no motor?

That's one thing that still puzzles me when I see someone walking in the street about 5 feet away from a smooth empty sidewalk. I don't think it's cultural as I've seen people of different races/genders/cultures/ages doing this at different times of the day. And yes I know some joggers feel that the road is easier on their knees and won't use the sidewalk - that's not what I'm wondering about here. A quick internet search showed I'm not the only one with this question but didn't have any answers, is there a better one than people do stupid things on a regular basis?

alan s 

The same reason they walk the wrong way on a MUP (against traffic). They are stupid.

KonAaron Snake 

The jogger thing annoys the hell out of me; I don't mind most of them...the majority just hop back into the sidewalk when someone is coming...but the ones who stake out a piece of street/bike path, wearing headphones while aggressively forcing road/path users to react to them are one more notch on the inconsiderate annoyance list.

I don't get the peds in the street thing either...I was driving on a relatively fast two lane road the other day with a guy just walking in the middle of the left lane, against traffic. That was drugs/alcohol.

Eric S.

The one that makes the least sense to me is people walking dogs in the street.

Wanderer

Yep, stupidity!

lostarchitect 

People do this all the time in my neighborhood, which is a fairly busy 'hood in central Brooklyn. When I moved here 5 or so years ago, I figured they were just walking to / from their cars. Nope. Just walking down the street. In traffic. With the sidewalk 6 feet away. I have no idea why.

ThermionicScott 

Institutional memory?

WonderMonkey

Probably the same reason I see bikes on streets that run right next to bike paths. They want to do it and have a "reason" which may be able to justify it themselves but not to many other people.

WonderMonkey

Also I see some do it because they feel powerful. "Yeah I'm doing what I shouldn't and you can't do anything about it!" I think that is only a small portion though.

rumrunn6

even tho jay-walking is a crime punishable by citation, the pedestrian still has the right of way, explain that to me

no motor?

I'm glad to see this doesn't make sense to anyone else either.

yankeefan

Its a political conspiracy. They want to get hit by a cyclist so that they can get media coverage and lobby their municipal government to ban bikes. I have so many close calls with pedestrians on a daily basis I'm convinced they want to be hit.

gregf83 

I don't believe everyone is stupid. Rather the reason they are in the road just didn't happen to be evident to you when you went by them.

I'll give you a few reasons why runners/walkers will run/walk in the street:
1. Sidewalk is uneven. Either due to trees or driveways sidewalks around here are often more uneven if running/walking at night can pose a potential tripping hazard.
2. For some reason they occasionally feel the need to stick a telephone pole or other obstacle in the middle of the sidewalk. If the sidewalk is busy it's easier just to switch to the road sometimes. Edit: This might also explain why walker with a dog on a leash find it easier to walk in the road.

I'm sure there are lots of other reasons. It doesn't bother me on a bike as I find it very simple to move over a few feet on my bike.

I'm more intrigued by drivers who are reluctant to move into the opposite lane in order to pass me when I'm on my bike. It takes zero effort on their part but they'd rather blow their horn or pass too close. I suspect it's for the same reason people are complaining on this thread. The driver doesn't see the reason (debris on the shoulder, potholes, whatever) I'm riding on or close to the fog line and assumes I'm stupid and thinks I should be 'taught a lesson'. Either that or they're just incompetent drivers.

alan s 

I witnessed a perfect example of bike rider stupidity this morning. A guy was riding on the road, which is in much worse condition than the bike path immediately to the right. This is on a two lane winding road with lots of traffic in both directions and no shoulder. Another bike was literally right next to him on the bike path. Stupid and smart, right there in front of me. There is no other explanation.

Eric S.

Awhile back a car passed me in a bike lane without providing any extra space; not dangerously close, but close. A person in a motorized wheelchair was about 50 yards ahead of me in the bike lane and the same car moved into the other lane.

I live in Las Vegas and we have those "hockey pucks" for lane dividers. I'm pretty sure drivers try to avoid rattling their suspension when passing.

no motor?

Yeah, I've seen that before but the person that got me wondering about this on my ride in this morning was walking down a new street with a newer strip of row houses with a new sidewalk on one side. They're building more houses on the other side of the street and the street she was walking in had a lot of dirt left behind by the construction crews - and she was walking on the side of the street closer to the construction. She'd passed up new clean level concrete to walk on a dirty uneven road, and was busy talking on her phone to boot.

t x

I don't know, I ride in the street right next to a completely separated MUP path near my house all the time. The MUP is a mixture of joggers, dog walkers, strollers, rollerbladers and folks riding their bikes recreationally at <10mph. My average moving speed on that stretch is ~18mph, it's just far safer for me to ride in the street for all parties.

gregf83 

The bike path was in the shoulder or separated from the road? I typically don't like riding on bike paths and prefer the road. Too many stops on some paths.

wolfchild

- I never see people walking on the roadways, the roads are too busy with traffic, and we have a lot of
good sidewalks along the roadways.

- I don't have a problem with jay walkers, it's no different then a cyclist running a red or a stop, it
can be done safely, I do it all the time.

- I never seen anybody walking their dog on a road, that would be very stupid.

mconlonx

Why do people walk in the street with a perfectly good sidewalk right next to them? I bet a healthy dose of motor vehicle operators think the same thing about bicycles.

Why do people ride bicycles in the streets when there's a perfectly good MUP they could ride?

Are pedestrians forced by law to use the sidewalks where there is one, instead or walking in the street?

Why do laws and advice specifically state to walk against traffic, rather than with, if pedestrians are not entitled to the same use of the road as motor vehicles and bicycles?

Why shouldn't they walk the street? And what's it to you, anyway...?

spare_wheel

A crime? LOL! What drama!

I love jaywalking -- although, to be honest, most of the "jaywalking" I do is legal here in OR. And its completely legal in the most populous state in the USA (as it should be everywhere).

spare_wheel

I do this all the time for multiple reasons:

1) I'm cycling faster than motorists and/or splitting lanes.
2) I'm cycling fast enough that I want to eliminate being overtaken and cut off by an impatient motorist.
3) I can time lights/Idaho stop in the big lane but not in the bike facility.
4) The bike facility is clogged with slower riders (very common).
5) I need to make a left turn.

Dave Cutter

+1 If they want to walk in/on the street... why on Earth would I care? And.... I don't care.

gmm213

I see this regularly. You'll see people walking along the edge of the road, in a bike lane, with a sidewalk next to them. And the bike lanes down here are much much worse than the sidewalks. And they do not care of they get in your way and they will not move.

It also annoys me when recreational riders ride on the sidewalk and have to take up the whole thing. Thats also really common where I am. I was walking the sidewalk one day with headphones in, far enough over so if someone was walking they could get by. This guy on a beach cruiser style rides up behind me and couldnt get by and starts screaming for me to get out of the way. I turned and told him to ride in the bike lane where he was supposed to. He told me he didnt have to, I told him I didnt have to move out of his way either.

TenSpeedV2

I don't care so much about people walking on the street as I do people walking in the bike lane. And on campus here, there are designated bike paths, with very noticeable signage on them, yet people still walk on them, when there is a sidewalk adjacent to it. Completely blows my mind.

Check out my man in the red. See the no pedestrian signage right ON the path?



Now look where the pedestrian path is, with the woman walking on that correctly.



Every couple of hundred feet this is visible. The bike path is even a different color. Doesn't seem to matter though.