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Cyclists and horses (licensed CC BY SA 2.0 on Flickr by Michael Podger)Horse riders' demands delay cycling reforms
Horse riders are getting in the way of cycling reform as they demand to be included in a blueprint for cycling.
More than 1,500 equestrians have written to the Department for Transport asking that they should not be banned from cycle lanes, which will be protected by wider segregation from traffic.
They say these horse and cycle lanes should be made of softer materials, which would be better for horses’ hooves, but slow down cyclists.
They also want the Highway Code to be rewritten to drop guidance that says riders “should not take a horse on to a cycle track”, according to the Sunday Times.
The DfT is now having to respond to these requests, delaying the cycling blueprint yet further.
The British Horse Society is behind the campaign, running a template letter on its website, which has led to nearly half of the cycling blueprint consultation responses being dominated by horse riders.
The society’s letter said that “routes being developed for walking and cyclists” should be “made available for equestrian use”.
It stated that 4,052 horse riders were admitted to hospital after being injured in 2013/14 compared with 2,820 cyclists.
It added that: “It seems strange that the government does not want to achieve the same for equestrians at the same time.”
Ralph Smyth, head of infrastructure at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “Investing in safer horse riding won’t increase productivity in the way safer cycling can, such as by helping people get in and out of our increasingly gridlocked market towns. But it shouldn’t be difficult to ensure all riders can benefit from giving rural areas their fair share of the nation’s resources.”
Mark Weston, director of access at the British Horse Society, said: “Equestrians desperately need safe provision for the same reasons as walkers and cyclists: many roads are no longer safe due to the speed and volume of traffic.”
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48 comments
This came up about ten years ago in the Bath area, with BHS pushing heavily to share the Bristol Bath path, and since the leader of the council was a horsey type, they allowed a trial. They didn't bother consulting any of the path's existing users, and when they found out, they weren't all that happy, so the council organised an emergency hearing to listen to the objectors. The BHS had about a month to prepare, while the cyclists were given a week.
Incredibly, one of the council's own staff had been killed by a horse the previous year while riding his bike, and when I pointed that out in my address, I was called disgraceful by a windbag of a councillor. The BHS referred to a report done by a university investigating conflict between horse and bicycle riders on bridle paths, and it found none, but the researchers didn't actually witness a single horse/bicycle passing incident, instead relying solely on a few interviews with users.
The trial went ahead, but was judged a failure and access to horses was withdrawn.
A lot of cycling, especially out of towns is for leisure use but a significant amount, especially in urban areas is for actually getting to places, whether that be work, the shops, leisure facilities or what have you. With the exception of Police horses surely virtually all horse traffic is for leisure use? It is and always will be a minority leisure activity and should be treated as such...
Why not convert a section of all car parks to accommodate horses, just put a couple of poles across the bays & and people could tie them up and go to work. Parent & child spaces could be used for people with carriages (for those who currently car share). Petrol stations could diversify and sell hay & oats.
Why you don't want to encourage horses as a form of urban transport. Been there done that not pleasant.
http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Great-Horse-Manure...
From this we can infer that people would rather wade through shit, literally, than ride bicycles.
This is somewhat confused reporting; are we talking about cycle paths or cycle lanes? Cycle lanes are not generally wide enough for a horse (they're often not wide enough for a bike) and it's also unusual to find horses ridden alongside urban traffic, which is where cycle lanes tend to be. And what about those "cycle lanes" which are actually a shared pavement?
Cycle paths out in rural areas, away from roads, could be made shareable, but it would depend on finding a compromise surface – not too difficult as long as we don't expect to go too fast or on skinny tyres and equestrians don't demand something like a field or muddy bridleway; in fact many such paths already are shared, often with a gravelly bound-type surface.
"cycle lanes, which will be protected by wider segregation from traffic.".
So in towns and cities, that's cycle tracks as we're starting to become familiar with in London. Out in more rural areas, and which probably interests them more, look at things such as the new (and quite good) cycling routes that have been built parallel to the A23 as it was widened.
Image via Mark Treasure. https://twitter.com/aseasyasriding/status/790188421759246337
As far as the surface goes, all it takes is about 6 months of persistent dumping to turn even the shiniest shared-use tarmac into a turdy, slippy mess unrecognisable as tarmac. Equestrian types know this and are merely seeking permission to helpfully cover new cycle lanes in their special brand of carpet.
This is silly, horses can't ride bikes.
I empathise with equestrians but unpaved cycle facilities are impractical for utility cycling. If equestrians get their way the result won't be cycle paths, but bridalways that leisure cyclists can share in fair weather.
In urban areas, cycle paths built to get people from home to shops, or schools, or work - no. They should be asphalt only, designed like a road, with the express purpose of getting people around. But around the countryside I have no problems with equestrian requests for softer surfaces. I've never, ever had a problem with anybody on a horse - they're our friends, they're on our side. Yes, some bridleways can get into a pretty awful condition, but that isn't their fault, just as a road covered in potholes isn't the motorists' fault. You can't blame road users for poor maintenance.
That said, I've never come across a cycle path anywhere that's wide enough for everyone. All the ones around Manchester and Cheshire seem to be 3-4m wide, even on old railways. That's fine on a cold, rainy day when everyone is at home, but on a sunny weekend you can forget cycling with freedom on anything like that, because every man and his dog/child is out there walking in entirely random directions somehow managing to take up the entire path no matter how wide it is. Old railways should be resurfaced to their old widths - for two trains. 3-4m just doesn't cut it.
You've hit it on the head here, it's all about designing to purpose. Urban routes need good surfaces for getting people where they want to go.
Out of town, a well packed gravel base with fine gravel topping (self binding, so we don't end up with marbles on marbles) can be equally well used by 4 legged and 2 wheeled users, BUT, those with ultra skinny wheels might prefer to stick to asphalt.
Lots of the commuter cycle routes near me are also open to horse riders. The big issue is they need regular scraping and rolling to keep it in good condition. The problems we get are the horse riders that ignore the "no riding" signs on some of the routes, and they are thereforenot maintained as often as it shouldn't need it, so horses churning up the top layer (especially on the hills) make it hard for the many commuter cyclists to make the top of some of the short sharp climbs.
You know, some of us country types would also prefer not to commute on churned up horse toilets. I never have understood why dog owners are told to carry plastic bags, but horse owners are allowed to leave steaming piles everywhere.
As for 'horse riders are our friends'. The other one has bells on.
Tyres on my (full-suspended) recumbent are 40mm but up at 90psi, even fine gravel ain't great, and surely the whole point is it's an alternative/faster/safer route than some of the tarmac around...again, fitness for purpose, recumbents generally don't run mtb rubber...
There seem to be conflicting demands. cyclists want flat smooth surface kept clear. equestrians want soft surfaces that horses can crap on. these things are mutually exclusive.
Yes, call for more bridleways, but don't say you want access to cycle lanes and please make hem not fit for cycling in the mean time.
I'd like to see the numbers on equestrian injuries if the really are greater than cyclists, are the caused by other vehicles?
I'm quite happy to share cycle routes with horses, it's their riders I have issues with. A local cycle track becomes unusable in autumn/winter because the owners/riders don't reshoe their horses with soft surface sheoe and the hard surface shoes destroy the path so that neither cyclists or pesestrians can use it
Soft surface shoes? The only shose I know of (or that my riding instructor and farrier friends know of) for soft surfaces are those with added studs for grip. Not sure that would help preserve the path...
They already exist. They are called bridleways, and yes we need more of them, many more.
As for roads. Horse riders, ramblers and runners are our friends when it comes to displacing the car from our country lanes.
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