Magic Indicator

[Graham.]

I think you will find he was referring to common sense priority of pedestrian over cycle and not the legal status of the route itself.

[billyorange007]

For years I've suffered those fools who beieve they havs a magic indicator. Turn it on and go where you like, regardless of other traffic. This morning I suffered the magic arm. A cyclist who, when I was ion the pr ocess of passing, stuck out his right arm and swerved straight out in fromn t of me. When I blew the horns to stop him from committimng suicide beneath my wheels all I got was the fingers

[Nick Odell]

You only got his fingers? You obviously didn't aim very well: you should have stopped then reversed over the rest of him.

Nick (Declaration of interest: when my knees used to work I used to be a keen cyclist (some correlation there maybe? - Ed) but us keen cyclists never had the time of day for the mad cyclists)

[T i m]

<snip>

And isn't this the same for nearly every 'group' or small percentage of the population (members of groups or otherwise)?

We regularly walk our dogs along the towpath and so meet many cyclists of all types. If they are coming towards us we would generally call our dogs over and stand aside, even though pedestrians have right of way on the towpath. We do so because we are just out for a walk and should keep our dogs 'under control', we don't want our dogs to get in the way of them or possibly hurt by them in an accident.

If cyclists are approaching from behind we like (expect?) some form of early warning (and if we get one we do as above) or if not, expect the cyclist to slow down to whatever speed would be considered safe to pass us and the dogs without issue.

In the main this is how it works, especially amongst the 'ordinary' (recreational, hire bike, family group, older) cyclists, just leaving the Licra racers to spoil it (for everone).

When motorcycling, we do so no differently to when we are walking, cycling or driving and have only been become inconvenienced once when arriving at a campsite and seeing a hand made sign that said 'No Motorcycles'. Had we gone home and got in the car we would have been allowed in so it wasn't us they had issue with but our chosen form of transport?

So, the chances are they had a group of motorcyclists where they or the volume of their bike exhausts caused issues so all motorbike riders then suffer. We went round to another campsite and asked if they accepted motorcycles and they said 'Yes, why?' I explained and they replied 'We give anyone a chance and if they become a nuisance we throw them off, be they hiking on in a Motorhome'.

A minority of fishermen leave litter, a minority of car drivers drive like nutters, a minority of football fans are hooligans and a minority of posters use the d-i-y newsgroup as their personal political soapbox etc etc. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Gareth's was W7 now W10 Downst]

AIUI the towpaths of the Canal & River Trust are not rights of way.

[T i m]

<snip>

I still do 'lifesavers' when driving. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

I'm not sure I said that did I?

What I said is that 'pedestrians have right of way on the towpath ... ', because they do! ;-)

Point 2 here:

At some point we had to (should do and we did) get a (free) permit to use a cycle on the towpath, you didn't as a pedestrian.

I love this quote from their site:

"If you?re in a rush, the towpath is not the best place for you so please choose a different route.?

Yeah, f'off somewhere else!

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

<snip>

Quite. ;-)

I endorse lots of the points mentioned here:

Particularly:

"If you're running or cycling even at a leisurely pace, you will still be traveling a lot faster than other towpath visitors. The towpath is not the place for time trials or getting your PB, so please do this elsewhere."

"This is why towpaths have a pedestrian priority and it is especially important for those moving quickly (cyclists and joggers) to slow down and take care going under bridges or in other places where the sight line maybe poor."

And I'd say (round here anyway), most people do ... and there is generally a friendly atmosphere between dog walkers (we have made many acquaintances though this), cyclists and boaters alike.

We don't interface with many of the joggers as they seem to be in their own little worlds with their headphones or earplugs in. It's either music to relieve the monotony of what they are doing or motivational stuff to try to minimise the monotony of what they are doing. <weg>

A more recent appearance, typically on the paved bits of footpath around the parks are scooters, both electric and manual (adults especially). The electric ones did look like special fun [1] and whilst might provide extra exercise for the dogs (but not in this heat), wouldn't do much for us.

Walking is by far the best way to enjoy it all, from interacting with the dogs (ours and others), to talking to passers by and boaters to hearing the sounds, seeing the sights (nature reserves) and smelling the smells. ;-)

I've recently had to make two more holes in my belt so that can't be a bad thing. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] We have actually had a fairly large (24V) electric scooter for nearly 20 years now. Might be time to dig it out. ;-)

[T i m]

On Mon, 8 Jul 2019 13:50:14 +0100, "Jim GM4DHJ ..." [e-mail] wrote: <snip>

Except they are ... that's why their insurance premiums were generally lower than for men (of the same age / experience / history / profession).

I say 'were' because the equality thing forced them to set them the same levels as for men so if course they went up. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[billyorange007]

ISTR the stastistics didn't support the claim that they had less accidents when comparing like for like

[dennis]

But they did less damage so costs were lower.

[T i m]

'Fewer' ... and maybe not, but that the cost of each claim was less.

Cheers, T i m

[Brian Gaff]

Oh I get the four letter expletives when out sweeping my cane and almost get it in the spokes of a pavement peddler. Brian

[tim...]

fruit flavoured or mint?

tim

[Brian Gaff]

No, I believe those who think they can just leap on a bike and use it with no actual tuition or even reading the highway code or appreciate they are inaudible to most people approaching from behind they are a scourge.

I wonder if there are electrodes in those helmets that are supposed to endow them with telepathy in the reverse direction? Brian

[Tim+]

How about ?fewer? though? ;-)

Tim

[Richard]

NOTA scrbble, scribble

[Richard]

Of course, he could have meant lesser.

[Tim Streater]

On 08 Jul 2019, Richard wrote (in article<qfvtjh$8u1$ [e-mail]>):

"Fewer" would have been correct. "Lesser" means something else again.

[NY]

I was once cycling on a disused railway which has been converted into a footpath and cycle track. I could see a group walking across the whole width of the track, with a dog on a lead. I slowed down as I approached them and saw one of them look round, presumably at the ticking of the freewheel. They then carried on without moving aside. So I dismounted, aiming to walk past them and carry on. They got very shirty with me, and for a while wouldn't move aside to let me *wheel* the bike past them. When they eventually moved over, very reluctantly and with a "some people!" comment, I got past and remounted, only to have the dog (which had been on a lead) nearly run into the spokes of my front wheel: I can only assume they let it off deliberately as a parting gesture.

I had a friend who took offence at cyclists using a cycle track, and berated me for moving aside to let one coming in the opposite direction get past us, even though he'd slowed right down. "You should have made it as difficult as possible for him - pedestrians have right of way".

Those two incidents suggest that even when cyclists bend over backwards to be pedestrian friendly, a small minority of pedestrians try to be bloody-minded and awkward.

Of course a lot of cyclists *don't* slow down, so maybe they spoil it for the minority who are well-behaved.