Why do riders refuse to use cycle paths?

“Exeter’s answer to Jeremy
“Exeter’s answer to Jeremy Clarkson”. Enough said.

The worst bit is that billious, ignorant, self-serving crap as this will allow the small-minded dickheads who read it to think they are given license abuse and threaten anyone on a bicycle.

There is a simple reason: cycle paths can occasionally be pleasant to ride on but a lot of the time they are NOT.

Some pedestrians appear to deliberately choose to walk on the ‘cycle lane’ side of a shared path. I often wonder whether it’s deliberately done to annoy cyclists, start an argument or simply that they’re stupid and spend the whole time staring pathetically at their mobile phone.

Then there are the dog walkers with retractable leads. The leads, the owners and the dogs themselves can each be a menace, and on top of that you get to ride through or swerve round the dog sh*t.

Some people think it’s fine to park their car or van illegally on a pavement or cyclepath because it’s 10 yards nearer to their destination than where they can park legally.

Cycle paths are not salted in winter and often don’t drain well when it rains. In Autumn one near my house gets covered in several places by piles of fallen beech leaves. When wet these are a real hazard. After the windy week we’ve had I expect the same stretch to have a large number of fallen branches too.

And let’s not forget the broken bottles, wires and goodness knows what else on the track: http://road.cc/49882

If you’re not swerving parked vehicles, dog poo, posts and drains then you are confronted by ‘Cyclists Dismount’ signs at every dropped kerb you reach. Stop, start, stop, start…. That is, until the cycle route suddenly disappears at a junction, where the road narrows, or the pavement ends so you’re having to hop into the road (quite possibly on the wrong side) or walk. Grrrrr!