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Sustrans: Cyclists should slow downBristol Bath Railway Path riders (copyrght samsaundersleeds:Flickr)

Sustrans: Cyclists should slow down

Sustrans' man in Bristol reiterates his message that go-faster cyclists intimidating pedestrians & all cyclists a bad name...
by John Stevenson
Wed, Jul 17, 2013 18:13
66

In an opinion piece for bristol247.com, Jon Usher of Sustrans calls for some cyclists to slow down, lest we all be “perceived by pedestrians in the same way we perceive cars. We are becoming the menace that needs taming,” he writes.

Usher, the Sustrans area manager for Bristol, Bath and South Glos, writes that he thinks the recent increase in popularity of fast road bikes is damaging the perception of bike riders.

“The sale of racing bikes [is] up across the board,” he says, as the success of British cyclists inspires people to take to two wheels and drop handlebars. “However, this surge in sporting goods for leisure is percolating rapidly through to the urban cycling for transport realms.

“This transition has meant a shift from a relatively slow, cumbersome machine in urban environments to something much faster.”

This is not good, Usher reckons. “The blurring of the lines between transport and sport means that people’s perception of us is changing. Fast moving bikes are beginning to have a negative impact on people’s perception of taking to a journey on two wheels.”

You might think, given the certainty of these comments, that Sustrans had performed an extensive survey on the public perception of cyclists. But it appears the evidence here is Usher’s own observations.


Bikes with skinny tyres and drop handlebars ... are a cause for real concern

“Bikes with skinny tyres and drop handlebars are regularly ridden at excessive and frankly anti-social speeds on my daily commute. They are a cause for real concern,” he writes.

However, it turns out that what Usher is really concerned about is speed on shared use paths, like the Bristol and Bath Railway Path, “where their use was never foreseen or catered for.”

“As a cycling community on these shared use paths, we are beginning to be perceived by pedestrians in the very same way that we perceive cars on the roads. Collectively in the eyes of many, we are becoming the menace that needs taming,” writes Usher.

“When we take to two wheels, we become ambassadors for all other cyclists. The arguments for investment become that much more difficult when you have to overcome negative perceptions before meaningful discussion can take over.”

“We need to take a leaf out of Amsterdam’s book,” he concludes. “We all have a collective responsibility to behave and not intimidate others.

“We have a collective responsibility to slow down.”

Sustrans
Jon Usher
Bristol and Bath cycle path
Bristol
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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66 comments

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to chadders | 10 years ago
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chadders wrote:

One of the biggest issues with shared paths is the fact that people pay 100s or thousands of pounds for a sleek racing machine but don't pay £2 for a bell.
I both run and cycle on the cycle path between Deeside and chester and must have heard someone ring a bell to warn me of their presence half a dozen times in 4 years.
Speed is not an issue if appropriate in the right situation and with the ability to warn people of your approach.
The majority of the cycling community don't help themselves.

I used to find pedestrians walking (several abreast) on shared use paths would more often-than-not just stop dead and turn round and snarl at you for being so rude as to ring your bell. Perhaps those who _want_ a bell 'ding' should wear a sign on their backs indicating they are of the minority who _don't_ consider it rude, because how is a cyclist supposed to know who is in which group?

I used to just try saying 'excuse me' instead, because bells are perceived as aggressive, but I find a better solution is to avoid shared-use paths entirely on account of their being a bit useless. Other than in the middle of the night or something, anyway.

Edit - actually, I'm overstating it slightly. I'm far from a fast cyclist and sometimes those sorts of paths are OK - but it does depend entirely on the time of day. At times when there's heavy pedestrian traffic you really might as well just get off and walk.

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Bagpuss | 10 years ago
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The fluffy one has a point.

Stopped using a bell years, maybe decades ago after scaring an old man out of his skin on a bridleway on Dartmoor. Slowed right down, 'ding ding' and he visibly leapt. Something to do with his hearing aid. We both chuckled when we figured it out.

Now stick with 'excuse me' / 'thank you' and when met with the snarling peds (good description) who refuse to part / move over then try to think of some witty repast. I usually fail and squeeze past them.

And don't start me on headphones or dog leads. 14

Shared paths, best avoided during periods of heavy use.

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tarquin_foxglove | 10 years ago
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FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

I used to find pedestrians walking (several abreast) on shared use paths would more often-than-not just stop dead and turn round and snarl at you for being so rude as to ring your bell.

A bell, like a car horn, has no context and people can assume they are being told to get out of the way and react accordingly. It took me a while after moving from a megacity to a village to realise the cars sounding their horns were more likely to be driven by people that knew me & were saying hello.

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

I used to just try saying 'excuse me' instead, because bells are perceived as aggressive, but I find a better solution is to ...

... give a hearty "Good morning" and then make eye contact & smile.

You'll still get the same vacant bovine stare from a load of mouth breathers but you'll feel better.

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Joeinpoole | 10 years ago
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On shared-use paths it is generally the case that pedestrians have priority.

It IS the cyclist's responsibility to slow down to accommodate pedestrians. It is NOT the pedestrian's responsibility to be aware of and to make way for cycles.

A gentle ding on a bell from as far away as might be heard will have most walkers shuffling to one side. The cyclist should be passing at no more than about 10 mph with brake levers covered to enable an immediate stop should it be required. A 'Thanks' or other greeting is usually appreciated. That's just common sense and courtesy.

Imagine that your elderly, half-deaf parents happened to be pedestrians on a shared-use path and then imagine how you would like them to be treated by cyclists. Well, that's how you should act too.

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Neil753 | 10 years ago
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The answer to shared paths and roads in town is simple, in my opinion.

A blanket 20mph for urban streets and a lifting of the max speed for electric bikes (from the current 15mph) to 20 mph. That means that fit cyclists on road bikes, and not so fit riders on electrically assisted bikes, will have substantially reduced conflict with other vehicles. If it was safer on the roads, then commuters on bikes wouldn't feel the need to mix it with pedestrians.

But whilst we're waiting for the planners get up to speed, we should all be much more cautious when cycling on shared paths.

My tip, to resolve the "bell" dilema, is to just have a trouser clip (one of those old fashioned ones made of spring steel) jangling away on the handlebars. It's non confrontational, and a cheery wave and a word of thanks as you pass all contributes to social harmony.

When I'm on the tow path I feel like Moses crossing the Red Sea, such is the effectiveness of my cunning ruse.

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bikecellar | 10 years ago
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I am thinking of getting some seasonal xmas jingle bells sewed onto a strip of velcro material to dangle from bars, (then I can transfer arrangement from x bike to mountain bike) and give a cheery HO! HO! HO! as I pass by all those scowling platoons of ramblers and dog walkers. 21

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