Being told to slow down by a ped

If anyone knows the cycleway / footpath that goes along the Avon north
of Bristol Temple Meads to Barton HIll, you'll know where I mean.


It's a shared use path with no dividing lines. The width varies
considerably from barely room for two bikes to pass comfortably,
although there is often plenty more than that.

It's downhill towards BTM so I'm probably doing 17 - 20 mph on a
straight bit with good visiblity, quite a few dog walkers around and a
pair are in front of me facing me dragging along a dog that's more
like a horse.

On passing them I hear something muttered that only after I've passed
do I make out. They were standing at the side of the path for me to
pass holding the dog tightly and I was surprised to be asked to Slow
down (please).

Not sure where I'm going with this thread, maybe she has a point. I'm
quite careful around dogs as I don't want to run the *******s over and
hurt myself. I felt I was riding within my safety limits, she didn't.
End of story?

Cheers, Simon.

IMO 17-20mph is too fast to be cycling on a shared use path. Even though
that speed isn't hugely fast in terms of cycling, it is when sharing a
farcility with peds. Another reason I *loathe* shared use farcilities.

Simon L said the following on 07/06/2007 12:14:

... I'm probably doing 17 - 20 mph...

On passing them I hear something muttered that only after I've passed
do I make out. They were standing at the side of the path for me to
pass holding the dog tightly and I was surprised to be asked to Slow
down (please).

Not sure where I'm going with this thread, maybe she has a point. I'm
quite careful around dogs as I don't want to run the *******s over and
hurt myself. I felt I was riding within my safety limits, she didn't.
End of story?

That sort of speed on that path is inappropriate and dangerous - I do
know the path you mean. You should have been going much slower,
especially where there are people and dogs around.

The key word is "shared" - you are allowed to share this path with
pedestrians, and both parties need to behave responsibly. I'm afraid
that in this case one party behaved responsibly, and it wasn't you!

Your last paragraph ensured that any traces of sympathy for you quickly
evaporated.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

Remember that your (say) 15 mph is maybe 5 x pedestrian speed.
It's (ok stretching the limits!) the same as a car passing you at 100
mph on the road. Think what you'd mutter at them LOL
Robert

Your last paragraph ensured that any traces of sympathy for you quickly
evaporated.


if you know how much **** there is on the old railway path to
Whitchurch you might understand my frustration.

On 7 Jun, 14:06, BigRab wrote:
Remember that your (say) 15 mph is maybe 5 x pedestrian speed.
It's (ok stretching the limits!) the same as a car passing you at 100
mph on the road. Think what you'd mutter at them LOL
Robert

Do you pass peds at (say) 5mph? Based on my description of events, the
concencus is that I was going too fast. Does the highway code have any
suggestions?

On 7 Jun, 12:14, Simon L wrote:

heavily trimmed

...
It's downhill towards BTM so I'm probably doing 17 - 20 mph on a
straight bit with good visiblity, quite a few dog walkers around ...
On passing them I ... I was surprised to be asked to Slow
down (please).

Have a look at:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/...tnoticefor1688

Which suggests that over 30 km/h you should be on a road.

As others have said- it's a shared facility, so you need to ride
accordingly. Incidentally, you are probably putting yourself as higher
risk of injury riding on the path than you would on a road-
statistically that's the case, though your local conditions may mean
you're situation is different.

I have this problem on a local path that I use for my commute- at
7am, when I'm going uphill, there's prectically no-one there and I'm
going relatively slowly. On the way home it's 6pm and downhill- 17+mph
is reasonably easy to maintain and the path is busier, so I either
have to keep my speed down or use the road...

Cheers,
W.

On 7 Jun, 14:28, Simon L wrote:
On 7 Jun, 14:06, BigRab wrote:

Remember that your (say) 15 mph is maybe 5 x pedestrian speed.
It's (ok stretching the limits!) the same as a car passing you at 100
mph on the road. Think what you'd mutter at them LOL
Robert

Do you pass peds at (say) 5mph? Based on my description of events, the
concencus is that I was going too fast. Does the highway code have any
suggestions?

It strikes me (he says, whittering on) that there are alot of
parallels here with car / bike shared use, ie a lack of understanding
between both parties.

NB standing by the side of the path tightly clutching your dog is an
invitation for a cyclist to procede with less fear of collision, like
a cyclist in the gutter for a car.

If a dog walker hasn't seen me and / or has a yappy dog on lead
stretched all across the path then caution is to be exercised.

On 7 Jun, 14:28, Simon L wrote:
On 7 Jun, 14:06, BigRab wrote:

Remember that your (say) 15 mph is maybe 5 x pedestrian speed.
It's (ok stretching the limits!) the same as a car passing you at 100
mph on the road. Think what you'd mutter at them LOL
Robert

Do you pass peds at (say) 5mph? Based on my description of events, the
concencus is that I was going too fast. Does the highway code have any
suggestions?

I don't know about the highway code, but the planners should have had
a design speed in mind when commisioning the route as a shared path. I
suppose if they posted this as a recommended speed on signs at the
side of the path, it would be informative but it would be too low for
the purposes of getting anywhere over a significant distance. I don't
use shared facilities because of the potential conflict at speeds I'm
capable of.

David Lloyd (at work)

On 7 Jun, 14:39, wrote:
... though your local conditions may mean
you're situation is different.

Oops, sorry: I reworded that and didn't update the punctuation.
Apologies to any purists offended...

Cheers,
W.