(07-11-2015, 03:00 AM)Elmira Guy Wrote: You can state all you want how bikes should be permitted on sidewalks, but again I say, why should pedestrians be made to step off sidewalks so that cyclists can ride down them? ... And I'm sorry, but Lincoln isn't that busy. If you can't cope with it on a bike, take GRT or give your foot a push and start walking. ... Or do you see it as some sort of hierarchy with pedestrians (foot) at the bottom of the list?
1) I'm not saying bikes should be permitted on sidewalks. I am trying to explain what leads to the conflict.
2) I didn't say Lincoln was busy, I said Lincoln was fast. Sharing space on a busy street with cars going 20 km/h is nowhere near as scary as sharing space on an empty street with cars going 60+ km/h.
3) GRT does not serve all trips at all times of day, and frankly, for some people, even GRT is pretty expensive. Walking isn't going to get you across town here. Keep in mind that our more affordable housing tends to be further away from everything.
4) On the sidewalk (at the very least), pedestrians pretty clearly should be at the top of the hierarchy.
(07-11-2015, 08:11 AM)ookpik Wrote: And having a bicycle fly by you at 20km/hr isn't scary enough to push many pedestrians off the sidewalk? And to where?
WADR you need to rethink this attitude, shared by all-too-many cyclists, that they somehow have the right to impose themselves on legal sidewalk users simply because they don't feel safe where they're legally required to ride their bikes.
Please don't make your problem, our problem.
Why are you lecturing me? And why do you think lecturing anyone will solve the problem? I'm not a proponent of people biking by pedestrians at high speed on the sidewalk - it's dangerous but most of all, just not nice. I don't have a problem with people biking in spaces shared with people on foot if they do so with great courtesy to the latter.
(I personally bike on the road or multi-use paths the vast majority of the time, and treat pedestrians with courtesy if I am in shared spaces. We're not talking about me here.)
(07-11-2015, 11:22 AM)ookpik Wrote: My objection is to the attitude of some cyclists that because they feel unsafe on the infrastructure that's intended for them that that somehow gives them any legal or moral "right" to use sidewalks. It doesn't.
Neither our infrastructure nor our laws really treat cycling as a valid mode of transportation. Saying "tough luck if you want to / need to bike" is not a solution to our transportation problems or conflicts.
I don't know if you've noticed, but the discourteous sidewalk cyclists (i.e. the ones who don't give pedestrians a wide berth) don't generally look like they would self-identify as cyclists nor would post in forums like this one. They tend to ride ill-fitting crappy bikes, and don't look particularly happy with their predicament on the street or in life.