Originally Posted by
Don in Austin
I'm with you on this one. I find it VERY hard to believe asphalt is "softer" to a jogger than concrete. If asphalt compressed under a jogger's running shoe, bike, car and truck tires would sink into it -- they don't. I don't think the claim would pass a blindfold test.
I CAN see runners disliking decrepit sidewalks where the the concrete slabs are all in upheaval.
Don in Austin
Agreed, it's like the theory that putting rice in the salt shaker to keep it from clumping because the rise "absorbs" the moisture in the air. If that were true then wouldn't all of the rice in all of the bags swell up from the moisture in the air?
What actually happens (IIRC) from Alton Brown is that the rice actually serves to prevent the clumping by keeping the grains of salt separate.
And given that cars/trucks are considerably heavier then bikes/pedestrians, and that bikes are heavier than pedestrians you make a very valid point, why don't they/we sink into the asphalt?
Also agreed, if there is something about the sidewalk that would make it dangerous to use then of course they shouldn't use it. But they need to know that if they move into the bike lane or the roadway that they're now the one's who have to yield the right of way. And of course as always the doctrine of last clear chance always applies.