Growing culture of pavement cycling

The intimidation of pedestrians by inconsiderate, fast-moving cyclists is becoming an increasing problem, and I understand the Bonds’ concern only too well, having been surprised by bikes coming up behind me as a pedestrian on several occasions.

As a regular cyclist, and member of the local Cycleways group, I and the members of Cycleways deplore such irresponsible behaviour. This is why we campaign for safe cycle routes in Warwick District so that people have no excuse for cycling on pavements. National guidelines for cycle routes are for cyclists to be on cycle lanes on the carriageway, or on separate cycle tracks. Unfortunately, several of the limited number of cycle routes designated by the council involve stretches of shared use by pedestrians and cyclists, which creates obvious problems for both users, and I think this has contributed to the increased cycling on pavements where cycling is illegal. A culture has grown up that sees pavement cycling as “normal”.

How to challenge this is a difficult problem. Education can play a part, but without the expenditure of large amounts of police time, I think the only solution in some areas is to put physical barriers to make it difficult for cyclists, but still usable for pedestrians,including buggies and disabled scooters. I don’t know how feasible this would be, but it might be worth exploring. This is certainly a problem that the council should be keen to solve before anyone else is seriously injured by pavement cyclists - Julie Bradley, Cycleways member, Ennerdale Close, Leamington.