Don't be angry at the person riding on the sidewalk, direct your frustration at the decision makers that have refused to provide safe routes. Let's attack the problem not the symptom.
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Hard to tell exactly, but I see only one hand on the handlebars, which makes me think he's using a phone and is wearing earbuds. I've seen that a lot which is why I prefer to ride on the street. 🙂
If you ride on the sidewalk ( pavement for me in UK) just respect the walker, the person on a mobility scooter and most especially the lassie ( or fella) with the pram (stroller) that way conflict can be avoided
This will be my son if the Yonge bike lane is removed. He will have to route from Cabbagetown thru Rosedale and then end up on the Mt Pleasant sidewalk to get to school each day. No other safe way there. This side street detour will add 20 mins to a 30 min ride.
Car-bike collisions are far deadlier than bike-pedestrian collisions. From a policy standpoint, it's preferable to risk a pedestrian's injury over a cyclist's death. From a personal decision standpoint, it's easy to understand why someone would ride on the sidewalk vs riding their own lives.
Allowing bikes on sidewalks because bike collisions are less dangerous than car collisions is STILL FUCKING INCREASING COLLISIONS! How hard is it for people to get it through their heads that pedestrians have a right to vehicle-free spaces?
You have vehicle free spaces its called all the open fields and meadows, all the indoors space in the entire world, your own home and yard. When you go out in public and use the public right if way you may encounter cyborgs using walking assist utilities. Please respect our ability to move.
No it's converting car-bike collisions to bike-pedestrian collisions, which are less fatal. Taking a hard line against bikes on sidewalks would increase cyclist's fatalities more than it would decrease pedestrian fatalities.
The question is how many pedestrian injuries is one cyclist's life worth?
No, that would result in more car-pedestrian collisions, increasing the death rate.
I don't think that this is a *correct* solution, I just don't think the cyclists are monsters for doing it. The right thing would be to stop designing cities for cars.
Well that person's an asshole. But I'm not sure what that individual asshole has to do with Tom's larger point, which is that the decisions made by cyclists are the result of a lack of infrastructure.
I dont want to detract from the larger point (planning and city design should be better and in lieu of that officials need to be held accountable), but it is more compelling when cyclists work with others who want to see safer cities that serve both oedestrians and cyclists.
I don't see anything in Tom's post that contradicts that idea. It's something Tom posts about all the time in fact, as do I. I guess my point is that, whether or not it was your intent, I think it does detract from the larger point when you focus on the bad behavior of an indvidual cyclist.
Same with those that are angry at their precious road space being taken up by bike lanes. We wouldn't need bike lanes if they could all drive correctly.
Blame the cause, not the victims.
Here we go- healthy debate! 😁
Driveways suck I agree. Not sure I understand how this is different than a protected bike lane though? I guess on a bike lane you have and extra 3-4 ft to see a car backing up? On the flip side you’re closer to a car entering driveway from street.
3-4 feet is all I need. Landscaping blocks a ton of driveways and sight angles but I think we first need to agree on our imaginary street/sidewalk we're riding down. Either way, I'll be in the street. Unless it looks like this. (Fremont, CA)
Yes I agree. Sorry for not being clear. I think a widened sidewalk as a multiuse path is worthy of debate. Something more like this, but a little narrower bc it’s a constrained right of way and they took the sidewalk and just widened it a bit.
Agreed. What I also see in the bike lanes is that people place their garbage bins and brush their leaves into them as homeowners say have no space to place said items. A MindShift to accept bikes is definitely needed.
Counterpoint, read the comments under a Highway Authority post announcing a new cycle lane. Car brain is a thing. The first thing that happens is loss of logical thinking, immediately followed by self-awareness removal.
The sidewalk is not ideal biking (usually less smooth, intersects with ingress and egress of businesses and that can be especially dangerous, and people walking), but if the road isn’t safe then that’s where I go.
My thing is dude is not using the allotted space, is not wearing a helmet and clearly listening to noise-cancelling headphones while riding on space for pedestrians. I can get with the idea that we need safer bike spaces, but how does this help that argument?
If the road is such that the decision is either to become a para/quadraplegic/or death...or ride the sidewalk, always do the latter (respecting pedestrians of course). Usually sidwewalks on roads like this are empty of peds. b/c the road is hostile to peds as well.
See, we have bike lanes in NZ, but everyone's raging about the fact that it's taken car parks or the roadworks to build them, etc... can't win sometimes
I completely get this yet and also people who go 20 mph on a sidewalk are assholes. Market St in SF is closed to cars & some people still ride top speed on the sidewalks. It only takes a few to create a permanent sense of not being safe. But what to do, I dunno.
There’s a point where development gets so spread out that walking isn’t really a practical way to get anywhere and I wonder if in those situations we should be building these we bike infra and not sidewalks
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By your logic we should let cars drive on sidewalks and bike lanes as it would result in less driver injury and damage to their vehicles.
You are Captain bad faith of the starship clownshoesgoinghonkhonkasyouwalk.
The question is how many pedestrian injuries is one cyclist's life worth?
I don't think that this is a *correct* solution, I just don't think the cyclists are monsters for doing it. The right thing would be to stop designing cities for cars.
Blame the cause, not the victims.
Driveways suck I agree. Not sure I understand how this is different than a protected bike lane though? I guess on a bike lane you have and extra 3-4 ft to see a car backing up? On the flip side you’re closer to a car entering driveway from street.
(i do pull into the grass or whateva if someone is walking on said sidewalk cause im not a total douche)
This area now has protected cycleway put in properly last year.