ukdodger wrote:So how many motorcycles have you ever come across?
Are you really speaking up for those who these barriers supposedly keep out or is that your own (and others here) annoyance of them leads you to believe that all users must obviously feel the same way. What about other path users who also dont want M/C's causing them an inconvenience. I seriously doubt walkers have any problem at all with them and they may indeed welcome them because they think they keep us out too. You'd have to be one brick short of a pile to take a mobility scooter on the C2C and much of it is impossible to get a trike over even without barriers.
Frankly if you think that allocating space for motorcyclists to play nicely somewhere else will stop illegal entry onto these paths you've more faith in human nature than I have. Skateboard parks did nothing to stop skateboarders doing it where they please and youth clubs never did stop kids collecting on street corners. Part of the fun is doing because you arent supposed too. The idea that the police are going to arrive and trash some riders M/C is fanciful. It would cost far too much to police these paths that way and yes maybe it is a sticking plaster rather than a solution but I say again everybody cant be catered for and it's better than nothing.
The only place I have encountered motorcycles on cycle paths is in places where there are barriers. I have never encountered motorcycles on the paths where there aren't barriers. It is scary and dangerous to encounter them. But the barriers obviously don't help. Or maybe only Essex motorcyclists think they are a challenge to target
TBH, if they actually stopped motorcycles from accessing the paths, I could almost understand it.
And I'm not suggesting that having a safe and legal place for young motorcyclists to ride will stop all illegal motorcycling. But it will stop casual offenders, and leave it to those who are deliberately setting out to do something illegal and anti-social, rather than just wanting a place to ride.
People used to say that it wasn't possible for the police to enforce laws against drink driving. That it was 'fanciful' to expect the police to do anything about it unless someone had a crash. If that can change, so can this.
I realize that police currently do not set illegal motorcycling as a high priority in most areas. But they deal with it quickly enough when illegal motorcycling occurs in a national park, or on someone's estate, or when people have been killed or injured. Google for 'illegal motorcycling bikes seized' or 'police seize mini motos'. Some councils have videoed having the bikes crushed, then published them on YouTube to discourage offenders.
And I'm sure that some users do welcome barriers. But, I spoke to people in Essex about these things, and only a tiny minority of people actually wanted them. What I found was that when I asked people about them, I was regaled with stories about pensioners being rescued from them. Not just a few people, either. Anything from wheeled shopping bags to mobility scooters stuck in them.
I do realise that not many people hate them as passionately as I do, but I don't think that it is possible to cycle with children in the UK without developing a passionate hatred for these things. And IMO, our cycle paths should be designed for the most vulnerable users; the very people they curently exclude.
Why aren't barriers like this required in other countries? I have never seen them in the USA, Norway, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, Denmark, or any other place I've cycled. Only in the UK.