UCL seeks feedback on shared use paths

horizontal dropout wrote:

Oh dear, so many haters, sounds like the Daily Mail.

"they dont have a fking clue"

I'd say they have been pretty successful judging by the number of people out on bikes and walking who probably wouldn't otherwise. There are hundreds of people on one near me going to and from schools. That's a huge amount of school run avoided. There are plenty of commuters as well and it can get a bit crowded and slow in place but we don't seem to suffer from bike rage like some here do.

"who would ever ride 90% on shared paths"

Again judging from some around here I'd say quite a few. All the parents and children going to and from school in the week, and at the weekend loads of people out for a family ride.

"people with prams weaving between the ped and cycle halfs"

I haven't fully got to the bottom of it but it looks like many shared segregated paths are created from a footpath. Half the path is converted to allow cycle use but that conversion doesn't disallow pedestrian use, i.e. people can walk anywhere. There may be some newer ones which have been created to disallow walking on the cycle half.

"depending how much of a fuckwit"

Not much to say about people using Sustrans routes with this sort of attitude.

I'll have a go at it even if it is a bit tedious. If Sustrans can get the information they can hopefully steer their designs in future to iron out some of the conflicts. So, big up to those who did manage to complete it. It will be interesting to see what walkers feel about "fuckwits" on bikes.

Unrelated but there's a move to create a new type of Right of Way (eg footpaths, bridleways etc) which is a Cycle Way. Currently if a footpath is converted for cycle use it disappears from the Rights of Way map because it is no longer one of the defined types of rights of way.

Selective quoting is uncool. I could explain further, if you'd care to ask.

horizontal dropout wrote:

I haven't fully got to the bottom of it but it looks like many shared segregated paths are created from a footpath. Half the path is converted to allow cycle use but that conversion doesn't disallow pedestrian use, i.e. people can walk anywhere. There may be some newer ones which have been created to disallow walking on the cycle half.

But if there is no such requirement/obligation for pedestrians to avoid the cycling side  then what's the f-ing point?

brooksby wrote:

horizontal dropout wrote:

I haven't fully got to the bottom of it but it looks like many shared segregated paths are created from a footpath. Half the path is converted to allow cycle use but that conversion doesn't disallow pedestrian use, i.e. people can walk anywhere. There may be some newer ones which have been created to disallow walking on the cycle half.

But if there is no such requirement/obligation for pedestrians to avoid the cycling side  then what's the f-ing point?

It means you can cycle along it.

horizontal dropout wrote:

brooksby wrote:

horizontal dropout wrote:

I haven't fully got to the bottom of it but it looks like many shared segregated paths are created from a footpath. Half the path is converted to allow cycle use but that conversion doesn't disallow pedestrian use, i.e. people can walk anywhere. There may be some newer ones which have been created to disallow walking on the cycle half.

But if there is no such requirement/obligation for pedestrians to avoid the cycling side  then what's the f-ing point?

It means you can cycle along it.

But I mean why bother segregating it? If pedestrians can just wander all over then it's no different from unsegregated shared space. Which is often a bit rubbish.

Sven Van Anders wrote:

13 miles of my 14 mile wizz to work is on shared cycle paths (Dorset: Spetisbury to Hinton St Mary on North Dorset Trailway). It is absolutely spot-on from begining to end. There is high speed tarmac, deep slidy gravel, lumps and bumps to get air a la  Zdenek Stybar, super views of sun rise/sets, river, ancient hill forts etc. dog turds to bunny-hop, wildlife interest of barn owls, hobbys, badgers deer, lapwing.

it is 140 miles a week of bliss when I might only ride 140 miles in the week.

It is 80% of why I persist at my crap job.

I am truely grateful for the money that has been lavished on it.

Thank you for recommending this one - I hadn't noticed it before. Any gotchas to watch for? (Other than the dog eggs)

ashliejay wrote:

Part of my commute is on a shared path... and then there's the path surface, as the ped half  perfectly smooth no bumps, man hole covers,  the cycle half, pot holes, rougher than a gravel track, lumps, bumps, man holes, and even some of the bumps are big enough to get some air off of them.
 

If it has two separate halves, it's not a shared just path, it is a segregated path - not that that will concern the vast majority of pedestrians.

Quite a large proportion of my commute is on shared and segregated paths. I chose my route because I am scared by how little filtering through traffic scares me.

Things that annoy me about shared and segregated paths (in no particular order)
* If it is a segregated path, the vast majority of pedestrians will choose to walk on the cycle side.
* Dog walkers, especially those with retractable leads.
* The overgrown plants that obstruct half of the path.
* The overgrown plants that will take your head off.
* The completely unsuitable surfaces.
* The barriers which often require to dismount and are impassable by anything later than a regular bike.
* Pedestrians that are incapable of walking single file with the person in front of them.
* People who walk/cycle in the middle of the path, oblivious to anyone who might want to pass.

I could go on.

jh27 wrote:

ashliejay wrote:

Part of my commute is on a shared path... and then there's the path surface, as the ped half  perfectly smooth no bumps, man hole covers,  the cycle half, pot holes, rougher than a gravel track, lumps, bumps, man holes, and even some of the bumps are big enough to get some air off of them.
 

If it has two separate halves, it's not a shared just path, it is a segregated path - not that that will concern the vast majority of pedestrians. Quite a large proportion of my commute is on shared and segregated paths. I chose my route because I am scared by how little filtering through traffic scares me. Things that annoy me about shared and segregated paths (in no particular order) * If it is a segregated path, the vast majority of pedestrians will choose to walk on the cycle side. shout at them*

Dog walkers, especially those with retractable leads.  shout at them*

The overgrown plants that obstruct half of the path. * The overgrown plants that will take your head off. * The completely unsuitable surfaces. * The barriers which often require to dismount and are impassable by anything later than a regular bike.

* Pedestrians that are incapable of walking single file with the person in front of them. shout at them*

People who walk/cycle in the middle of the path, oblivious to anyone who might want to pass shout at them.

I could go on.

When I say shout at them, I mean give them an audible warning, "on your right", "on your left" or "bike" depending how much of a fuckwit they appear to be.

I'm always surprised at the number of cylists who don't advise pedestrians that they're there, I'm equally surprised by the number of peds who acknowledge my audible warnings with a wave or a thanks.

You'll just be left with the pure cocks to deal with, but they're going to be cocks wherever they are, so have a rant at them and move on. Think about it, you'll even find cocks knocking around here.

EDIT: Bizarrely the only person I've actually hit on the shared path was another cyclist. He overtook a couple of peds, who were also on the left, directly into my path. He was hit by left shoulder and responded by saying that I was moving too quickly. Cock of the highest order.

spinner98 wrote:

Dumbest survey ever, the videos were literally all identical, the questions at the beginning were ridiculous, like who would ever ride 90% on shared paths. Such a tedious and boring survey, gave up 50% of the way through. Which bright spark at UCL decided that this would be a good survey, who has like 15minutes to complete a survey?

I imagine that doubling-and tripling- up the videos was an attempt to get a better feel for what people really thought; they could average out the results. But it was really REALLY tedious.

zanf wrote:

they always seem to put massive stupid barriers that the entrances to these paths that effectively bar their use by disabled, recumbant and cargo bike cyclists.

Funny - Sustrans will tell you the council insist on putting them in, the council will tell you Sustrans insist on them...

They're to stop antisocial behaviour by motorcycle-riding yobs - as you say they're a barrier to cargo bikes, trailers, recumbents, mountain bikes... Strangely though the group they're trying to stop are rarely inconvenienced.