Oh, I’m well aware it’s wrong. I’m aware that by doing so, I can potentially put pedestrians in peril. At the same time, however, riding on a street without a bike lane puts me in peril. And given that I would much, much rather wheel my way around pedestrians while being as apologetic as possible rather than risk an SUV going 50 MPH to my back…yeah, I’m gonna ride on the sidewalk. At least on the road in question, I only ever encounter two pedestrians at most.
Isn’t one of the first rules of defensive driving to treat everyone else like they’re dangerous maniacs and act accordingly? It applies to bicycling, too.
Of course, I won’t go into the multitude of pedestrians who decide to walk in the bike lane on the rare occasion that there is one…I’m rather glad I won’t be dealing with my bike this semester.
Nah, they won’t notice. They’ll be too busy walking in front of cars and other bikes. I do realize I’m infringing on someone else’s walkspace when I go up on the sidewalk, and I try to be as accomodating as possible, but you won’t see those vacuous airheads acknowledge the fact that they’re standing right in the middle of where bicyclists are trying to ride so they don’t have to go on the sidewalk. But that’s another rant for another time.
Hm. Drivers hate bicyclists and pedestrians, bicyclists hate drivers and pedestrians, and pedestrians hate drivers and bicyclists. Whoever one thinks is right depends on which mode of transportation one is using at the moment, I imagine.
Didn’t know that. A former co-worker of mine who rode the Jail Trail into downtown said he wasn’t allowed on the sidewalks. Had no idea that it mattered what part of town you were in.
I used to ride in the street, mostly in the gutter. Then a bus damn near ran me over coming up behind me. I swear he would have run me down if I hadn’t bunnyhopped over the curb onto the sidewalk. I was doing ~15 mph and he was doing 25-30. I saw him coming and figured he’d either swing wide or slow down and he did neither. Saw him coming closer, accelerated a bit, wasn’t an opening to swing into to get out of his way, so I hopped onto the sidewalk and ended up wiping out in someone’s lawn. Bastard would have run me over in another three seconds or so.
Well that’s you. If there’s no one or just a few pedestrians on the sidewalk who cares. It’s these fucking Chinese delivery boy bicyclists weaving in and out of the crowded NYC sidewalks that piss me off.
See here’s the problem: Pedestrians don’t follow regular traffic patterns like cars do. They walk every which way, change direction suddenly and basically do whatever. I understand that NY streets are dangerous but I don’t care. Bikes belong on the street.
So, what you’re saying is you want to be the biggest vehicle when you ride, so you can be the one causing the damage, not getting the damage? :rolleyes:
Because, surely you know that studies show that riding on sidewalks is far more likely than riding on a road to end in a crash. From William E. Moritz, "Adult Bicyclists in the U.S.’, Transportation Research Board, 1998 (Link here) – The crash rates per million kilometers ridden are:
[ul]
[li]Major road without bicycle facilities: 41[/li][li]Minor road without bicycle facilities: 59[/li][li]Other (most often Sidewalks): 1026[/li][/ul]
You can read more studies here. Many of these studies demonstrate that the risk of a crash with a car is higher when riding on a sidewalk.
And regarding the SUV “to my back”…another respected study (which I can’t find now) found that only 8% of car-bike accidents occurred with vehicles overtaking bicycles.
P.S. I don’t hate pedestrians or car drivers. The vast vast majority of them are friendly and respectful of my riding space. Don’t paint all bicyclists with your brush.
Okay, I give, LilyoftheValley. I shouldn’t have generalized like that. I’m just slightly bitter at the utter lack of respect nearly everyone gives everyone else around my university campus.
For what it’s worth, I really do try to be considerate. If the sidewalk’s busy, I don’t ride on it, or I walk my bike. If the cars on the street aren’t making me worried for my life, I ride on the street.
It’s just difficult to be all that concerned about where I should and should not be when I constantly have to avoid pedestrians who walk in the bike lanes on campus. I am trying to obey the law then, but they’re still putting themselves (and me as well; I can’t see a collision between a walker and a biker being anywhere near as one-sided as between a biker and a driver) in danger despite that.
Damn, damn, damn…I wrote a reply and it got eaten. Remind me to ctrl-c all posts in the future before hitting submit.
I’m too bitter to rewrite the whole damn thing now, but suffice it to say that:
Sorry if I came across as snippy, Bayle. I don’t know what speed you ride, I don’t know if your sidewalk has intersections or driveways, and in retrospect, you said the sidewalks only had 1 or 2 people.
I get a fair amount of criticism for teaching my BB/BS Little Brother (age 13) to ride safely on the streets with me rather than riding on the sidewalk in the city where he lives, where there are a whole lot of driveways and intersections. So I’m a touch sensitive with those statistics.
I agree with Miskatonic and Bayle – bike lanes get little respect.