Dolgurn kids. How am I supposed to enjoy “Matlock,” with them making so much noise outside?
I’m a cyclist, I’m an adult, and sometimes I ride on the sidewalk. I do my best to always ride on the road, but sometimes it’s ridiculously dangerous. Car and truck drivers don’t always pay a lot of care around cyclists and I’ve found myself having to dodge more than a few too-close encounters. Bicycles just aren’t very safe and cyclists are very vulnarable against a speeding car. I’d rather see a kid cycle on the sidewalk any day.
I guess my point being that it’s (usually) legal and has been socially acceptable (with a few very vocal exceptions) since god made dirt.
Here is the problem. These kids are not trying to get from point A to point B. They are riding for fun. So they are going to ride fast and do things that should not be be done on a sidewalk. There is a bike path, not more that 500 yards from the sidewalk they are playing on. If they want to ride safely on the sidewalk, no problem. However, we all know kids diregard the regulations of bicycle safety when they ride on the sidewalks.
And are these kids riding safely when they ride on the streets? Somehow I doubt it. Maybe they should just not be cycling at all.
And this is exactly what it feels like to be a pedestrian when people are cycling on the sidewalk: I bet you anything that those times that felt like “close calls” to you on the road were no big deal to the driver: you were (quite legitimatly) nervous because you didn’t trust the driver not to do anything stupid: the same thing goes for pedestrians on the sidewalk: just because you know you are sober and careful and a an experienced cyclist who isn’t in any real danger of hitting me doesn’t mean that I know it: it can be very nerveracking to have cycles whiz past you when you are walking: there’s no way to know that the cyclist has seen you in time to avoid you until after they are past, and you can’t dodge in case you dodge into them. It’s a sick and helpless feeling, especially for the elderly who can’t move quickly and who are one fall away from loosing their independence and having to move into a home.
I don’t have a good solution to this problem: really, we need bike lanes. I just wanted to point out that there are reasons to dislike cyclists on the sidewalk.
Manda, I don’t “whiz past” pedestrians when I am cycling on the sidewalk. I do not pass them at all, in fact, without either verbally announcing my presence, or waiting until they are so far over on one edge of the footpath that they would have to perform ballerina-like leaps to come in contact with my bicycle.
Which is why you call out “on your left” before passing a ped…
Moreover, there’s also the consideration that cyclists can’t be as oblivious of peds as cars are of bikes; a car that hits a bike will probably make it out with minor repairs and no injury to the driver, whereas a bike that hits a ped will almost certainly result in missing teeth and a grated face for the cyclist (and often basically nothing for the ped, if it’s a handlebar clip rather than a head-on collision). Because of that, the situation is not the same, or even really comparable; a cyclist has to trust drivers’ compassion, while a ped only has to trust a cyclist’s sense of self-preservation. I know which one I’m more comfortable with (as a frequent cyclist and pedestrian, and only occasional driver).
[sub]Heck, when I’m riding on the bike path and have to pass the peds, I get nervous while they chatter away oblivious to my presence, cause if I clip one it’s going to be hospital time for me, and band-aid time for them)[/sub]
IMHO this post relates to a more basic issue, that being one of courtesy. I grew up in a rural area where sidewalks were not a known element, and you yielded to motor vehicles not only because it was an issue of courtesy, but also because they could spush you like a bug.
Moving to my first home, I enjoyed sidewalks, which I thought were for people, such that I rode my bike on the road, and shared same with the motor vehicles. That said, I could not figure out why kids would walk six abreast in the street, given that the sidewalk was put there for pedestrian traffic.
Now I’m in a woodsy scenario, and sidewalks are not an option. Therefore I pay attention to MV operators and pretend that they cannot see me, therefore preserving my foolish genes for the next generation that will actually look before performing a stupid maneuver to blame on others. :wally:
Manda JO - I don’t spend all of my time on a bike. I am a pedestrian too. I understand what you’re saying and I know there are plenty of inconsiderate cyclists out there. As it is, I always slow right down and announce my presence with a “hello!” if I’m passing a pedestrian. I do agree with you about cycle lanes.
Well, of course you don’t. And when I’m driving my car, i always change lanes to go around cyclists, and if it’s not safe to change lanes I just slow down until it is, and I certainly never turn right in front of them or honk my horn at them as I pass, yet this shit keeps happening to cyclists. It’s almost like I’m not a universal role model or something.
You know this as a cyclist: the vast majority of pedestrians don’t: to them you are jsut a big heavy object traveling faster than they. Also, at least rivers have to be at least sixteen and pass a test (we hope): a mob of three or four boys on bikes, obviously more intent on racing each other than in looking where they are going is a scary sight.
I’m not saying that bikes are a menace, or that cyclists as a group are any less reliable and courteous than the rest of society: I’m just saying that when a person feels that a plethora of cyclists makes a sidewalk basically unsafe for pedestrians, it is not a groundless or a ridiculous worry.
It’s certainly a good idea for kids to be riding their bikes on the sidewalk. That doesn’t relieve them from making sure that they don’t hit or hinder pedestrians, naturally.
Personally I even ride the bike on the sidewalks from time to time. If I do have an accident, I will be at fault and paying for it, but at least it won’t be a fatal accident. What good does it do for me, if the car driver is to blame, but I am left as a smear at the side of the road?
I think it is pretty clear that there is a bicycle gang at work here, intent on terrorizing Manda JO and Major Kong as they tentatively and carefully make their way along the sidewalk. Hopefully this gang will be caught, but in the meantime, try to remember that bikes are in fact capable of going at slower speeds. The problem isn’t bikes on sidewalks, as they can go just as slowly as pedestrians if necessary. The problem is this particular gang of bike riders that is trying to run you down.
Kong, I hope you don’t live around here. There’s a bunch of designated bike paths in this area that are sidewalks and are indistinguishable from ordinary sidewalks.
I live on a major street and when I am out working on my yard, I see lots of people riding in the street, lots on the sidewalk. I feel they should be on the sidewalk unless they are the racing/long-distance types flying along. Much safer that way. The only reason I like to see the fast ones out on the street is because they can be more dangerous to a pedestrian than a car.
So I say get up on the sidewalk where you belong. Get out of the street.
Perhaps those kids are riding for fun and you know it, but plenty of kids ride their bikes from point A to point B. For instance, my twelve year old son uses his bike to get from point A to point B all the time. Point B is fairly often the park where his baseball team practices, and which also contains the nearest bike path. To get there, he has to travel about a half mile down a very busy street with six lanes in each direction. Since the law here allows children under fourteen to ride bikes on the sidewalk, he rides that portion on the sidewalk.
:rolleyes:
Read for content.
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It is illegal in my city to be on most sidewalks riding skateboards.
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I’m walking with a cane, thus I doubt I’d actually try to make them fall, even though they are endangering me.
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Read for content.
Eh, I’m 20 and I love riding my bike. I usually start out on the sidewalk, if it’s clear, then move to the street later. Why? Because my street has cars parked both ways every 5 seconds, and I have this problem with riding down the center of a semi-busy suburb road for more than 2 seconds: it’s bad juju. To top that off, I don’t wear a helmet, so the safer I can make my ride, the better. And yes, I move to the street if there’s an impediment or kid playing. Just if there’s no one there today, why should I have to start off on the street? ;p
So maybe you just saw them on the sidewalk for a moment, and they’ll move to the streets later. Who knows? Riding on the sidewalks in older areas isn’t that much fun anyway, and can be more dangerous because of the bumps of cracked sidewalk.
/Shadez
What the hell is a “sidewalk”?
Pondering by Gatopescado, who lives under a rock in the middle of nowhere where there is damn little asphalt and even less concrete bordering it.
What a stupid post this is.
Never kiss an animal that can lick its own butt.
It can also be dangerous for the kids. Every time I see that Volkswagon commercial where the dad in his VW is “racing” his kid on the bike on the sidewalk, I keep expecting someone to back out of their driveway and smack the kid.
So tell your kiddies to pay attention to driveways. A lot of drivers don’t. Plus, they’re expecting pedestrians to come at pedestrian speeds, not some kid whipping around on bikes.