Renewed speeding warning to cyclists on Bristol & Bath Railway Path

I ride it fairly regularly but not into Bristol everyday as I work towards Filton. However at weekends when popping into Bristol there are often problems I have even asked a bloke on a quad bike, no helmet, toddler daughter on front if he thought it was okay to ride that on the path. He didn't seem to get what my point was or so I assumed from the expletives he was spouting.

It cannot be about the cash as close to £2 million has been chucked at Hambrook and that has made absolutely no difference to the safety for the cyclists.

Earlier last week there was a comment from someone who had been hit form behind and I nearly commented to that on the basis that he had pulled over, to the right, and someone from behind had punted him off. He didn't mention about looking and signalling before manoeuvring but again we would chastise car drivers for poor drills.

Out of interest went to Bath today to go through the two tunnels 2 interesting points:

A copper stood on the bridge just as you go past the Dolphin, I can only assume he was there to view the (ab)use of the path

Going through the 2 tunnels of the dozen or so bikes we passed, in both directions none had any lights on, this is also a problem on the B>B path. Do the same people ride on the road in winter without lights?

All in all its a busy path that is not a racetrack, Strava warriors should get out and time trial if they think they are that good, otherwise just ride and enjoy the fact that even whilst pootling along you are beating the jams.

I used to go too fast along that section, but have since realised that if you're gonna go quicker than £15 then you'd be better off on the roads. However, that does leave you open to being heckled from car/van drivers that you're not using the cycle path.

That particular section is a long downhill straight, so it's asking for trouble to have it as a shared pedestrian/cyclist resource. Ideally, the cyclists will moderate their speeds and the pedestrians will keep to the correct side (and keep their dogs on the same side), but that's not going to happen in reality.

same issues up here on the Wirral with the Wirral Way and Burton Marsh. Moved on slightly (only just) from walkers shouting at cyclists for cycling on the tow path. I think education will change the perception. Fast cyclists whilst look dangerous isnt as dangerous as ones thinks, especially as pedestrians scatter often when hearing you. A more sophisticated approach would be to relax and fit in with the organised chaos.

In my opinion shared-use paths shouldn't be the only route provided for a means of actually going somewhere (as opposed to pretty countryside leisure routes that are about fresh air and scenery), unless they are very sparsely used.

If they are so heavily used that this is a problem then they are a bad choice for the route, I would say, and the blame lies with sustrans.

Also, surely the fear is for children walking along the path, not 'crossing it', as the article (oddly) says? If cycle speeds are a danger to children 'crossing' what does that say about the average motorist on the average road?

"Everyone has equal priority" rarely works - just as it doesn't on most roads.

I'm given to understand that the railway was a double track line throughout, yes? So why on earth is the tarmac only 3m wide? The ballasted right of way will have been a good 8-10m wide when in use. if it was 10m, you could have in that space a 5m wide cycleway with centre line markings, a 3m(!) footway and even a grass verge between them and still have change left over. That's clearly the answer- make it wide enough and separate the pedestrians and cyclists.

(5m wide would be positively luxurious for cycling)

To be honest the path is full of nobbers every day. I have the pleasure of using the path pretty much alone in the mornings as I start work at 6am and travel to Bristol from Bath. This situation also occurs at the school in Bitton.

To be honest the path is full of nobbers every day. I have the pleasure of using the path pretty much alone in the mornings as I start work at 6am and travel to Bristol from Bath. This situation also occurs at the school in Bitton.

The path is fine, the measures around the schools are fine (signage, flashing speedo) and in the most part even the quicker cyclists are sensible around the schools to fear of their bikes if anything.

Yes there are a few idiots but you're not going to catch them without introducing measures that will send people back onto the A4, which kind of defies the point of the path no?

Sustran's faith in shared paths seems hopelessly out of touch when it comes to cycling as transport.

People on bikes behave as badly as people in cars when there's someone lower in the pecking order to ignore or bully.*

*Edit: Without all the killing, of course.

Its time sustrans actually sorted this out, the problem is lack of tarmac not speed. For a lot of users its a high speed long distance route and it needs to look like a road. For most of its length there is available real estate to have a "footway" for people to walk on and a bit below this separated by a kerb they need a "cycleway" with white lines down the middle and direction arrows and both of these components need to be as wide or wider than the existing tarmac stripe. That way once people walking work out that if they stay above the kerb they won't get run over the whole thing will become sane again. Then is is safe for people that want to dawdle.

They need to celebrate the fact you can ride fast over a long distance on this path not reduce the speed and worth, at the moment its design is inadequate.

Specifically for the crossing point near the school, why not a pelican crossing?

I cycle the route most days in from Bath and I have to say about 10% of the cyclists are riding like total C*cks

No excuses... they are entitled d*ckheads who think they are in a race & their mad cycle skillz allow them to mow down a toddler.

I'd like to see some arrests for "wanton and furious cycling"

People moan about pedestrians being unpredicatable, but they are more predicatble at a safe speed.

Please sign the petition to eliminate advertising signs on roundabouts, which encourage accidents and are very dangerous places for cyclists.

https://petitions.southglos.gov.uk/petitions.ti/advertsonroundabout

careful chaps and chapesses... or they may put in rubbish like this every couple of hundred meters to slow people down and that would punish the many because of the stupidity of the few and also deny the use of this track to those on hand cranked trikes or tandems or towing cargo trailers or riding cargo bikes...

In Edinburgh the canal path has traffic calming measures. Perhaps this is needed, sad to say

People are people. Some are selfish ah that will drive, cycle, walk with no consideration for others. Unfortunately those ah on a bike give the majority of cyclists that use common sense and are not ruled by their strava times a bad name and might get them banned from using some popular routes, especially if UKIP got on a local council.

Ultimately all spaces are shared. Use common sense!

Disclaimer: Iamacyclistpedestrianrunnerparentdogwalker

I was riding on a different path today and when I went round the corner someone was sat down looking the other way with their dog on the other side of the path on one of the stupid extendable dog leads.

Lucky I managed to hit the breaks.

I use shared paths in Reading every day and my conclusion is that pedestrians are much less predictable than cars, if there are kids around then especially important to slow down!

I don't do Strava and don't know much about it (Luddite) but would it not be sensible for that not to be allowed on shared paths as it seems to encourage this stuff?

Mixing cyclists and pedestrians does not work. How much better the path would be if it had been made wider and cycling and pedestrians were separated. I did some voluntary work on this path back in the late 70s when it was being constructed, and have used it a lot ever since. It's definitely become worse over the years for both speeding and aggression. Maybe linke to being used by ever increasing numbers. You don't have to be going all that fast to attract a lot negative attention now. Being sworn at for politely announcing your presence to walkers strung across the path is a regular occurrence. Bells are even worse: I tried one for a while, I got 'Don't ring your effing bell at me, c**t' once, but more often scowls and 'alright, alright'.