# Bikers and Sidewalks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 28, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886 "2013-09-28T23:21:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/21 "2013-09-29T13:06:31Z")
> [@barnhardt999](#):
>
> So what’s the appeal of it that’s worth risking your life (and causing enormous strains on traffic that often result in multi-million dollar bike lanes at property tax owner’s expense)?
I just want to know if you realize how utterly offensive and wrong this is.
---
### Author:  [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/22 "2013-09-29T14:02:48Z")
A large part of the problem is that bikes are viewed as a leisure activity and not a mode of transportation. This is a result of the lack of education about bicycles and where they fit in society.
The last time I took defensive driving (for work, not ticket) bicycles were only mentioned as obstacles. I do think bicycles should have a little more attention in these classes and have their own. If someone is riding on a sidewalk or the wrong way on the road they should be ticketed and made to attend a bicycle safety class. Also, traffic calming measures need to be enacted and signage put up so motorists are aware that bicycles are vehicles and not toys.
Unfortunately, the US is still largely anti-bike, but hopefully things will start changing.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/23 "2013-09-29T14:09:33Z")
My Wife and I just got back from a great trip to Germany. Munich has the bicycle/sidewalk thing figured out.
We rented bikes at the train station and had a great day of tooling around town. We road about 25 miles. And I’m not a cyclist, nor a big city person.
Now, most of their sidewalks are pretty wide, but they have separate bike only lanes on them. The traffic signals all had Red/Green for bikes and Peds too. And everyone actually respected them. I was chastised by another bike rider when I hesitated to cross an intersection. “It’s Grun!”
The bikeway part of the sidewalk is paved, and the walkway is often brick or some other lease smooth material.
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/24 "2013-09-29T14:55:45Z")
I can understand if young kids are riding on the sidewalk, but anyone over the age of 13 probably shouldn’t be.
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### Author:  [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/25 "2013-09-29T16:11:28Z")
The OP’s question is based on the incorrect but commonly held assumption that riding a bicycle is a dangerous activity. It is not.
Here’s a short article with a little test:
[Perceptions of Bicycle Safety](http://www.bicyclinglife.com/SafetySkills/SafetyQuiz.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> Cycling is not very dangerous.
> It’s at least as safe as many other common activities.
>
> And it does us no good to pretend cycling is dangerous.
> Doing so discourages cycling and makes conditions worse for cyclists, and for society as a whole.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/26 "2013-09-29T16:43:16Z")
> [@runner pat](#):
>
> It’s far more dangerous to ride on the sidewalk. You’re often screened from view by parked cars or landscaping. Cars turning into a driveway or rounding a corner
> Have a far more difficult time seeing a bike on the sidewalk. Even more so backing out of a driveway(residential) or exiting a parking lot(business).
For an example, see this thread, in which the OP gets rightfully scolded for riding his bike on the sidewalk: [A truck just ran over me and my bike](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=657127)
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### Author:  [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/27 "2013-09-29T17:16:46Z")
In my part of town, bike riders have the option of riding on the road or the sidewalk. We have to follow the appropriate set of rules. When I bike to and from work, I do some of each. Where there is a bike lane, I stay in it, and act like a vehicle.
When the bike lane ends, and the road narrows a bit, I switch to the sidewalk. At this point, I have to be even more vigilant about what others are doing, because it’s even less likely that vehicles see me. I also slow down a bit to give me (and others!) more time to react.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/28 "2013-09-29T19:04:20Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#):
>
> I can understand if young kids are riding on the sidewalk, but anyone over the age of 13 probably shouldn’t be.
Right. We get a lot of assholes who ride very fast on fixies thru heavy pedestrian traffic, with dogs, kids and etc.
Unless you’re a kid going not a lot faster than people walk, stay off the damn sidewalks. It’s no more safer for you and a LOT less safe for the pedestrians.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/29 "2013-09-29T20:59:15Z")
But railing about it isn’t going to help anything - in our recent trip through the West Coast cities of San Diego and San Francisco, we saw people riding their bikes on the sidewalks as a matter of course - we saw more bikes on sidewalks than on the street, which is the same where I live. We need to figure out how to keep pedestrians safe while cyclists are on the sidewalks, because the cyclists are not going to change.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/30 "2013-09-29T22:51:43Z")
The thing is, a “standard”-width sidewalk just can’t handle a steady stream of both pedestrians and bicyclists. It’s a dangerous mix, made worse by people paying more attention to their mobile screens than the world around them.
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### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/31 "2013-09-30T01:58:30Z")
Sometimes the sidewalk is the official bike route, for example bridge I cross (two narrow lanes) with quite a bit of traffic ( officially 30 MPH but 37 is not uncommon)
But normally not.
Brian
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### Author:  [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/32 "2013-09-30T02:38:45Z")
What a peculiar undercurrent here … So many people ready to banish from the public paths of travel the most efficient mode of transportation on the planet.
Rash, unthinking, emotional responses = unintended consequences.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/33 "2013-09-30T02:41:59Z")
Wait??? I think the idea is that, for the most part, bicycles belong on the road, not the sidewalk.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/34 "2013-09-30T03:50:15Z")
> [@Turble](#):
>
> What a peculiar undercurrent here … So many people ready to banish from the public paths of travel the most efficient mode of transportation on the planet.
>
> Rash, unthinking, emotional responses = unintended consequences.
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> Wait??? I think the idea is that, for the most part, bicycles belong on the road, not the sidewalk.
We need to come up with a better way of handling this - cyclists aren’t getting off the sidewalks, and the laws making it illegal really don’t seem to matter (it’s illegal in my city for anyone over 14 to ride on the sidewalks, but I see it on a daily basis when I’m out walking, and I never, ever see anyone getting ticketed for it). I hate it; I feel _very_ unsafe when I’m walking and bikes are whizzing closely by me, but we have to deal with the reality of what people are doing, not what they should be doing.
I’m not sure taking away road space for bike lanes is the solution, either - I see people riding on the sidewalk with a dedicated bike lane five feet away.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/35 "2013-09-30T04:26:54Z")
Razor wire strung about head height for a cyclist might do the trick.😛
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### Author:  [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/36 "2013-09-30T14:02:01Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Razor wire strung about head height for a cyclist might do the trick.😛
It worked for Nazi motorcycle riders!
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/37 "2013-09-30T14:14:35Z")
For your entertainment, [here’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J2Ko8uLQuY)a time-lapse video someone made of a bike ride through the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Note how the rider freely shifts between bike lane, street, promenade and sidewalk. Enjoy.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/38 "2013-09-30T14:30:21Z")
> [@Turble](#):
>
> What a peculiar undercurrent here … So many people ready to banish from the public paths of travel the most efficient mode of transportation on the planet.
>
> Rash, unthinking, emotional responses = unintended consequences.
I am _strongly_ in favor of bicycles as transit. I’d happily vote and pay taxes to introduce, expand, and improve all kinds of designs supporting urban bicycling. I dislike many bike-lane designs because they’re not good or safe enough, for bicyclists; a stripe of paint is no protection from motor vehicles.
Sidewalks are for walking. Bicycles do not belong on sidewalks.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/39 "2013-09-30T14:37:05Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#):
>
> I’m not sure taking away road space for bike lanes is the solution, either - I see people riding on the sidewalk with a dedicated bike lane five feet away.
Because the “dedicated” lane runs unprotected alongside cars, right? The sidewalk surface is at least as smooth (no storm drains, for example) and has at least a curb if not also parked cars, grass fringe, and street trees sheltering it. And in many areas pedestrian traffic is light, for various other design and cultural reasons. In effect, the sidewalk has been built to resemble what a bike lane should be–more so than the “dedicated” lane, anyway. Of course bicyclists will use it.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-sidewalks/669886/40 "2013-09-30T14:48:22Z")
Around here, bike lanes are mostly just lines drawn on the sidewalk, which pedestrians usually ignore.
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