until you are happy they can
manage the road for themselves. After that point, pavement cycling is a
no no.

That's pretty much what we did, but without the pavement bit.

--
Chris

"Chris" wrote in message
...
Colin Blackburn wrote:
As I walked into work today I walked behind a pavement cyclist. I'd seen
him coming up the hill, and it was a fairly steep hill for the bike he
was on. He still made fast enough progress that he didn't inconvenience
me at all despite a few wobbles.

He was, of course, only 5 years old and on his way to school. His mum
was walking behind him and she occasionally put a re-assuring (for her!)
hand on his back when he wobbled. His bike had one gear and plastic
platform pedals---it was raining fairly heavily---yet he went up that
hill faster than many of the adult cyclists I see. His feet only came of
the pedals once and that was when he hit the flat bit after the hill.
His mum then had to run to keep tabs on him he was going that fast.

A few minutes later I passed another child, who by way of contrast had
just got out of a car and complained to his mum that he was getting wet!

Colin

Excellent! Now I think about it, I wonder at what point Pavement Cycling
becomes a Bad Thing? If we lived in a part of the world that had
pavements, we probably would have done the same with our kids.

I guess the next stage is to ride with them on the road as an escort,
and gradually wean them off any guidance until you are happy they can
manage the road for themselves. After that point, pavement cycling is a
no no.

That's pretty much what we did, but without the pavement bit.

--
Chris

Whilst reading something on a local authority road safety website I noticed
that they do not offer cycle training to under 10s as they consider that
they are too young to safely ride on the road and understand the dangers or
training.

I guess that this means they either do not ride at all other than off road
or have to ride on pavements.

Personally, I have no problems with riders using pavements providing they
are courteous. It is no different to to sharing in remote areas where the
cycle path is also a footpath, or the canal bank or even sharing with
electric wheelchairs and the buggy type things that pensioners and disabled
people drive some of them like lunatics.

Dave
UK

"Chris" wrote in message
...
Colin Blackburn wrote:
As I walked into work today I walked behind a pavement cyclist. I'd seen
him coming up the hill, and it was a fairly steep hill for the bike he
was on. He still made fast enough progress that he didn't inconvenience
me at all despite a few wobbles.

He was, of course, only 5 years old and on his way to school. His mum
was walking behind him and she occasionally put a re-assuring (for her!)
hand on his back when he wobbled. His bike had one gear and plastic
platform pedals---it was raining fairly heavily---yet he went up that
hill faster than many of the adult cyclists I see. His feet only came of
the pedals once and that was when he hit the flat bit after the hill.
His mum then had to run to keep tabs on him he was going that fast.

A few minutes later I passed another child, who by way of contrast had
just got out of a car and complained to his mum that he was getting wet!

Colin

Excellent! Now I think about it, I wonder at what point Pavement Cycling
becomes a Bad Thing? If we lived in a part of the world that had
pavements, we probably would have done the same with our kids.

I guess the next stage is to ride with them on the road as an escort,
and gradually wean them off any guidance until you are happy they can
manage the road for themselves. After that point, pavement cycling is a
no no.

That's pretty much what we did, but without the pavement bit.

--
Chris

Whilst reading something on a local authority road safety website I noticed
that they do not offer cycle training to under 10s as they consider that
they are too young to safely ride on the road and understand the dangers or
training.

I guess that this means they either do not ride at all other than off road
or have to ride on pavements.

Personally, I have no problems with riders using pavements providing they
are courteous. It is no different to to sharing in remote areas where the
cycle path is also a footpath, or the canal bank or even sharing with
electric wheelchairs and the buggy type things that pensioners and disabled
people drive some of them like lunatics.

Dave
UK

Chris wrote:


Excellent! Now I think about it, I wonder at what point Pavement Cycling
becomes a Bad Thing? If we lived in a part of the world that had
pavements, we probably would have done the same with our kids.


When they get fed up with stopping at all the side roads. My 8yo
daughter cycles on the pavement on her own (or when I am walking), but
on the road when with me on a bike.

I guess the next stage is to ride with them on the road as an escort,
and gradually wean them off any guidance until you are happy they can
manage the road for themselves. After that point, pavement cycling is a
no no.

Yup. My opinion entirely (almost). There are cases where pavement
cycling though illegal can be useful, but it should be performed giving
courtesy and priority to all other legitimate pavement users.

...d

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:02:17 +0100, Dave wrote:

electric wheelchairs and the buggy type things that pensioners and
disabled people drive some of them like lunatics.

Yet another target of Daily Mail bigotry.

As someone else pointed out in a past thread, cyclists are rapidly
becoming an easy target for tabloid journalists, now that it is
unacceptable to criticise other segments of society.
Just imagine the article which Simon posted with the word 'cyclist'
replaced with 'black youth'. There would be a perfectly justifiable outcry.

And let's just think - are electric wheelchairs and buggies REALLY a
danger on the pavements? Or are you just listening too closely to the
sensationalist news reports?
And so what - some old dear clatters your ankle. Better that than a truck
hitting you when you cross the road.

On 2005-09-09, John Hearns wrote:
On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:02:17 +0100, Dave wrote:

electric wheelchairs and the buggy type things that pensioners and
disabled people drive some of them like lunatics.

[snip]
And let's just think - are electric wheelchairs and buggies REALLY a
danger on the pavements? Or are you just listening too closely to the
sensationalist news reports?
And so what - some old dear clatters your ankle. Better that than a truck
hitting you when you cross the road.


Locally the electric wheelchair users are polite, courteous and
use the pavements and cross the roads with care. The OAP-wagons are
however a menace. There's a lot of weight to them & if in one of their
random veerings they were to run into something expensive of yours
(such as your parked car) they'd be causing some very expensive damage.

I'm sure if people were to kick your ankles as you went about
your buisiness you'd take a very dim view of it- failure to courteuosly
and competantly handle powered vehicles on the pavement is a bad thing
too.

--
Tim.

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:42:24 +0100 someone who may be John Hearns
wrote this:-

And let's just think - are electric wheelchairs and buggies REALLY a
danger on the pavements?

Of course they are, all forms of transport involve danger.

The rather more important question is how dangerous are they? They
are certainly not as dangerous as motor vehicles, but on the other
hand there were eight deaths with the things last year (media
reports about three weeks ago, which did not indicate the
circumstances of these deaths).


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:42:24 +0100, John Hearns wrote:

And let's just think - are electric wheelchairs and buggies REALLY a
danger on the pavements? Or are you just listening too closely to the
sensationalist news reports?

Not of theselves, but some are driven in such a way as to be a menace.

There is one such in the town where I live - their standard method of
stopping seems to be to drive into street furniture (at least, I've
seen that occur several times, and the driver seemed to regard it as
normal), and they apparently have no qualms about driving into people
if they want to be the other side of somneone.

And so what - some old dear clatters your ankle. Better that than a truck
hitting you when you cross the road.

That's irrelevant. I have been hit by an electric buggy. It bloody
hurt and gouged a lump of flesh from my ankle. That it was better
than being hit by an HGV is irrelevant - it was worse than not being
hit by anything. Further, there are relatively few HGVs in the aisles
of my local Sainsbury.

regards, Ian SMith
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