Bicycle, crash hat and accident

[Harry Bloomfield]

Female reversed at speed out of a drive, without looking and hit a friend who was cycling on a grass verge adjacent to the footpath, between footpath and road. Location is close to, but not in a village and footpath is rarely used by pedestrians.

Police were called and PC suggested it was now the law to have to wear a helmet if on the road, but as he was on the grass verge it was OK. PC also suggested he would have been 'done', if riding on the actual footpath. The road is ex-A1, wide, with very little traffic.

Have helmets become compulsory on the road and I thought it was now OK to ride on footpaths in the country?

[Tim+]

No

Officially only if it's designated for shared use.

Of course a blind eye is turned to young children using the footpaths but really, footpaths are only for things moving at a pedestrian pace. When I'm running, I frequently use the road in preference to the footpath as folk reversing out don't expect (nor should expect) faster moving traffic on the pavement.

Tim

[robgraham]

An interesting position exists in Scotland in that the Land Access laws def ine a bike as an aid to pedestrianism (or some equivalent wording) hence al lowing bikes on mountain tracks. I wonder if anyone has used that as a jus tification for cycling on the road footpaths.

[Another Dave]

Absolutely not! A footpath, typically although not always in the country, is what it says - for pedestrians only.

A footway is usually part of a roadway i.e. a pavement. Cycling is still generally prohibited although there may be certain exceptions.

It's complicated, see:

Riding on country footpaths is prohibited and is one of my pet hates; it churns up the path and makes it useless for its intended purpose: walking.

Another Dave

[Tim Streater]

[Brian Gaff]

As far as I'm aware its note requirement to wear a cycle helmet yet. it would be hard to enforce on an unlicensed, uninsured vehicle anyway. No its not legal to ride on footways except where they are designated as shared. There needs to be signage and most authorities actual paint a line on the footway, but blind people are opposed to this as we cannot see either and are thus unaware of cyclists. I think your friend can count themselves lucky they are not dead, get a helmet and wear it has to be the right thing. Also, even though its not compulsory, get insurance!

Brian

[Reentrant]

My experience is that the broad tyres of MTBs tend to smooth out bridleways that have been churned up by horses. (Bikes are allowed on bridleways.)

[Huge]

My experience is that farm machinery makes the previous experiences completely irrelevant.

[Jabba]

Harry Bloomfield wrote

An 'innocent' cyclist who injures their head in an accident and wasn't wearing a helmet is going to receive a lower settlement. Ditto horse riders.

Riding on the pavement is illegal, except where part of the pavement has been designated as a cycle path. EG - parts of Swansea seafront, near County Hall.

[dennis]

They should expect pedestrians moving at whatever speed a pedestrian can, including running for the bus or whatever else they want to run for!

These days they can reasonably expect to have cycles and scooters too.

[Tim Streater]

Are bicycles supposed to have lights and bells too?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Most cyclists are brain dead before the accident anyway. It wouldn't make any difference...

[Nightjar]

The only sign on one locally is a waist high post, adjacent to the wall / hedge, with a small blue sign showing both a pedestrian and a bicycle. I know that, at some point along its length, the pavement ceases to be shared, but as I neither walk nor cycle along it, I'm not entirely sure where.

[Jabba]

Tim Streater wrote

No and No. Why would a bike need lights permanently fitted ?

[Nightjar]

...

I have always thought it a pity that it was ruled that the human voice was a suitable audible warning device. A shout could mean anything and I think people are quite likely to ignore it, on the basis that they would rather not get involved with somebody shouting in the street. A bicycle bell was a very distinctive sound and gave pedestrians much better warning of a fast approaching hazard.

[Jabba]

"Nightjar wrote

A bulb horn makes 'em jump.

[Clive George]

I find calling out to people works very well. I normally use a greeting, timed to allow for the inevitable dithering which happens as people work out what's going on. There seems to be no difference in the dithering when friends use a bell in a similar situation.

[The Medway Handyman]

Loud applause.....

[harryagain]

Well, she shouldn't be reversing out. She should either turn around or reverse in. So she is at fault regardless.

[Harry Bloomfield]

harryagain pretended :

Agreed! There were no head injuries and as already said he was riding on the grass verge between road a pavement.

A likely scenario is that she had reversed out of that drive lots of times, over that rarely used pavement and never seen anyone on foot or a bike, so why bother slowing down or looking?