🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <laskaCzE8tu.F97@netcom.com>, Andrew Laska <laska@netcom.com> wrote:
>Norman Richards (orb@bashful.cc.utexas.edu) wrote:
>:   There is nothing unsafe about riding on the sidewalk.  There is potential
>: unsafeness jsut as there is that same potential on the street.  The problem
>: is that some (ignorant) bikers choose to rise on the sidewalk in the same 
>: manner as they ride on the street.  This is incorrect.
>The Commerce Dept study which I paraphrased earlier in the thread 
>disagrees with you. [..]
  I don't think it disagrees.  I think it points out that most people
who ride on the sidewalk don't do it appropriately.  It says nothing about
the natural safeness or lack thereof.

>:  I have no problem with the law requiring me to ride safely.  I do have a 
>: problem with the law telling me I cannot use a particular route when it is
>: both well-suited and safe for me to do so.  
>On that note I think it is just STUPID to have a moving vehicle on a 
>pedstrian walkway. Its like walking in the street!!!
  There is nothing wrong with walking in the street - as long as there
aren't cars whizzing by at the same time.  If there are no cars on the
street then there is no problem in crossing a street or walking on it
as that is the safe time.  On the same notion - there is nothing 
wrong with riding a bike on the sidewalk.  If there is pedestrian
traffic then you go at pedestrian speeds.  When you have cleared pedestrian
traffic you can go at slightly faster speed.  (but still slow compared
to road speed)  You stop at intersections and everything is fine.  There
is no problem with this in terms of safety - except that many bikers don't
feel the need to ride safely on the sidewalk.  These bikers need to
be educated.  Perhaps a law against reckless riding on the sidewalk would
be in order, but banning it all out, I still say, is ignorant.



> [...] If you get to ride on the 
>sidewalk and are allowed to use your 'best judgement' then you are 
>unpredictible to pedestrians and other vehicles and the atmosphere is 
 While I agree with you in theory, I don't think riding on a sidewalk is any 
more inherently unpredicatable than riding on the road.  In addition, if
the biker is riding at an appropriate speed, there is no difference between
a biker on the sidewalk and a pedestrian - except perhaps shape. :)
______________________________________________________________________________
orb@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu              "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
                                     I chose to climb the nearest tree.
                                     And that has made all the difference."