The child, the bike and the two dog walkers

Yes Terri agree with some of what you said. But my experience has been that I ring my bell constantly from a distance, slow down and wait for them to move to give me enough room to get by but often they don't move, even young couples and I then shout bike or if its safe ride up onto the grass verge. I have also found that during this time of lockdown kids have been excellent when out on scooters or bikes and stop and allow me to pass at a safe distance. I also wear a black mask and with my sunglasses on must look like a bank robber so people move away from me pretty quickly. This with the child was an accident but I do think the couple behaved badly especially kicking the bike.

I wear hearing aids, and never hear bells on bikes when out walking.

Hear hear Terri.

I Meant also to add, I don't think riding up right behind a pedestrian and ringing a bell should be an automatic pre cursor for them to immediately jump out of the way, they may be deaf/hard of hearing, disabled, engrossed in something else

I don't know, cyclists often moan about motorists not giving them a wide enough berth and intimidating them with careless driving and then there are a minority, particularly of the lycra clad variety who do the same to pedestrians. I paths in parks, particularly in my area are a dual cyclist/pedestrians thoroughfare. This was a narrow path though and taking into account the factors of the child being less than proficient on the bike, the importance of social distancing those therefore are two reasons why the father should have told the child to get off the bike rather than forcing her way through the middle, no doubt due to the fact, as a novice she wasn't fully in control. Just looks such bad manners, she is being taught nothing about consideration for other people. I would have picked her up, but I'd have been damn annoyed with the parents if I'd been one of those two people.

The child was ringing their bell so that should have been a signal to the couple walking two a breast that someone on a bike was coming up behind them. They should have moved into single file. Saying that it would have been far better for the child to gain confidence on their bike in a park or somewhere with a bit more space. Also to those moaning about cyclist on footpaths please be aware that many footpaths are now for dual use which I regularly cycle on.

nansnet was it really an accident? It was completely avoidable.

In that situation, I would have kicked the bike ( or at least hit it with my walking stick). I would have been frightened at how near I’d come to falling and maybe injuring myself and ending up in hospital. The parents behaviour was beyond appalling and they are bringing up a little madam.

I agree, Daisymae. If I were the father, my immediate response would've been to shout 'stop' and, also, as she obviously isn't an experienced cyclist, to run after the child and pull her to a halt before reaching the couple. If I were the couple, my immediate response would've been to bend down and pick up the child to make sure she wasn't hurt. As the father, I would also have apologized to the couple. Accidents happen. The father was wrong to blame the couple, and the guy shouldn't have kicked the bike.

When I used to take my dog out for a walk I gave child bike riders a wide berth and tried to keep my dog away from them. The child's father lost a chance to teach the bike child good manners.

Walkers and their dogs are more vulnerable than hard metal bikes. Like 'steam give way to sail' so should bikers give way to walkers. It's elementary good manners.

We had a similar scenario the other day, we were walking unaware that a young girl (8) was behind us on her bike. We had to get out of the way sharpish as she overtook us, only for her to swerve in front of us into the drive of her house. Realised it was a neighbour.
We didn’t have a dog but her father (policeman) did, he was behind with the dog. Nothing was said, though he must have seen us having to leap out of her way. To our credit we didn’t kick the bike or the dog.

As well as allowing their child to ride into two people, the mother didn't go to console her child, or attempt to calm the situation down, she continued filming. What is it with people who film any incident rather than doing something useful? Especially if you're directly involved. She must have had an eye to selling the vid to a newspaper (and she obviously did exactly that)

The one word that I didn't hear was 'stop' which would have avoided all of this!

Coming back to the thread, I forgot to factor in the point of social distancing dominating our lives that Iam has made and yes, remiss of the father to allow his child to get so close to others at the moment.

Whilst I remember the seminal moment when children get the hang of a two wheeler, I wouldn't have trusted mine on a narrow pathway, particularly with two pedestrians up ahead and to me, there is something quite rude about ringing a bell right behind people and expecting an immediate "Red Sea parting scenario" I feel it is incumbent on the parent to imbue the child with some consideration for those around them. I remember picking up my grandson on occasions from nursery a couple of years ago, and finding his mother allowed him to ride his micro scooter there and back every day, again, like bikes best in wide open spaces for one so young. I felt nervous trying to keep up behind him, but he did manage to negotiate himself around the occasional pedestrian fairly well. They can be hazardous enough on pavements but I hate seeing kids on them in supermarkets an inappropriate place imo.

In conclusion I still think seeing the child trying to force herself through the middle of the dog walkers, dangerous and extremely bad manners.

Six of one and half a dozen of the other. There was no need to kick the little girl’s bike nor be so mean spirited about it even if she was in the wrong. Miserable gits.

Yes this confused me too. Children do fall of bikes when they ride into things (or people). That doesn't make them a victim. She is not being taught manners. Hate to think what her father is like behind the wheel of a car.
She is going to grow into one of those cyclists that thinks that people should leap out of their way on tow paths when they are just having a peacefull stroll along a canal.

Just looked this up; riding a bike on a footpath has the penalty of a fine of £30, that's from a law of 1838! It actually refers to 'riding' so covers horses as well . How many times are fines issued? Perhaps more should be issued to stop the Lycra clad ones?

A little bit of tolerance from all sides wouldn’t go amiss

My son got knocked off his bike and sent flying into a ditch by a dog who was ‘just being friendly’. We didn’t kick the dog.

Well I got knocked off my bike by a effing mobility scooter that Went straight at me out of a side road

Ellanvannin I know you did

This may be that rare thing on gransnet, an outbreak of agreement.
I saw the video, the accompanying article seemed slanted to criticise the dog walkers. I agree, kicking a child’s bike isn’t on but, her father should have called for her to stop and wait for him. No social distancing would have infuriated me.
We have stopped walking in many of our favourite places because of the risks the increased number of groups of mountain bike riders pose.
They ride in groups, never shout or ring a bell, they just whizz past missing you be centimetres. Darent let a dog run free, in case the dog is run over, grumble grumble

Not very good parenting skills. A child of that age is very unlikely to be safe on a bike, unless in a large open space and possibly with an adult alongside. You don't shout instructions from a distance when a kid is approaching danger, you don't shout excuse me or encourage a small child to think that ringing a bell at someone's back, or anything else, is going to turn out well. Approaching anyone or anything on a bike is fraught with danger because unless someone sees you and acknowledges you, they only have to move slightly one way or another and everyone goes down in a heap. Very surprising someone wasn't injured. Parent needed to feel very bad both for the walkers and his poor judgement.

Father is wrong. My children walked their bikes to the park until they were safe/proficient enough to cycle there.

They learnt to use their breaks in the park and were not allowed to cycle anywhere near others until they had that and other key safety skills

May7, I already included adults.