[nxkwkfhik]

Ahh the old “let’s apply rules designed for cars to bicycles” fallacy

Some of what you have said is correct but let’s make this clear: cycling across a pedestrian crossing at walking pace posses vastly less threat to human life than a car doing that would.

Fundamental physics, momentum=mv

Bicycle plus rider: 100kg

Car: 1500kg

That’s a 15x

For a comparison,

Human: 80kg

Bicycle + rider: 100kg

That’s 1.25x

If we assume that risk is proportional to momentum, then that’s an 125% increase of threat from a bicycle vs a human (running at the same speed) and 1500% increase of threat from a car vs a bicycle.

So to compare cars to bicycles doesn’t work, they pose a vastly reduced threat to human life va cars and in fact, cars pose more of a threat to cyclists than they do to pedestrians (I.e more cyclist die in car accidents that pedestrians).

[PaulRobinson]

Risk is not proportional to momentum.

It's proportional to likelihood and impact and is determined entirely by context.

Vehicles, cycles and pedestrians need segregated context to protect all of them.

The moment a bicycle is on a pavement, it increases the risk to pedestrians to an unacceptable degree, which is why it is illegal in the UK (and many other countries).

Your argument basically points out that a car on the pavement would be higher risk, but the fact that the car on the road poses a problem to cyclists on the road (which is your intent), isn't the pedestrian's problem. You're basically saying "for me to be safer, I will make others less safe". Do you realise that how that sounds to pedestrians, given bike riding is a choice in a way being a pedestrian is not? You could just walk too.

Your argument is fallacious and is rooted in the idea that cyclists' lives are more important than pedestrians. The truth is all lives are important. Yes, road usage needs to be safer for cyclists, but that doesn't mean you get to raise risks for pedestrians just because.

The law is the law.

[nxkwkfhik]

I am not saying that people should ride on pavements, I am saying that you complaining about cyclists not following the same rules as cars when they are on the road is based on fallacious reasoning.

To your straw man, as people have pointed, out there are many mixed use pathways where pedestrians and bicycles share the same path. In rural Germany it is incredibly common for cyclists and pedestrians to share a single path. Your argument that bicycles and pedestrians sharing a single path leads to unacceptable risk to pedestrians is simply not true.

Some numbers:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casua...

Per passenger mile:

~200 pedestrians killed by cars

~4 pedestrians killed by bicycles

Please don’t make assumption about my behaviour. I ride in the road and not on the pavement, but I regularly have a near-death experience.

In Germany and across norther Europe, bicycles and pedestrians share a (slightly) segregated space on the pavement and cars are in a completely separate space.