Why do People Cycle on Pavements?

People complaining about other people riding bikes on pavements is not at all uncommon. However, thsi does need to be considered alongside the fact that people also frequently complain about people cyciling on roads. Apparently, one in three drivers think that cyclists should be banned from using public roads, although thats a considerably smaller proportion than the two thirds of adults in the UK who think that the roads are too dangerous to cycle on.

When people aren’t complaining about cyclists on the roads, or on the pavements they are usually either complaning about people riding bikes being too slow and holding up traffic, or for going too fast, or for riding two abreast, or not having any lights, or because they didn’t like the choice of clothing. Having considered all this the one thing that really is clear about cycling is that whatever you do people are definitely going to complain about it.

So, if you are going to be on the receiving end of a whole load of complaints anyway surely it’s better to feel safe. Ultimately it’s safety that is why peopel cycle on pavements, and the police have been recognising this for over a quarter of a century in the enforcement approach that they take towards pavement cycling.

Where there is a safe space for cycling you probably won’t see many people cycling on the pavements, but where there isn’t and the roads have either fast or heavy traffic then cycling on the pavement often becomes the only way of safely getting where you are going. There are only two places in Lancaster where you will find a separate protected cycle path by a road, and in both cases they are exceptionally short. These are outside Leisure Lakes bike shop on Penny Street, and by the bus gate on North Road. We are prepared to bet that you probably won’t see anybody cycling on the pavements in either of these two locations.

South Road did once have protected cycle lanes on it, although only for a very brief period before local politicians decided that although they support safe spaces for cycing they didn’t support these safe spaces for cycling and swiftly had the protectin removed in favour of some paint. It is hardly surprising that as soon as the protecte dcycle lane was removed and repelaced by paint the number s of peopel sysling on the pavaments increased considerably. Local Cycling UK members estimate that the change to a painted cycle lane resulted in about 10% of all cycle traffic on South Road switching from riding on the road to riding on the pavements.