Is it not time the law came down hard on cyclists and made them wear reflective vests and display lights at all times after dark,also ban them from pavement riding and then all of a sudden swerving off the pavement into the traffic flow,i drive a car,ride a motorcycle and ride a push bike(not all at once) so i am looking at this problem from all angles and am not biased against cyclists like a lot of motorists.

Come on all you cyclists,i would have liked a reply to this one,i ride a bike for liesure during the summer months.

Since I am a regular cycle-commuter around town, this might be a good place for a general praise of Shrewsbury's motorists - they are almost without exception very good at noticing bikes and giving me plenty of room when I'm moving out from the kerb to avoid loose drain covers. It's only the occasional driver (mostly those who are driving Park and Ride buses) who cause me any anxious moments. Mind you, as avronb recommends, I am generally swathed in high-vis and reflective gear.

Not so sure about whether it is entirely necessary to enforce the "no cycling on pavements" law strictly. I know strict enforcement of such laws appeals to advocates of the zero tolerance theory of crime prevention, but I cannot really understand how clamping down on my riding a bike on the pavement is really going to scare the proprietors of the crack house / brothel in Abbey Foregate (to give an example from another thread) into bring good law-abiding citizens. There are moreover several stretches of shared pavements for pedestians and cyclists around town, and it can be confusing and dangerous to have to re-join the line of traffic at the end. I'm thinking particularly of the pavement cycle route along the old A5 Roman Road / Shelton Road which currently ends at the Copthorne Island (I know there are plans to extend it). As long as due care and attention is given to pedestrians, and I fully accept that this doesn't always happen, surely it is safer for the vulnerable cyclist to be out of the path of cars, lorries and buses? Often I cycle from the town centre to Ford, and I would always use the pavement of the A458 rather than the road.

As far as I understood, this is the law anyway (certainly in respect of lights, less so in the case of reflective vests). It's got less to do with the need to "come down hard" on the offenders and more to do with the fact that the police don't see a need to do so.

Also, if comparing careless/reckless cyclists with careless/reckless drivers (I've lost count long ago of the number of times I've seen boy racers on Smithfield Road, Town Walls and Station Road/Castle Gates), I would think there was more of a need to focus on those reprobates.

I agree,Smithfield road is leathal on a pushbike.so is Ditherington.

Town Walls is a bit nasty on a bike sometimes (the road I mean, not me!). The problem is largely because it really is strictly single file, with a slight but noticeable uphill ride, with few passing places for quite a long stretch. I try to let cars past before I cycle up the narrow stretch, but cars catch up and end up crawling behind me around Belmont etc.

Sometimes, in a fit of self-righteous indignation when I've decided to assume the mantle a fit and healthy green hero being menaced by hordes of evil polluting motorists, I'll ignore them and take the moral high ground by pointing out that there is a 20mph speed limit on Town Walls anyway. This generally happens if some chav in a Nova has annoyed me by shouting abuse earlier in the day. Most of time, however, I'll pull over and let them past. I do realise that it's not easy for a lorry or coach driver to work down the gears to slow down, and - more importantly for me - I don't really enjoy being followed by other vehicles. Actually, it's fairly easy to use the path by the river instead.

Smithfield Road is an interesting case - the worst bits on a bike are the right only turn into Roushill and the lane changes by the Gateway / station for turning into Castle Foregate - but these are not straightforward in a car either. You can avoid cycling along Smithfield Road to some extent by using Raven Meadows (although, of course, only in one direction). However, flat cycle links across the town centre are few and far between (although the river path is very useful). There is no flat and direct route from the station to Abbey Foregate, for example, unless you want to carry a bike down to the river at the Dana and up to the road again at English Bridge. This is a problem for pedestrians as well, which is why I am interested in the suggestions for re-instating the path from the station to Gay Meadow.

I agree with much of what's already been said. Being a cyclist too, I can also see it from both sides -and there's goodies and baddies on both.
I 'm suprised at the number of adult death-wish cyclists I see riding on busy roads in the dark without any lights -let alone protective gear or reflective strips. Don't they like living or something?