CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Looks like the "bicyclists" [1] are advocating training for those pesky pedestrians who are erratic, unpredictable and simply don't know the rules of the path. This "walkability" training would meant that they won't pose a danger to themselves and other, faster, path users.
Three parts, beginning with the rules. But worth following to part 3 for the full argument.
Robert
[1] I object, I'm pretty certain I'm a "heterocyclist" if anything, simply due to the variety of different bikes I ride!
A lot of what he/she complains about could be solved by cycling a bit more safely and ringing of the bell.
Ironic that his/her attitude echoes that of drivers to cyclists...
Sometimes peds can be frustrating, walking in the middle of a dual use path or wondering around left and right, no lights, headphones in.
On the cycle up Candlemaker Row this morning I got to within 10m of the top when a ped walked out onto the road - left to right. I saw him coming but did give a loud shout as I passed the him saying 'fool'!
Hmmmm.
Had the same thoughts as crowriver. Interesting that he thinks everyone on the path should act in a way that makes it quick and easy for a cyclist to get about; which really does mirror the motorist view that bikes are 'in the way' of it being quick and easy to get about.
He does pick up on stupid things that cyclists do, but I don't like the overall tone to be honest.
I do agree with some of the points, some pedestrians behave in a way that they would never behave on a road and would never expect cyclists to behave on a road either, weaving around randomly, stopping for a group chat and blocking the path, allowing dogs to run amok etc. But I don't like the ranty tone and the "get out of my way" attitude which yes, is rather familiar somehow..
Thing is, he tries to make out that shared use paths are just like roads. When they're not. There are no designated sides, or yellow lines, or lights (okay, there are some lights, but as a ped there's no obligation to obey them, and you don't find queues of single file pedestrians walking down the paths and stopping to wait in that line at any lights).
I can sort of see what he's getting at, but roads and paths are fundamentally different, and I'd have no desire to see paths become pseudo-roads.
Cycle sensibly; walk sensibly, the rest is mere detail (accounting for the fact that everyone is human once in a while).
It's undoubtedly irrelevant, but the blog is written by a she rather than a he ... and from the context I'd guess an American. Not that it affects the tone of the piece - but I have found in America that cyclists are much more likely to simply say 'on your left' and blast past you when you're on foot - something I really loathe.
As if by magic - SPOKES publish a leaflet on this very topic today:
http://www.spokes.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/1210-Users_for-web_SpWeb.v2.pdf
The original blog link is irritating: Who on earth treats footpaths as 'roads' when they're on foot??! (Also I want to walk on the water side of the path so I can look for moorhens!).
The spokes leaflet is nice - although can be summarised "be sensible".
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