🚀 go-pugleaf

>Robert Coe wrote:
>
>>  As a pedestrian, I find that I'm much more likely to have a close
>> call with a bicycle than with an automobile.  In Cambridge, for
>> example, where most motorists are super-polite to pedestrians
>> (because they know they'll get the book thrown at them if they
>> aren't), many bicyclists ride too fast, ride on the sidewalk,
>> ignore traffic signals (especially walk lights), and never give up
>> the right-of-way to a pedestrian under any circumstances.

I live in Cambridge, and bicycle about 6 days a week, mostly on Harvard
St., Main St., and Mass. Ave.  I observe all the traffic signals,
except the ones at Columbia and Harvard and one other on Harvard
because the stop light sensors cannot pick up my bicycle.  Drivers are
much more predictable than the pedestrians, who often just listen
for cars, and jump out into the street in front of me after it's too
late to so anything but narrowly miss them.  Or they walk past the
parked cars and into the bike lane along Mass. Ave without looking
first, and wait in the middle of the bike lane for a break in the
auto traffic.  Cars and taxis are also parked and double parked in the
bike lane, making things even more difficult.

Is this how biking is in other cities?  Pedestrians with a deathwish?
I have heard that you can actually get a ticket for jaywalking in some
places in California (I still can't imagine it, though).

Ryan Cleary
Cambridge, MA