There's not enough room on any sidewalk I've ever seen to comfortably allow a cyclist to pass a walker, definitely not another cyclist. So no, stay on the road.
Poll: Cycling on the pavement / sidewalk
- Thread starter Flatfrog
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Well first of all there's no way to enforce the 10mph speed limit. Secondly pedestrians already have right of way over cyclists and in my experience nobody uses their bell or does not take into account how people may react to the bell, many a time I've almost been hit trying to move out of the way of a cyclist when they do ring their bell. As it's strictly illegal the cyclists already are liable.Flatfrog said:
That said, even though strictly it's illegal nobody really gives a shit about cyclists getting up on the pavement so long as they're not getting in the way. And if they want to get round red lights, then they can just get off the bike and push it.
Basically, it's fine as it is.
It depends on the area and situation I think. Most of the places I have lived didn't have any cycle lanes (two shitty cities and one large-ish suburban town) and the roads were fairly narrow two way streets with people parking next to the curbs. In such areas cyclists are forced to go onto the pavement just to not be killed by idiots in their cars. SO I think that if a cyclist lived in a place like that then they should be allowed on the pavement but at a slower speed.
I really think that cities, towns, etc should work harder in getting proper and safe cycling lanes set up though. Cars are expensive and decent jobs are hard to come by and for some people cycling is necessary to get anywhere.
And everyone should have to go through road and cyclist safety courses to teach drivers and cyclists not to be total douchebags on the roads. As a cyclist I've almost been killed by asshole drivers numerous times and as a driver I;ve almost killed asshole cyclists numerous times. I always give cyclists a wide enough berth and I tend on giving them the right of way at lights and when going to a different lane or whatever but I still get ones that just speed out and cut me off like they were a solid titanium truck.
[Honestly I think we should take all means of transport away ffrom private owners and just force everyone to walk or take buses or something]
I really think that cities, towns, etc should work harder in getting proper and safe cycling lanes set up though. Cars are expensive and decent jobs are hard to come by and for some people cycling is necessary to get anywhere.
And everyone should have to go through road and cyclist safety courses to teach drivers and cyclists not to be total douchebags on the roads. As a cyclist I've almost been killed by asshole drivers numerous times and as a driver I;ve almost killed asshole cyclists numerous times. I always give cyclists a wide enough berth and I tend on giving them the right of way at lights and when going to a different lane or whatever but I still get ones that just speed out and cut me off like they were a solid titanium truck.
[Honestly I think we should take all means of transport away ffrom private owners and just force everyone to walk or take buses or something]
Okay, this has always bothered the hell out of me. Why are bicycles even allowed on roads at all? Have you ever been in your car and got stuck behind a bike on a busy road? Every time I drive by some jerk on a bike I'm afraid I'll hit him and tangle his bones in my wheel well. It's bullshit, and incredibly unsafe. There ONLY place a bicycle should be allowed is on a bike path or lane, or on the sidewalk/pavement. I can't believe that they're even allowed in the roads.
"But what about the pedestrians he might hit?" Fuck off, if you see a bike coming, you get out of the way. If the bike comes up behind you, he slows down until he can get around you.
You see, people seem to assume that they are entitled to do whatever they want. "I'm on a bike, I can go faster than you filthy foot-travelers, so I get right of way to blow past you and knock you into the street if you get in my way." "Asshole," is all I have to say to that. You're not the fucking Pope, you can wait a God damn second for people to get out of your way.
I'm all for people having freedom to make the choices they like, UNTIL the point that it endangers other people who happened to make different choices. If it's okay for a cyclist to run down the foot traffic, or for them to cause car accidents by driving in the fucking road, a place reserved for MOTOR vehicles only, then it should be okay for me to drive straight the fuck over any moron on a bike showing me his buttcrack, blocking my lane and peddling with the traffic instead of against it.
"But what about the pedestrians he might hit?" Fuck off, if you see a bike coming, you get out of the way. If the bike comes up behind you, he slows down until he can get around you.
You see, people seem to assume that they are entitled to do whatever they want. "I'm on a bike, I can go faster than you filthy foot-travelers, so I get right of way to blow past you and knock you into the street if you get in my way." "Asshole," is all I have to say to that. You're not the fucking Pope, you can wait a God damn second for people to get out of your way.
I'm all for people having freedom to make the choices they like, UNTIL the point that it endangers other people who happened to make different choices. If it's okay for a cyclist to run down the foot traffic, or for them to cause car accidents by driving in the fucking road, a place reserved for MOTOR vehicles only, then it should be okay for me to drive straight the fuck over any moron on a bike showing me his buttcrack, blocking my lane and peddling with the traffic instead of against it.
i voted for Yes, under certain limits. riding your bike is a win win for everyone, your exercise and its better for the environment because of no emissions. biking on the road or on a busy sidewalk is annoying and dangerous but, if ALL roads or sidewalks had a thin spot where bikes could go safely that would be awesome. near my placer the main road sidewalk has a line in the middle actually allowing bikes to go by while people walking go on the other side 
pretty cool
pretty coolI'm in the UK alike the OP and I have to tell you there simply isn't room in most of the country. London has 8 million people living there and further a 10 million people commuting into and out of London every weekday. Victoria Railway station, which is the main commuter station, deals with 73 million passengers a year. Trying to feed that many people into a street layouts mainly dating from the 1850s doesn't leave that much room. You can say the same about most the major cities in the country, less people moving about but in smaller space.Tayh said:
In large cities, I can see the speed of cyclists on the side walk being a problem, but in small to mid sized towns? I think it's crazy to ask cyclists to ride on the road (which at least around here, is more often than not a major highway which happens to run through town), since there's never enough pedestrians to get in their way, and when they are, they can hop of the sidewalk and onto the grass to pass them. In fact, that particular reason is one I've never even seen before for not allowing cyclists to ride on the sidewalk -- around here it's all "well when you're driving you're not looking for someone on the sidewalk doing 25 miles per hour through the intersection," to which I always ask "what, were those people sleeping through bike safety in elementary school?"
You're supposed to get off and walk your bike through intersections. Do that, and as long as you're not living in some metropolis where walking is actually a valid means of transportation for most things, and therefore the sidewalks are always crowded (note that such cities generally have bicycle lanes, making this a non-issue even there), you'll be fine.
Edit: and another thing, which a poster above reminded me: why on earth does the law require cyclists to move with traffic, instead of against it and to the side of it, like pedestrians? It's friggin' idiotic to treat a human powered "vehicle" like a bike the same way you treat cars, trucks, and motorcycles. For a bike, 25 is pushing it. For a car, that's only a little bit faster than you go through a parking lot, and less than half what any halfway decent road has the speed limit set to.
You're supposed to get off and walk your bike through intersections. Do that, and as long as you're not living in some metropolis where walking is actually a valid means of transportation for most things, and therefore the sidewalks are always crowded (note that such cities generally have bicycle lanes, making this a non-issue even there), you'll be fine.
Edit: and another thing, which a poster above reminded me: why on earth does the law require cyclists to move with traffic, instead of against it and to the side of it, like pedestrians? It's friggin' idiotic to treat a human powered "vehicle" like a bike the same way you treat cars, trucks, and motorcycles. For a bike, 25 is pushing it. For a car, that's only a little bit faster than you go through a parking lot, and less than half what any halfway decent road has the speed limit set to.
In my city, pop. 150,000, we lose an average of five bicyclists per year due to careless drivers. It's illegal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalks here. We have bike routes, yet they are planned according to park layout, making them disconnected and highly inconvenient to use as citywide transportation routes. We also have bike lanes but the majority of them are on major streets, which means bicyclists using them are forced to ride right alongside vehicle traffic.
On the more traffic-heavy streets, I ride the sidewalks. I'd rather risk running into a pedestrian than have to deal with drivers who are overwhelmingly aggressive, stressed out from our small city's horrible traffic congestion, and ignorant of their surroundings. If that means a ticket for me, so be it.
On the more traffic-heavy streets, I ride the sidewalks. I'd rather risk running into a pedestrian than have to deal with drivers who are overwhelmingly aggressive, stressed out from our small city's horrible traffic congestion, and ignorant of their surroundings. If that means a ticket for me, so be it.
I love all the entitled drivers here with the "oh I'm bigger and have a 100 horsepower engine and 2500 pounds of steel backing me up, so get out of the way peasant bikers, you should drive like my fat American ass, or stay the fuck off the road!". I too drive, it's my second job driving pizzas to hungry people. However, my 9-5 office job is in the city and biking is maybe 5 minutes slower and saves me not only $12 parking, but gas for my thirsty V8 and wear and tear on my car. And guess what, it's also good exercise, reduces traffic, and helps the environment.
I find it hard to believe the people who compare bikes to cars have actually ever commuted anywhere for any significant period of time with a bike and are therefore talking out of their ass. Yes some bikers are idiots and jackasses, and so are some drivers, so are some people in general. Smarten up.
I find it hard to believe the people who compare bikes to cars have actually ever commuted anywhere for any significant period of time with a bike and are therefore talking out of their ass. Yes some bikers are idiots and jackasses, and so are some drivers, so are some people in general. Smarten up.
It depends on the situation. I've lived in a city that was so spaced out that walking wasn't practical and was rare, but the roads were congested and I spent most of my teenage years biking on the sidewalk because most people weren't there and I did not have the physique to share the road. On the flip side, I spent my college years in a city with so much foot traffic that it would not be practical for bicycles to be on the sidewalk.
That said, there are assholes for all vehicles. There are cyclists that will treat pedestrians as obstacles to do tricks around or disrespect the rules of the road because they can and there are drivers who think it is funny to play chicken with cyclists because there's a tiny vehicle on the road. Saying that we should craft a rule limiting or banning the use of vehicle because of a few bad eggs means that we can't use vehicles ever and that gets us no where. Well, it gets us no where that we can't walk to.
That said, there are assholes for all vehicles. There are cyclists that will treat pedestrians as obstacles to do tricks around or disrespect the rules of the road because they can and there are drivers who think it is funny to play chicken with cyclists because there's a tiny vehicle on the road. Saying that we should craft a rule limiting or banning the use of vehicle because of a few bad eggs means that we can't use vehicles ever and that gets us no where. Well, it gets us no where that we can't walk to.
I agree with your second point but definitely not your first - and isn't that a bit inconsistent anyway? Just like the cyclist on a pavement has to wait a bit for the pedestrian, the car has to wait a bit for the bike. After all, once you're past, you can speed up again and probably haven't lost any time anyway.TheVampwizimp said:
The difference is that a cyclist has no traffic behind him to rear end him if he slows down. It's very dangerous to just hit the breaks in the middle of the street if there is anyone behind you; if a cyclist hits his breaks he is not at any risk. If there's a group of cyclists together it might cause a problem, but they shouldn't be riding close enough to hit each other anyway. The disparity of reaction time between 12 mph on a bike and 40 mph in a car is enormous, as is the risk of physical and property damage.Flatfrog said:
Now, if this is a bike race we're talking about then obviously it's not okay to just hit the breaks on a bike either. But driving to work is not a professional athletic event, and a biker in your way is not just some obstacle put there to overcome. It's a hazard to public safety.
What bother me about the cyclists in my city isn't the speed. They aren't allowed to bike on high speed roads anyway. At most it's 50 km/h and those roads are usually not very congested, or if they are they are usually short. What bothers me is the way bikers here play fast and loose with the rules. I'm sorry babe, but unless both your feet are on the ground then you are not a pedestrian and I have no obligation to stop for you at zebra crossings. And no, you are not allowed to bike in the wrong direction on one-direction roads. What's stupid it is, I'm not the one who is going to get hurt. I'm in encased in a ton of steel here.
I don't know if it's ignorance of the traffic rules. Might well be if most bikers don't have a drivers license. But maybe it is pure douchebagness. In Sweden you have to pass two tests to qualify for a drivers license, a theoretical and a practical. I wouldn't mind it if bikers had to pass just the theoretical test to be allowed on roads inside cities.
I don't know if it's ignorance of the traffic rules. Might well be if most bikers don't have a drivers license. But maybe it is pure douchebagness. In Sweden you have to pass two tests to qualify for a drivers license, a theoretical and a practical. I wouldn't mind it if bikers had to pass just the theoretical test to be allowed on roads inside cities.
Way ahead of you.Beffudled Sheep said:
Bus and shoes are my only means of transportation at the moment.
Hurray for me being a step ahead of everyone else.
I AM A NEW, MORE EVOLVED HUMAN, WORSHIP ME.
As a guy who travels mostly by foot, i walk a fair bit and my stance is....
Seriously get your cyclists asses of the road, its dangerous there! You lot belong on the pavement, just remember to have courtesy towards the walkers and remember that a lot of the time bicycles are fairly silent especially when we are walking and daydreaming so its easy to not notice a bike creeping up behind us.
Honestly i feel bicycles being on the main roads with cars is stupidly dangerous.
Seriously get your cyclists asses of the road, its dangerous there! You lot belong on the pavement, just remember to have courtesy towards the walkers and remember that a lot of the time bicycles are fairly silent especially when we are walking and daydreaming so its easy to not notice a bike creeping up behind us.
Honestly i feel bicycles being on the main roads with cars is stupidly dangerous.
You must live in a city, i never bike on the road if there is a sidewalk pavement thing, i stay the F away from cars with or without a bike
Sometimes i do not even bike on the road
Sometimes i do not even bike on the road