The best place to cycle - the open road
A cycle path - part of the National Cycle Network
The Senior Cyclist
Where should I ride my bicycle?
In many parts of the country, the cyclist pottering perfectly legitimately along the road is liable to have a vehicle (as often as not a white transit van) pass him with an irate person leaning out of the window shouting something along the lines of "Get off the beeping road!" This can lead the beginner or less confident cyclist to wonder whether he or she has any right to be cycling on the road. Many motorists have no doubt at all - cyclists should get off the road and on to the cycle path / cycle track / pavement or anywhere out of the way of "proper" road users. They will tell us that we don't pay "Road Tax" (actually, neither do they) and that we don't have a licence to be on the road (of course we don't, the only road users who require a licence are motorists).
The facts are these:-
- You may ride your bicycle on any public road or highway unless there is a specific restriction preventing you from doing so (in practice, this is pretty well limited to motorways). You must obey the laws governing vehicular use of the roads and the guidance set out in the Highway Code (some of which is specific to bicycles). For example, you must obey traffic lights, road markings and road signs and you must act as instructed by a policeman or traffic warden.
- You may ride your bicycle within a designated cycle lane, but you do not have to do so if you do not wish to. For example, if the cycle lane is full of broken glass, or has uneven or sunken drainage gullies in it, or is (in your judgement) too narrow, or is simply heading somewhere you don't want to go, you can ignore it.
- You may ride your bicycle on any designated cycle path (indicated by white-on-blue signs and cycle pictograms on the pavement). These are either single-use or shared-use (i.e., shared with pedestrians.) My own preference is to avoid these things like the plague, because they often appear to have been designed by morons on hallucogenic drugs. In a few cases, however, they may offer safe and sensible alternatives to dangerous junctions or stretches of road.
- You may ride your bicycle along any of the many cycle routes set up and maintained by local authorities or by Sustrans, the national cycle charity. Many of these routes are excellent, but be aware that some have stretches of pretty rough track not well suited to narrow tired road bikes and that the signage can at times be difficult to follow.
- Off-road cycling is less clear cut. In Scotland, following the passage of the Land Reform Act, it is now permissible to ride your bicycle on more or less any land to which you can gain access and which is not under crops, close to anybody's place of residence, or otherwise clearly unsuitable (visit www.outdooraccess-scotland.com for details). In England and Wales the position at present is different and it is wise to check locally with the Council or cycling organisations to discover suitable off-road routes.
- You may not ride your bicycle on the pavement. The only exceptions are stretches of pavement designated as cycle paths (indicated by white-on-blue signs and cycle pictograms on the pavement). You may see cyclists in large towns and cities who hop up on to the pavement to cycle round traffic lights or to dodge tricky road junctions. This is illegal, selfish and dangerous and we should not do it.