07-14-2016, 08:08 AM
(07-13-2016, 09:18 PM)schooner77 Wrote: The sidewalk situation came to a head for me tonight, as I strolled out of Vincenzos and stood on the sidewalk, waiting for a car to finish a 3-point turn, before I crossed. Not expecting a collision, I was staring at the street, when a young girl came whizzing by me, telling me to "f-off" and get out of her "f-ing way", while she was riding on the sidewalk. It all happened so quickly, I was stunned and simply watched her ride down the sidewalk on Caroline. I continued my way down the Iron Horse Trail and low and behold, she was coming back down on Park, on the sidewalk. With a little time to think I, probably louder than I should have, told her to get off the sidewalk, there was a bike lane on the road. I was told to "f-off" again. She did then go into the bike lane, however on the wrong side of the road. No helmet either. No grandiose analogy here, just an anecdote.
I don’t think there can be much reasonable expectation of “education” for people like that. Drivers get some education, and you still have plenty of them telling each other to ‘f off.’ If someone’s running around (or biking around) using expletives to strangers because they’re standing in their way on the sidewalk, I would say that person has entitlement issues, and you’re probably not going to reach them through education.
Yesterday afternoon I rode on the sidewalk for the first time in a while. I was taking Guelph and trying to cross Weber. I was hot, and I wanted to get home, and that light will not change unless there is either a car or a person on foot. I take it often, and I have to wait until a car comes to activate the light. I was impatient this time, and rode up onto the sidewalk to press the button for people on foot. There was no one around on the sidewalk but, sure enough, as I was riding back on the road a car showed up behind. I rode back onto the road like I should have been all of the time, but when the car passed me on the other side of the intersection he made a point of glaring at me across the passenger seat. Who knows if it was because, from his limited perspective, I had decided to stop being a sidewalk rider on Weber and decided to be a road rider on Guelph.
Very many riders do this manoeuvre at Guelph and Weber, by the way. I’ve stood there early morning waiting for a bus and watched while cyclists show up at the lights, wait for varying periods, and then either proceed against the light or ride up onto the sidewalk to push the button. There’s a solution here and at other similar intersections where a low-volume street meets a high-volume one, and that’s bike-activated lights specifically for cyclists. I’m not sure if it would be called for here, but Guelph is designated a cycling route by the City of Kitchener: if you’re going to encourage people to use a route, it should have the infrastructure to serve them.