I haven’t personally ever been told to ‘get on the footpath’ whilst cycling but along with ‘stop being a tightarse’ and ‘lol get a car’ these are your stereotypical arsenal of catch cries that motorists use.

Obviously here in Australia riding on the footpath is illegal unless your a child. I’m not sure exactly what the cutoff age is but unless you’re a kid riding a Kmart Huffy, more then likely you’re breaking the law in riding on the footpath.

Having said that I’ve seen plenty of elderly people, idiots without helmets and just your everyday randoms riding on the footpaths and I don’t think anyone’s going to be fining them anytime soon.

With shared footpaths (St. Kilda Road on the Royal Botanic Gardens side springs to mind) running along streets and a lack of enforcement, it’s easy to see why some cyclists would assume it was ok to cycle on the footpath.

For all but the slowest of riders this is true. If you can do more then 15km/h on a bicycle though, footpath cycling is downright dangerous.

Recently in the UK an eighty four year old man was struck down by a cyclist, perfectly highlighting the fallacy of footpath cycling.

Darren Hall, 20, rode down a hill in Weymouth too fast he then went up on to the pavement on a blind bend to avoid a red traffic light, Dorchester Crown Court heard. Hall hit Ronald Turner in August last year. He died 13 days later.


I’ve seen idiots do this a lot down St. Kilda road which is my primary commute. Cyclists hop onto the curb a few driveways before a red light and cross against a red pedestrian crossing and then jump back onto the road a few driveways past the intersection.

I don’t know why they bother going through the red pedestrian crossing as it’s not any more legal then simply crossing the intersection in the bicycle lane against a red. I do suspect though that there’s a certain ‘haha you can’t see me I’m now a pedestrian and nobody does anything to pedestrians for crossing reds!’ mentality behind the action.

Everytime I see it (once or twice a week) I secretly hope a car comes out of nowhere and mows them down. I know it’s callous but I think a few of those types of ‘accidents’ might actually curb the practice (no pun intended).

In any case it’s just one example of why riding on the footpath should be discouraged. Nevermind the fact that Darren Hall did it on a blind corner and killed someone as a result.

Appallingly he was sentenced to just seven months jail. How does this sentence in any way serve as a deterrent for others not to take the same risk?

Granted I can appreciate Hall didn’t set out to kill anyone but the reality is every time someone hops onto the pavement at road speed there’s a giant risk to pedestrians and themselves. This risk doesn’t change and there’s nothing a cyclist can do to reduce it.

Ironically Hall also had his license suspended for 12 months, which means when he gets out he’ll have the choice of cycling, public transport or taxis to get around. Hmm gee I wonder which option he’ll take. Talk about your useless punishments.

Seven months just isn’t enough to deter this sort of behaviour and I have no idea who’s arse the sentence was pulled from. Two years still sounds like nothing granted that someone is dead but is the absolute minimum I’d like to see handed down, given that there was no intent to kill.

Meanwhile here in Australia up until recently, seven months jail seems like massive overkill compared to some of the Australian sentences. Back in 2006 William Raisin-Shaw failed to stop at a red light on Beach Road in Victoria and killed seventy seven year old James Gould. He was fined $400.

A few months ago the Victorian government introduced new laws to tackle reckless riding, the most notable being a charge of $13000 for dangerous riding and the prospect of 12 months jail. What exactly “dangerous riding” is though is anyone’s guess and as far as I know hasn’t been tested in a court of law.

Illegal footpath riding in my opinion would be a good definition of “dangerous riding”. There’s just no need for it.

Stay off the footpaths guys, the thirty seconds you save by not waiting isn’t worth killing someone over.

1. Driver gets 3 months suspended sentence for killing cyclist
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