Am I the only one who thinks that cycle lanes on a pavement (that’s sidewalk for some) is a very bad idea?

The latest news is that people are taking little to no exercise (what a surprise! it is a good job we have scientists to tell us this stuff – who knew!), anyway, it seems to me that one of the key factors in getting people to walk more is in having a safe and pleasant place to walk. I find that pavements (sidewalks) are getting narrower (in my opinion – I haven’t measured them all) and as traffic increases it becomes uncomfortable to walk along them. There is a pavement near me where the speed limit is 60 miles an hour and it’s pretty scary to walk along the narrow pavement – especially with lorries going past.

At the moment whenever a bike/cycle land is put in the practice seems to be to narrow the pavement (presumably because no one is using it) and stick a cycle land on it with just a white line to mark who has which side. When I drive down these roads I still have to avoid the cyclists who often choose not to use the lane (presumably they prefer not to have to go really slow to avoid pedestrians) and when I walk on the pavement there are some cyclists who DO use the lane but go so fast it scares the life out of you when they pass. Then there are those times I want to walk with my wife but the pavement is now so narrow I have to walk in the bike lane, or those places where the hedge is so overgrown I have to walk in the bike lane anyway – much to the annoyance of cyclists (sorry chaps but what am I supposed to do?).

So I have come to despise these pavements with bike lanes and don’t see them as a solution for anyone. No doubt some people get hearty pats on the back for putting them in (I assume they never have to walk along them). Let’s get serious about public health and find a proper solution where cyclists can ride pedestrian free and pedestrians don’t have to take their life into their hands just for a little exercise.

If we are going to have more cyclists and want more people to walk build proper roads with walker only pavements and build proper cycle routes/lanes!

P.S. Don’t get me started on cyclists who use pavements where there is no bike lane.