Originally Posted by Helmet Head
Fair enough. Never-the-less, my question stands. If a cyclist does not have the traffic knowledge, understanding and skills to ride reasonably safely in the streets, does he have the traffic knowledge, understanding and skills to ride reasonably safely along streets on sidewalks, across crosswalks and on paths that intersect streets?
Also, whether kids are riding on sidewalks or streets, they continue to represent a disproportionately high percentage of bike-related fatalities, particularly when you consider how much less most kids ride compared to all the adults who ride thousands of miles per year.
Sorry. I assumed that you were implying that sidewalk/path cycling is appropriate for someone who lacks training to ride on the streets. My bad.
I have to disagree with you HH
Riding on sidewalks as a two-wheeled pedestrian and riding on the street as a vehichle are two totally different things with little overlap in traffic interaction skills. That's why you can have a child that knows how to be a safe pedestrian but has no idea how to operate a vehichle in traffic.
If there are segregated facilities for a kid to ride to school that intersect streets its primarily a matter of teaching the kid to dismount and safely cross the street
as a pedestrian before resuming his/her journey. Not much different to teaching them how to safely walk to school, remember we're not talking about adult vehichular cyclists here but children that don't have the ability to make the sort of safety judgements that you and I make in real-time, subconsciously, while riding in traffic.
Just out of interest, here in Sydney it's legal for a child up to 12 years of age to ride on sidewalks, and it's also legal for an adult accompanying that child to also ride on sidewalks with the child.