Is cycling on the pavement ever ok? (From Oxford Mail)

Is cycling on the pavement ever ok?

4:30pm Monday 14th May 2007

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Cycling on pavements, along with jumping red lights, really is the scourge of the cycling community. It's this dangerous activity that really winds people up about cycling, whether they be a cyclist as well or a petrol head; after all, we're all pedestrians.

In the road hierarchy, pedestrians have to come first. Pedestrians are using the most ancient and sustainable form of transport and arguably one of the healthiest. Convert someone to walking and you'll convert them to a healthier lifestyle.

There was a recent case in Oxford of a lady being injured by a cyclist - this is clearly completely unacceptable. It is terrible to see someone hurt due to irresponsible cycling. Cycling on the pavement doesn't benefit anyone. The habit gives cyclists a bad name and cases such as this one worry pedestrians. It's been an offence since 1835 so you'd think we'd be used to not doing it by now.

Cycling and pavements can be a little confusing in Oxford, though. I'm not using this as any justification of the aforementioned injury; obviously this was not the case here. Some parts of Oxford have wide cycle paths which are on pavements; the ones I use the most are in Headington, but they also feature along Botley and Woodstock Roads.

Other places have small areas of cycle path on pavements, such as the bottom of Headington Hill. Police are sometimes seen cycling on pavements, so what is a cyclist to do? Cycle paths on pavements do create a new raft of problems. Where the marking is tired, you could be forgiven for assuming these are no longer legitimate cycle paths.

The way these cycle paths run straight over side roads make them dangerous. I've lost count of the number of collisions between bikes and cars that I've heard of in such a situation. Perhaps being on a cycle path gives cyclists an unjustified feeling of safety, a cloak of protection that means they tend to take more risks by cycling faster and having less regard for potential hazards. I'm sure it's not just the cyclists that are to blame, though. The rules for sharing our roads are ones of commonsense. Everyone should make sure that they are not cycling or driving in a way which could cause any harm to pedestrians.

Pedestrians should at least be able to walk around without feeling threatened by other modes of transport. But then the same is true of all transport users.

There was a worrying article recently in The Times newspaper, suggesting that women cyclists stopping at red lights were putting themselves at greater risk of serious injury or death due to collisions with lorries.

Headlines such as Stopping at red lights causes injury to female cyclists' may just be one perplexity too far for the capital's cyclists. I suppose the most important message from the report is that lorries are very dangerous to cyclists.

Their drivers have lots of blind spots - so unless you've made eye contact with the driver, never assume they've seen you. You should only ever overtake them on the right and if you can, avoid overtaking them at all

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