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Old 10-21-05, 11:17 PM
  #25  
sggoodri
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I looked at Muskegon on Google maps, toggling between the map and satellite view. The streets with bicycle prohibitions are not freeway-like streets at all; they feature many, many intersections and driveways. These are quite ordinary streets with on-street parking prohibited, just like is the case on all of the thoroughfares that my city of Cary, NC has designated as bike routes.

It would appear that your city intends to keep cyclists out of the way for the purpose of improving convenience for motorists, just as they got the parked cars out of the way. But forcing cyclists to ride on sidewalks likely creates more danger than it can possibly reduce. You could probably demonstrate this by asking your police department for its records on car-bike collisions, and comparing the sidewalk-related collisions to the on-road overtaking type collisions. In my city, the sidewalk collisions were an order of magnitude more frequent than the overtaking collisions reported, and were no less severe. Add to this the numerous traffic safety publications (ITE, bicycle driver manuals, NCUTCD member Richard Moeur's work) discouraging sidewalk cycling, and you can make a powerful case that the local ordinance is contrary to best practices for safe bicycle transportation.


-Steve Goodridge
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