Entries Tagged 'commuting' ↓

Cycling on Pavements - a common occurrence in Oxford

As a cyclist I want to cycle on the roads not pavements. It’s that simple.

Occasionally, I am sympathetic to cycling on a pavement.

• If necessary to get from one road to another.
• To miss dangerous junctions where a cyclist would be forced to take a risky crossing.
• When I see very young kids learning to cycle on the pavement I can understand why they are avoiding roads. However, I feel a better solution is to make roads safer, rather than avoid roads. A 20 mph speed limit in urban areas should help make roads safer.

However, if a cyclist is forced to use the pavement, they should go at walking speed and be willing to give way to pedestrians. Often they don’t.

Pavements / Cycle Paths.

I am usually suspicious of cycle paths made out of narrow pavements. They satisfy neither pedestrians who have to share a small pavement with cyclists. Cyclists are left with the worst of both worlds. They have to be very cautious on the ‘cycle path’ because of pedestrians. But, if they don’t use these useless ‘cycle paths’ they get criticised by motorists for being on the road. They are kind of left with a no win situation. It is this kind of cycle path that is often worse than nothing.

• Unless it is path on a pavement designed to avoid an awkward junction.

Dangers Of Cycling On Pavement

I regularly reverse my car out of the drive. I also frequently see kids (often teenagers) cycle bikes very fast on the pavement. This is actually very dangerous. Many motorists are not expecting cyclists on the pavement, they expect people to moving at walking pace. By cycling on pavements, cyclists put themselves at greater danger from collisions. and crossing junctions.

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I would love to see more people cycling. I sometimes ask non-cyclists what might encourage them to start cycling. These are some of the common issues which might encourage more to give up 4 wheels for 2.

1. Cycle Schemes

The Paris cycle scheme has been a good success. With a credit card deposit, commuters can pick up bikes at certain points and return them within 30 mins for free. It saves having to break a foldup bike on a train into city centres. I would definitely use a scheme in London if it was fully implemented. However, whether it would get new cyclists is an interesting question.

2. Intelligent Cycle Lanes.

Bad cycle lanes are worse than no cycle lanes at all. (see: crazy cycle lanes) A good cycle lane is well maintained and actually improves safety. Cycle lanes which are separated from roads are often good. But, I am suspicious of cycle lanes which have been made out of pavements, often they are unhelpful. It is not enough just to spend money and put in lanes, it has to be done intelligently (tip to UK planners - try visiting Netherlands) A good cycle land along a canal bank makes cycling a joy.

3. 20mph speed limits in residential areas.

One of the biggest disincentives to cycling is the perceived danger. Many parents say they don’t want their children to cycle because they feel it is unsafe. Reducing car speed reduces both perceived dangers and actual fatalities.

4. Showering facilities at work.

People often say that being hot and sweaty is a disincentive to cycling. More changing facilities may encourage those with a longer commuting time. Personally, I wouldn’t want to get showered at work. I just cycle relatively slowly and wear few clothes so I don’t get too hot.

5. Rising Petrol Prices / Car Parking Charges.

My landlord used to always drive to work (2 miles centre of Oxford). Then the University clamped down on free parking, he switched to cycling. He said the first few days his legs felt like jelly, but, now he really loves the speed and freedom of cycling to work (though it failed to remove his pot belly alas….)

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In Oxfordshire, the council have introduced a lot of traffic calming measures, which invovle narrowing the road. The aim is to make cars slow down and therefore reduce the number of accidents. However, this particular design is a real pain for Cyclists. This is at the bottom of a steep hill running into Horspath, just outside the ring road. It means you have to come to a complete stop as cars are usually coming the other way. (You can see several cars behind). As an after thought there is supposed to be a cycle lane to the right of the bollard. But, as you can see, the cycle path is completely useless; certainly not something to be negotiated at 20mph.

I don’t know if you can see, but the path is all gravel. Making it impossible for a road bike. But, it is also so narrow and involves a sharp left turn, something you don’t want to do at 25mph.

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A good distance from edge of road

Sometimes I am riding between 1 foot and 3 foot from the edge of the road and cars will still beep their horns, presumably because they are irritated a cyclist has slowed them down. The problem is more acute on narrow lanes where being 1-2 foot from edge of road can place you near the centre. The other problem is that often on these narrow roads the edge of the road tends to be the most bumpy and unrideable. It’s fine if your driving a 4*4, but, if you’re on a racing bike with 22″ tyres it’s quite dangerous to ride over bumps and potholes. I also feel it is better to keep a consistent line rather than riding close to the edge and then having to shoot out to the side to avoid bumps. If you ride a few feet out, you have the option of cutting inside, which is safer than cutting out into traffic.

Car Doors and Knocking over Cyclists

The other issue when cycling is that I never trust drivers to check their mirror for cyclists passing. Therefore, I always want to leave room for a car door to unexpectedly open, even if this places me in middle of road.

Generally, I tend to ride as close to the left as is reasonable and safe; but, sometimes this means I am out quite a bit; but unlike cars I will always remain on ‘my’ side of the road.

To be honest, there is not much you can do about the impatient cars who will beep for being even a few inches off the curb. It is pretty irritating but what can you do? The only thing I do is not to feel guilty then try and forget about it.

The best form of cycle lane, is simply to widen roads; there are so many roads which would be better for cycling if they were widened or at least repaired upto the edge.

Related

• Cars turning left, bikes going straight on

It is sometimes possible to make too much of statistics, especially when the sample size is small. However, in the UK, a disproportionate number of cyclists killed are female. One theory for this is that women place themselves in danger by, ironically, obeying red lights. [Women cyclists at risk from obeying red lights]

One of the most common cause of cyclist fatalities is when a vehicle (often lorry or bus) turns left when a cyclist is going straight on. This is because cyclists can easily come into a lorry drivers blind spot. The cyclist is also lulled into a false sense of security as the heavy goods vehicle moves outwards to be able to swing into the left.

Therefore, waiting at a light along side a lorry, is a very dangerous situation to be in. This research suggest that jumping the lights to get ahead of the lorry turning left is a way to avoid an accident.

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Last Friday, I stood in the middle of Oxford and took many shots of cyclists and the different kinds of people riding bikes. It was quite fascinating. One of the best places to take photos was by the Bodleian library opposite the Kings Arms on broad street. Here there is a crossroads with traffic lights. In the 30 minutes I was there, I noticed about 20% of cyclists cycled straight through a red light. The number of cars is minimal, although a cyclist was killed at this junction a few weeks ago (although I don’t believe the fatal accident was related to cycling through a red light)

Their are a number of different attitudes cyclists take to cycling through red lights.

1. Never ride through any red light, as it breaks the law.
2. Generally obey red lights, but, make exceptions if there is no traffic around and not possible to impede anyone e.g. a pedestrian light at red with no cars or pedestrians.
3. Go through red lights - even if it crosses the path of traffic turning, such as straight on at a crossroad.
4. Completely ignore red lights even if it means cars have to break. If anyone dares try to correct them, they will just shout aggressively.

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I always get great joy to see children on bikes. In today’s society there is great fear of accidents and there is a desire to protect children in cotton wool. But, these carriers for Children are a very environmentally friendly way of transporting children to school. I wish more parents had the courage to transport their kids like this! (also cheaper than driving by car). The carrier in the above photo looks like a .

I have to admit that the child is a little more vulnerable in a bike trailer than being encased in a steel box of a car. But, it would do wonders for rush hour traffic if more children were transported like this.

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A good reason to make helmets compulsory? (source)

I know this topic has been visited on many previous occasions; it certainly seems to create strong feelings within the cycling community. For what it is worth, I will add my own voice as to why helmet use should not be made a legal requirement. Needless to say, this does not mean I am against helmet use. Generally, I think helmets should be encouraged as part of a wider campaign to improve cycling safety. But, these are the reasons why I do not support helmet use

Helmets are Limited in Their Ability to protect Cyclists. There are numerous studies about the safety potential of cycling helmets; like any set of studies, you can be selective to find statistics to support your position. But, I think it is fair to say that on balance, helmets can play a role in minimising injury for certain types of cycling injury. However, there are also many cycling accidents where helmets unfortunately cannot save lives. Helmets can help, but, they are not the pancea many make them out to be.

‘Helmets are designed to protect against injury whilst cycling at 12mph and falling onto the ground.’

Numbers Cycling. Compulsory helmet use does reduce the numbers cycling. Again, I’ve seen conflicting reports, but, the general consensus seems to be that compulsory helmet use does reduce numbers cycling. This reduction in cycling can have various health costs such as: increased risk of heart disease and obesity. This is  one of the biggest problem facing society. BMJ argue against compulsory helmet use because of health benefits of cycling [link]

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There is an interesting set of pictures and observations about cycling in Amersterdam at this page:

Some Features of Cycling in Amsterdam

• Nobody wears helmets.
• Often more than one person on a bike. Many bikes have been converted to trailers for children, dogs and equipment
• Bikes colourful but generally low tech, simple gear mechanisms for essentially flat roads.
• There are an estimated 800,000 bikes in Amsterdam.
• Huge range of people use bikes.

One of the most dangerous situations whilst cycling is being overtaken by a car which then immediately turns left. (note this is in UK where we drive on left in other countries it is applicable for being on right hand side.)
It creates the potential for a serious accident and many car drivers are unaware of how dangerous it is.

When car owners overtake and then signal left, the majority will be aware that a cyclist is coming on the inside and so will not turn left until the cyclist has passed. However, as a cyclist, you have to assume that the car may not wait. A certain % of cars will not see you or forget about you and so potentially could turn straight into your path. Therefore, whenever a car does this I always wait and try and go around the righthand side of the car. Yes, the car would be in the wrong, but, the only safe attitude is to assume that cars may do the wrong thing.

I’m not sure of the exact statistics, but, I think this particular issue is one of the main causes of serious accidents to cyclists. Motorists need better instruction because some seem oblivious to the potential danger. When I was learning to pass my test, this kind of thing was never mentioned. I learnt how to reverse around a corner (something I’ve never actually done in the real world) but I never got taught this kind of thing.