Like many others.
I think that’s altogether pretty much the point Spitty.
I can see that a cyclist has a problem … cycle in the road and he’s at risk from motorists … cycle on the pavement and look what happens. Not often , it’s true but one death is one too many.
As a pedestrian I sometimes now walk in the road and can’t help feeling if I caused an accident it would be my fault because I shouldn’t be there.
that does not change the legal status of cyclist vs pedestrian. One of the reasons I stopped cycling (aside from potholes and a lack of continuous cycle paths) was that I felt vulnerable as a woman with the antics of strangers on pavements. Particularly so at night. But that didn’t make me cycle on pavements and antagonise them. People have their own problems and are often in deep thought walking on pavements. As a cyclists that peace of mind should be respected and the two should never be mixed on a shared path. I’m not saying cyclists don’t have problems but the act of cycling means deep thought has to be put aside. So as a cyclist you are the more aware, the more observant of road conditions. Aware that at any point someone, maybe a child, could run out into your path. Yet I recently see an attitude that the brakes on a bike are there merely for decoration. The cycling lobby does not agree with shared paths. Councils should either create safe cycling infrastructure (that does not encroach on pedestrian routes ) or admit that they do not have the capability to do so. This situation was down to lazy planning and a misunderstanding as to where a shared path was located (on the other side of the road further west). It demonstrates that shared paths do not work and that if you create a shared path mentality, it will just confuse cyclists to think that they can cycle on any pavement. Shared paths should be banned.
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I have stated before, not even going as far as sharing space, I can come to a complete halt (whilst cycling) so there is zero chance of an altercation smile and say good day, but, that won’t satisfy some pedestrians of which I am one, big time, that is where the problem exists, perceptions, some folks are incapable of rising above them, end of.
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Or just miserable bastards of course. 
Well yes, there are a few of them on the pavements.
And the one’s truly removed from any semblance of spatial awareness , mobile phone addicts …
Note to self, stop giving unknowns so much space.
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Yes, it would, if they weren’t just being boisterous, but being deliberately aggressive and abusive to the cyclist, maybe making physical contact, to the extent that she was alarmed, backed off and fell into the traffic
Children can and do commit crime but can’t be charged if under 10
But this woman isn’t a child so she can and should be
And the judge said she knows the difference between right and wrong.
She wasn’t being boisterous, she was being deliberately aggressive, entitled and intimidating and caused an innocent woman’s death
And so it’s fitting she was tried and found guilty of manslaughter and punished accordingly
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Are pedestrians allowed on the road? No.
Cyclists are and that’s where they should stay.
Pick a time when the road’s aren’t so busy if you have to bike.
Otherwise,walk.
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Having narrowly been missed(and I mean by a couple of centimetres) by a speeding cyclist who believed that traffic lights did not apply them in Cardiff
I find myself wondering who would have been blamed if I had reacted by other than freezing.
As it was I got a load of abuse from the cyclist as she disappeared into the distance.
They now have cyclist level traffic lights on the cycle lanes in Central Cardiff.
Cyclists ignore those too!
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Does the word “some” NOT exist in biased folks vocabulary?
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Exactly. What happens if a cyclist at a junction goes through a red light, towards a pedestrian on a crossing. The pedestrian swears and waves their arms in alarm, the cyclist swerves and goes under car or bus which has gone through the green light. Whose fault is that? Both situations - cycling on a pavement and going through a red light on the road are against the law.
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I had a similar close shave recently so the bad apples are giving all cyclists a bad press. Some of the personalities you come across would put most off cycling themselves.
Goodness me! Pedestrians and motorists being upset here. There could be a long list of the times I’ve had near misses with cars and lorries due to no fault of my own as I saw it. To name but two:
Being shaved close because a driver won’t ease up for a second when overtaking and there is an oncoming vehicle.
There’s a single lane tunnel under a railway near where I live with traffic lights either end. Not possible to see any traffic coming from the other direction because of the angle of the road. The light went green at my end so I started peddling. The driver of a car coming the other way decided not to stop at their end. I nearly got hit. I clearly remember their open-mouthed look of surprise at the near miss.
SOME is a very good word to use here Spitfire. I think everyone can think of (or has experienced) cases of bad cyclists, drivers and pedestrians. Some drivers think nothing of parking across areas designated for cyclists to ride on. Some pedestrians walk on cycle paths all the time either through thoughtlessness or because some don’t see why there should be a place off the road for cyclists at all. The problems some cyclists cause is already well discussed.
I think the basic cause of problems is too many cars. A ton of metal, feet wide, responsible for damaging the road through speed and weight and mostly only containing one person. Some will contain goods or items that can’t be transported any other way but I’ll bet a fair number are just the one person. Sounds pretty bad when thinking of cars that way. There’d be more room for everyone if there weren’t so many …but there are and we have learn to cope with having lost all that space increasingly taken up by motor vehicles over the years.
There’s one point I use regularly where pedestrians and cyclists (shared path) can wait up to 5 minutes to cross the road because the stream of motor vehicles is just endless without a break. We usually have to wait for the traffic lights to be in a certain state before the stream stops and we have a window to get hastily across the road.
Most adult cyclists are drivers too. They have the fitness to leave the car at home and be one less car to join that endless stream. If all cyclists were to throw in the towel and get back into their cars due to the hate and inconsideration (either read about or personally experienced) then don’t grumble about the greater number of cars, the air pollution, the worsening condition of the roads and being in a car either creeping along or going nowhere because of increased traffic congestion.
There’s bound to be conflicts when were all trying to get about in our own ways and I’d say it’s best to try and handle situations calmly and not bear a grudge against any particular body of people for the behaviour of some. Keep that blood pressure down. 
A note to all that may not have read any of my posts over the years. My wife was knocked down by a car while she was crossing the road on a Zebra Crossing. She tried using her legs after the months of painful recovery but they were too badly damaged and she had to take to a wheelchair full time. That was 32 years ago. Some drivers eh?
We also come across cyclists where they didn’t ought to be and if you think it’s difficult getting out of the way as a pedestrian, try it in a wheelchair. Cars parked fully on the footpath too forcing me to stop traffic in the road so we can get around them. We’re actually pretty calm these situations because we don’t want to be forever angry at things that don’t go just as we’d wish them to. It’s all ‘run of the mill’ stuff for us. It might be a selfish thing to say but if we can do that, everyone else ought to be able shrug travel conflicts off as well …so there!
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I’ve not read every word so forgive me if this question has been asked before ,but,
Should all cyclists carry insurance ?
Personally I think they should as they are road users and if an accident does occur each side would be covered .
I would be interested in your thoughts
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Yes …and I do.
It costs £40 a year depending on what purpose the bike is ridden for. I pay for the ‘Commute’ plan.
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And I’m wondering if some of the support for the pedestrian is more down to dislike of cyclists, anger at some of them riding on the pavement etc
Truth to tell, I’m not always that keen on them myself
Are people sympathising with her anger and thinking in a similar situation they might have got angry too. Maybe done a bit of shouting and swearing
So, disliking cyclists they empathise with the aggressive pedestrian and not the poor cyclist.
Because in the same situation they might have got cross too and if they did would consider what happened to the cyclist in consequence an accident, not manslaughter and that the cyclist was partly responsible
Which I think is very unfair and confusing the issue. This cyclist isn’t to blame for other cyclists. She believed it was a shared pathway and she was probably right, looking at the reports. She wasn’t speeding, she kept to the right of the path and there was plenty of room for two of them
Even if you dislike some cyclist’s manners and understand why she got angry it doesn’t justify what she did and doesn’t make them fair game
Sometimes things don’t go the way we want. But whatever the provocation there’s no excuse for aggressive intimidating behaviour
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There is no way that I could answer a “Who’s to blame?” Question if presented with some of the hypothetical situations put forward on this thread since the thread title changed.
Every incident must be judged on its own merits - there is no “one size fits all” answer - the difficulty with trying to answer questions about hypothetical scenarios is that there is no real facts and details to look at in a made-up situation and if you make them up as you go along, the argument just goes on and on or ends up going round in circles.
I’m mostly a pedestrian and also a driver and an occasional cyclist.
Whatever mode of transport I use, I am still the same person - I don’t believe most people change from being considerate human beings to being selfish monsters depending on whether they are walking, cycling or driving - if a person is inconsiderate or selfish, that will probably show through whether they are on foot or on wheels.
I occasionally experience other road users acting in an inconsiderate manner - it’s not always obvious whether it’s by accident or intention, so I tend to give the benefit of the doubt as much as possible.
I think I have occasionally made a mistake and done something to inconvenience another road user without realising it at the time - but never intentionally.
I’m in favour of all road / pavement users trying to get along together and prefer to look for ways I can accommodate other road users instead of always looking to claim “my rights” and try to lay the blame for everything that annoys me onto someone else.
It’s obviously a topic that raises a lot of emotion and anger, which is why it’s good that we have an impartial and objective Justice system to look at the legal points of cases where people have been injured or killed, like the one that started this thread - getting emotionally involved tends to cloud judgement.
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Good post which raised quite a lot of points … all valid.
Add in dog walkers, joggers, pushchairs, mobility scooters and now e-scooters and that’s just pavement users … roads themelves are also nightmare.
Unfortunately, I think this tragic incident, whilst maybe not too common now, will become increasingly more common as the roads and pavments become more like bowling alleys with human skittles.
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I agree with most of that … and I can’t see that anyone on here has said or even implied that the lady cyclist was any way at fault .
She was guiltless.
But likewise it’s too glib and unsubstantiated to simply claim that people side with the pedestrian because they don’t like cyclists . …
I could just as easily say all this hatred directed toward the lady pedestrian is because people lack empathy with people with learning difficulties, or who struggle to cope in the real world … so choose to deny she has impairment and just pillory her because they support cyclists who are trying to ditch the road because it can be too dangerous and are opting for pavements … which are now also becoming too dangerous.