Residents oppose Quietway through East London Park

I did wonder about the veracity of the eight year old with a broken leg, but it turns out to be mostly true.

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/mums_want_speeding_cyclists_b...

Shared paths are a nusiance. Sometimes handy, but a nusiance as you have two conflicting groups. You have cyclists who for the most part behave like "traffic" i.e. they move in a predictable manner and direction (unless you know being garrotted by wiretraps or punctures from thumbtacks), but pedestrians wander (and quite rightly so, they have no rules on them no expectation) so people meandering around meandering people doing near similiar speeds it isn't too much of an issue but you then put cyclists moving more directly and at higher speeds you end up with conflict.

Where the paths do have an element of segregation (solid whoile line down the middle) it isn't really helped as while the cyclist must stay on their side pedestrains are free to wander across both sections.

Moreover there does seem to be a lot of people who don't like "other people" using their park. From people objecting to cyclists, to banning parkrun, surely anything that encourages people to be active is a good thing.

8 year old kids often move erratically on paths, wandering from one side to the other with no warning. I'm not surprised that a cyclist knocked one over. I've accidentally knocked kids over when walking, but when their head is about knee height, it can be hard to see them running through a crowd. One of the worst things about being over 6ft.

Essentially, accidents happen, especially with children. Adults are also just as bad. There are a few shared use paths near me, where you can see pedestrians for a good 200m or so, and most cant stay to one side of the path. They dont even need headphones on to be oblivious to a loud bell, or even an old-fashioned horn (my dads bike).

The dutch have it right, with segregated paths between cyclists, pedestrians and cars. None of them mix very well, so best to separate them.

Meanwhile...

this evening's news..."25 years ago childhood diabetes was unknown. No more, as it is now linked to the obesity epidemic".

people have limbs amputated due to this. The NHS is over.....you know the rest...

On and on it goes.

Dutch (primary) children cycling to school?      ...50%+...

How many in the UK....?   

etc..

Time to get those council departments in health transport environment finance and just about everything else, and bang their heads together.

You shouldn't really need to consult for the modern equivalent of putting a sewage pipe underground in a time of cholera. 

I swear in Flemish, I'm ashamed to admit that swearwords are all I can remember from childhood holidays at my grandparents in Flanders.

It seems to be a depressingly British disease. Far easier to get a bunch of NIMBYs together to be against something rather than go to the hard work and effort of finding a solution or creating something positive. My local high street for example is a retail wasteland of empty shop units partly due to the "Don't like it, don't want it" brigade who oppose any and all proposed change of use by people who are willing to risk their own money time and effort to create a viable business.

Too many people with no vision, no ambition and narrow selfish perspective, but unfortunately with enough time on their hands to get organised and get representation for their views.

Oh and bluebug above of course isn't helping with his horseshit about foreigners.

All London parks get some antisocial behaviour. With cycling, some of that seems to be the current obsession with riding around with one wheel in the air (the bikelife/storm/whatever). When it comes to cycling, your average friends of group can't be bother to tell the difference between that and people just getting about. It isn't interested in the idea that greater everyday cycling discourages anti-social behaviour.  All they can see is something they don't like and they'd rather just ban it.

Friends of [insert name here] Park, criticise cycling. Same story everywhere. I have literally never encountered or heard of a "friends of" group anywhere that didn't fall into this pattern. Even some of the Richmond friends obsession with one particular type of litter probably has something to do with the Quietway route. Southwark Park friends managed to get a ridiculious barrier put up that actually blocked many disabled cyclists on the only safe route to the park. I could go on, they're all like this.

If you have one locally, you can consider reminding  them to represent you and the things you support (which is actually their job). If this is blatently ignored, contact the park management to point out that they aren't representing all views and should be treated as such. 

I'd also quite like to see the LCC do that occasionally, but they seem to be rather good at shaking hangs with people who repeatedly criticise and undermine cycling.

Bluebug:

How do you know they are swearing, or do you happen to know lots of swear words in lots of languages?  And, why do you force them to stop completely? 

"There are plenty of alternative routes for the cyclists " - like, er, the busy roads that the Quietway is trying to avoid? I do hope that Alison Nicholls puts as much effort into campaigning about motor traffic, because I'd bet my left kidney that way more than one eight year old's arm has been hurt around there.

"Won't somebody think of the children!?"

I've just seen a bus doing at least 35 down my road in a 20mph zone.  We should ban buses round here.