Myths and Rebuttals

I find peds really irritating sometimes but I still try and be polite.
Sometimes they are nice back...sometimes they aren't.

thegrumpybiker, imo you're an idiot! yes peds can be annoying & totally oblivious to what they are actually walking on but as a car driver has a responsibility to take extra care around more vulnerable road users as cyclists we have a responsibility to take extra care around the vulnerable users of multi-use facilities.

I've always thought that segregated cycle ways should be cyclists only. Not that I believe this will ever happen. I also think that any path where you've got less than 2m width should never have anything resembling a recommendation for cyclists to use!.

Consider myself well and truly chided.
Admittedly I've only ever been annoyed to this level by a pedestrian on a CP once, although I see and experience it on many occasions. Most of the time I do just ring my bell. Agreed it can be easy for a ped to wander onto a CP without realising it. I try to ride roads wherever possible as most cycle lanes seem to be a half arsed effort that stop without warning and are poorly maintained. Maybe it's just because I'm a cyclist that in ped mode I actually notice CPs and don't walk on them out of a) respect to cyclists and my own safety. I just wish most peds would notice and respect them too, even if they have got the right to walk on them, it just makes sense not too.

i had one with a Ped the other day (Monday) on the commute in at Cheapside (Bank)...

I could see the ped jaywalking off of the pavement (with her back to me) suddenly as I cycled up but wasn't sure what was behind me as this happened.I blew the horn fitted on my bike and the bloke who was with her dragged her back onto the pavement.

The look on his face when he saw me though was absolutely priceless.

Obviously with the sound of the horn he thought I was a car as I now have a proper car horn fitted...which has lead to me making a modification in the future and fitting the motorcycle horn on the pavement side fork for the benfit of the peds as the car horn on the right hand fork is a bit sharp.

I have had peds more then once been looking the wrong way and I have done this (when the motorcycle horns were fitted) which has been useful for the ped as they then realise that cars are coming from the same direction as me.This happened recently where the Warldorf Hotel is.(and other places)

I actually thought the horns I had fitted before were car horns but I still noticed a difference between my horns and a car horn.(They were actually motorcycle horns) By accident on ebay I ordered the wrong horn and got the car horn which is now fitted.

I take it I will get chided for this but it's a warning device more in mind fitted for the comedians in those metal boxes but if need be I would use it to warn peds.Even advance warning if I see a potential conflict.

I don't have my airzound on atm because I'm not commuting, and find that a whistle can work well with making peds look.

I'm not against using a horn on them though, but do think that it shouldn't always be a first resort.

Don't see anything wrong with using a horn if it's in genuine warning. One minor point though - pedestrians don't jaywalk in this country, because there's no offence of jaywalking. That's a piece of horibiliousness from Leftpondia.

I know,it was a figure of speech.(Jaywalking)

I'd much rather avoid a potential conflict.Remeber I have had two peds collsions so peds make me a bit twitchy as they can be unpredicatable sometimes.

I can't see me whistling...what do I whistle? Colonel Bogey?
Seriously I dont think whistling would work if I could whistle loud enough.
Shouting doesn't work for me because at the heat of the moment I shout something I shouldn't have so it's best I keep my mouth shut.

I also said I was going to do a modification as the car horn was more for motorists than peds.

Duel tone thingy,Motorbike horn pavement side car horn rh fork.

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No point,I have a horn which does a perfect job.

I don't have to use ith when near a ped...only when I see a situation developing...and generally I don't unless I have to.

Also I can't whistle half the time so that's out of the window...can't see me doing it when im out of breath.

I just use it when in an area where people are likely to jump out without looking. Certainly, if they were jumping out I'd be yelling (or use a horn if I had one later).

How ironic had a ped step off the pavement right in front of me today on inward commute..hood up looking the other way.No time to sound the horn whistle,shout write autographs.

I really think it is a problem now.Obviously nobody learns anything at school.

I think you need to now put spartan blades on your wheels, LOL! Or stick a card and peg over the wheel

Luckily I was pootling up to a red traffic signal but I wasn't covering the brakes.Had to make a grab for the front btake and stopped a few inches short.Also it was pi55ing down with rain.

All I said to ped is "you just stepped out in front of me"....I think he was ok about it so it was no problem....I haven't really got a problem with it but I think it is a bit lax with this crossing lark sometimes.

I have seen peds lying in the road after an incident with a car more than once and it doesn't tend to make my day.

Plus I got run over when I was a kid.(My own fault...I will still say that to this day)
Probably lucky to get through that one unscathed...but I did learn from it.

Yep, How often do you see people totally absorbed into their phone/mp3 player and just step out into the road? I had one of those just before christmas. On my bike at the traffic lights, which turn green, just as I pull away i have to slam the brakes on because some dozy prick was too busy texting to even look at the red "don't cross" man. I tut and roll my eyes (a very mild reaction for me) and his response; "F**k off!" My response "Fair enough, I'll watch where you're going for both of us shall I? ******."
Hopefully he'll either reflect on his actions and change his outlook or do it again and have his idiocy from removed from the gene pool forever courtesy of a double decker.

Had one today near Blackfriars,shocking....blokes girlfriend crossed over and stood in the middle of the road....perhaps due to the fact there were cars coming the other way.He stands in the bike lane in front of me looking the other way so I pootle up to him and at no time do I have my finger in the horn button....He was still unaware that I was there and as it was dodgy I was preparing to stop....then he makes a movement and gets beeped by a moton...Moton was going to fast IMHO anyway.

He miraculaously got safely to the other side.

As I said there is a real problem with the peds in London?

Are we all in so much of a hurry that we have to rush across the road and rlj whatever mode of transport we are in?

Had one today near Blackfriars,shocking....blokes girlfriend crossed over and stood in the middle of the road....perhaps due to the fact there were cars coming the other way.He stands in the bike lane in front of me looking the other way so I pootle up to him and at no time do I have my finger in the horn button....He was still unaware that I was there and as it was dodgy I was preparing to stop....then he makes a movement and gets beeped by a moton...Moton was going to fast IMHO anyway.

He miraculaously got safely to the other side.

As I said there is a real problem with the peds in London?

Are we all in so much of a hurry that we have to rush across the road and rlj whatever mode of transport we are in?

Many peds (quite rightly so) remind RLJers that the lights mean STOP, but then fail to take their own advice, walking out when the little man is red.

Another thing peds seem to do nowadays is something really counter-intuitive, i.e. look away from the direction of traffic when crossing the road.

When I was a kid, we had David Prowse in a spandex suit and Kevin Keegan, running through a well-rehearsed drill that seems to have disappeared into the vaults of history. I'm a little too young to remember the one with Alvin Stardust though.

I had a group of men in suits walk right in front of me when I had a green light a couple of months ago. A couple of them noticed and were shuffling the others across so I called out 'Tell you what boys, I'll respect the reds if you respect the greens yeah?'

They had the good grace to giggle and apologise

I was in the Tufty Club.