Originally Posted by
Steely Dan
yep. a little common sense goes a long way.
the absolutists against sidewalk riding often don't seem capable of nuanced thinking. not all sidewalks are the same. not even close.
would i ride my bike down a crowded downtown chicago sidewalk screaming "ON YOUR LEFT" every other second at the throngs of people walking to and fro? of course not. i'm not an idiot.
i don't want to injure any pedestrians with my bike any more than i want to be injured by a motorist. what's the cost of spending a handful of seconds on safety?
but a short stretch of very rarely used sidewalk that goes past a sewage plant tucked away on northside side-street that allows me to get to the trailhead of a MUP? hell yeah i'm gonna ride that.
and the once a month or so that i actually do encountered a pedestrian on that short stretch of sidewalk, i use common sense and slow way down and give a wide berth to the pedestrian.
Right?
And blind adherence to bicycling laws that say I have to ride on the road with traffic would put me in mortal danger every day. While riding on the unused sidewalk reduces danger to a small fraction of what it is riding on this particular street.
The intent of the 'don't ride on the sidewalk' law was to make things safer. And 90% of the time it's probably a good idea to stay off the sidewalk. But riding on that one street makes things less safe. So I don't do it. That's not in compliance with the letter of the law but it's in full compliance with the spirit of that law.
When lawmakers create such a law they are not looking at every inch of the thousands of miles of sidewalk in the county. Sometimes the law makes things worse in spots, and blind adherence to such a law is nothing short of dumb. Why would I put my life in considerable risk to adhere to a law created with different situations in mind?