Keep cyclists on the roads
Originally posted by Peter Inson at 06:22, April 29 2013
In urban areas pedestrians walk at a maximum of about three miles an hour, cyclists ride at around twelve miles an hour and motorists at little more than twenty miles per hour. In London vehicle speed is about ten miles an hour, a speed which cyclists can easily match.
Relative speed is my point. Joining a motorway and other motorists from a slip road is easiet when your speed matches the speed of any vehicles approaching you in the slow lane of the motorway, the lane that you are about to enter.
Where cyclists are required to ride alongside pedestrians, or cross their paths, the difference in their speeds makes the operation potentially dangerous for the cylist is most likely to be travelling at least three times faster than a pedestrian. Slowed to three miles an hour a bike becomes less steady and more difficult to steer, while pedestirans, moving at far lower speeds, can change direction far more suddenly than cyclists and motorists.
On urban roads the speeds of bikes and cars are more equal and that is where cyclists should remain.
Finally, if riding on urban roads is so dangerous that cyclists are to be encouraged onto the pavement, why not deal with the dangers on the road, mostly the result of carelessness or indifference to the safety of others?