Pavements for people?

I thought that all new bikes had to have a bell fitted now at the point of sale?

Presumably that means that a cyclist can then remove it after purchase if they wish, but I can't imagine many people could or would bother doing that.
One exception might be serious cyclists who keep the weight of the bike to an absolute minimum, but firstly, they are highly unlikely to be using pavements or shared paths, and secondly, would always use their voice instead if they need to warn someone of their approach (including other cyclists), as the last thing they want is an accident!

barmey that’s interesting. Thank you. Pavements around here are quite narrow so not sure how they would make them shared.
Yesterday I was walking over a bridge with a very narrow pavement either side. It is a busy bridge with lots of cars driving across it at speed. A cyclist came up behind me and rang his bell. Made me jump so much I nearly fell in the road.

My DS from age of 15 used to ride his bike to school on the roads, as there were no cycle paths and occasionally I would see him when I was out driving and he looked so vulnerable it made me shudder.

He had a couple of minor accidents - knocked off his bike once by a car's wing miror and another time I had a call from the school to ask me to collect him and his bike as he'd had a fall.
His school was 10 miles away and he got travel sick on buses . I'm relieved those days are gone. He walks to work now.

Yes Doople shared pavements are becoming more common. No all have a white line painted some, as in y home town, just have a blue sign showing a pedestrian and a cyclists. Its the way forward and more and more towns and cities are using them. Mind you everyone has to be tolerant, cyclists not going to fast and using a bell to WARN they are approaching. Pedestrians should control any dogs they are walking and not take up the whole of the pavements and not be aware of who is around. e.g. on their phones, headphones on etc.

No Annodomini! Let the youngsters cycle on the pavement. The roads are too dangerous for them, and it's true what you DD says. Cyclists on roads can be a traffic hazard.

I was discussing cycling on pavements with DGS (15) last weekend. He cycles to school and, part of the time, he uses the pavement. When I objected that a silent cyclist coming up behind me would be lethal if I suddenly changed direction, he countered with the explanation that he had a bike bell. I remember the days when we all had bells on our bikes which seem to be out of fashion now. My GS is probably an exception. His mum said that if he cycled on the road he would cause a traffic hazard. Perhaps, in another year, he will emulate his sister and get a motor scooter.

I think mobility scooters should have a speed restriction on them of walking pace. People are starting to use them as their own personal form of transport whether they are in need of them or not.

Give some of 'em walking frames to try first.

Cyclists are a nightmare everywhere.
Also damn mobility scooters,my husband was knocked over by a woman on one as she was going far too fast.
Also they should have a very low speed setting.
In Tesco`s recently and a man was whizzing down the isles I told security it`s an accident awaiting to happen and he should be told,wether he was or not I don`t know.

I hold up my hands! Just re-read my posts and l admit to daring to say women are choosing to work. Okay that was ill considered words although we are, to a certain degree, in control of our lifestyle choices.

My DS is a house-husband which is still considered unusual.

I am glad our DS and DD are able to choose without undue pressure from society how they wish to live their lives.
Being able to become parents later as well as having fewer DC or none, is another freedom not shared by even my generation.

I missed that remark. Grammeretto I think you live in a parallel universe. Why do women only choose to go to work, you can no more say that than say Why do men choose to work.

The days when the members of a family had defined roles is long gone, even putting aside those many families that need 2 incomes, why should women have to choose between having a career and having children, when that is a 'freedom' that is castigated in men?

Men and women, fathers and mothers work. They also do the housework and care for the children.

Washing machines and gardens are not necessities but can be essential , but if your definition of a luxury is anything that goes beyond food and drink, then even clothes and a roof over your head count as luxuries, one man resolutely defended his right to live naked in all weathers a couple of years ago, and if he could do it clothes are clearly a luxury and a news item today has featured a mother and AC who have been living on a bench for the last 2 years in all weathers and have resolutely refused all offers of alternative accommodation.

I would also take issue with 'women choose to go out to work'. Very few families are priveliged enough to pay a mortgage on a single income.

Quite so MOnica.

How nice to live the kind of relaxed unpressured life that means a car can be a luxury. For many people no car means no money in the bank, no food on the table or roof over their heads.

Ove the last 50 years our environment has been designed around the car; supermarkets, shops, offices, factories are scattered around the edges of towns. or in special out of town developments. DD works in a big rural science park. Her journey to work is 35 minutes in her car, over 2 hours, if she uses public transport. Over 4 hours travelling between work and home each day compared with just over an hour.

With 2 working adults in most family households and with people changing jobs more often, travel patterns are now so complex that it is not possible to design public transport patterns that, for example, allows a parent to drop a child off at school, drive to work, nip out at lunchtime to do some shopping and then get home quickly in the evening.

I live in a rural area and DH and I rarely go out to just do one thing. We will go out with an itinerary that will take us into the local town centre, then out to a retail park for some DIY materials or collect something we had ordered on click and collect, calling in at the surgery to collect a prescription before taking in the Farmshop on the way home. By bus?

Village shops are a thing of the past as are house-calling doctors, village schools and even local churches. These needs cannot be met with a bus service that will probably only run 6 days a week with the last bus at 5.00pm.

Better more reliable public transport would help, but for most it will not make owning a car a luxury.

Round here there are roads where cars are allowed to bump up onto the pavement. A white line is shows how far onto the pavement the car can park. Parking is allowed like this on narrow roads so that road users can drive down them. As for cyclists, this morning driving over Kingston bridge where there is a designated cycling lane protected by a small wall, some lycra clad cyclist decided it wasn't for him and that he would use the main road instead!

Just my point, NfkD that there is no feasable public transport . There should be far more investment in planning for the future demographic.

The population is growing but it isn't skyrocketting or exploding - yet. at least not in Britain.

Women are choosing to work and to have smaller families so the population shape is changing. We have more old people, as we are living longer, and fewer young people..

I still maintain owning a car is a luxury but maybe my definition of a luxury is not the same as yours
A washing machine is a luxury too as is having a garden.

We were very lucky when we happened on our present home. 50 yards from the doctors, 250 yards from the shops and chemists, etc. But not everyone can live within walking distance of all facilities, there just isn’t room and not every disabled/elderly/mother-with-toddler is prepared to spend all his/her days stuck indoors as happened 50/60 years ago.

DD1 and her husband have jobs 75 miles apart so they live somewhere in between, but it means both have to travel daily in opposite directions with no feasible public transport. In these days of equality for women with both partners working this is quite normal.

Sorry, Grammaretto for many, if not most people a car is a necessity.

But you cannot see into the future and you may choose a house that has perfctly satisfactory when you move in - and then something changes. It could be anything. Double yellow lines, parking meters, a need to cater for someone with a disability.

The older we get, often the longer we have lived in our current homes. When we buy a property we do not know how long we will stay there and cannot look ahead and foresee changes in us, our families or traffic decisions that may be 20 years or more years in the future. It seems unreasonable to expect people to take on all the expense of moving home, (£20,000 plus), possibly leaving a home that meets their needs in every other way just because the council has installed double yellow lines or that they are not as mobile as they were.

A scooter is very limited, only holds one, usully has little space for shopping and depends on there being pavements and pedestrian paths with satisfactory surfaces and is no use for travelling 3 or 4 miles to the local supermarket or longer distances.

Grammaretto I agree that there are too many cars especially too many large cars. 4x4 drivers in particular seem to think they own the road, the pavement and parking spaces.

Just one example when on a rare trips to Waitrose yesterday I parked next to 4x4 which was blatantly astride two parking spaces.

Monica if you move house you should consider the parking implications. I would have thought that was high on anyone’s list of priorities anyway.

Re disability. Get a scooter perhaps?

Mamacaz, if you read my post properly, that is not what I said at all. I was not laughing at cyclists facing aggression and certainly the examples you gave are terrible. I have never witnessed that myself and no, I do not condone that violence. However, seems that some cyclists are happy to be aggressive towards people on the pavement and crossing the road. I was laughing about cyclists complaining as they do not seem to get that their behaviour is PART not all of the problem. I do not condone violence or aggression against anyone. I have met cyclists who have verbally abused me and one who threatened me.

For some a car is a necessity but it's true that many people want a car of their own so they have total freedom. Cycling has become increasingly popular, mobility scooters too. Add all those together and remember the population of this small country has skyrocketed. So basically we have far too many people trying to get around with different forms of transport, often in small cramped streets!

Personally I think there are far too many cars and far too many large cars.
I used to be a census enumerator and have watched the car population grow out of all proportion to the human population. Thus a house which had one car parked outside back in 1981, by 2011 had 3 or 4.
This seems quite daft to me.

Road tax ought to reflect the luxury of owning a car (or other vehicle which takes up space) and thus the money received should be spent on improving public transport, cycle paths, footpaths and restoring railways.

Is it just me thinking like this? - it seems so obvious.
Car owners - I can hear you wailing now - will say that their car isn't a luxury etc. I say it is!

Yes we have a lot of cyclists who think nothing about bombing along on the path where we are trying to walk. Despite having a cycle path next to the path I’m walking on, we also have kiddies zooming along on their scooters twirling round spinning them and stopping on an angle to talk to their parents who are quite a way behind,Cambridge is worse you nearly get mowed down trying to cross the road they stop for no one

Firstly when starting this thread I wish I had remembered the word for people on pavements i.e. pedestrians (escaped my mind completely ?).
Secondly, I don’t think I have ever seen a shared pavement (marked with a line or sign) around where I live (did see one in Ireland though). Are they common?

Yehbutnobut but what happens when you move house or develop a disability while still in your original house where previously you didn't need or own a car?