On my commute, it is a mixture of roads, off road (a little), two bike paths and two stretches of sidewalk which I cannot avoid. They are the safest route possible.

Anyway, on the sidewalk in Camden (which Camden is a very poor city and dangerous) there is a lot of glass. I was wondering if anyone has or does bring a small table brush or something that they use to brush the glass out of the way.

Second question: On this same sidewalks, the branches of trees are very low and I am a big rider so ducking really sucks. The trees sit on public property and was wondering if anyone has trimmed branches that cause them trouble on their commute.

Thoughts?

I called the Park District twice about some low hanging branches, and they took care of them the next day.

I thought about that but this is Camden. Poverty is high, crime is high, so I am not hopeful.

I go through a pretty sketchy area as well on my commute, also littered with glass and metal shrapnel of all kinds. I have sort of just taken it as a given, and try to pay closer attention. If I ride far enough in the lane, I can manage to avoid most of it. I feel your pain, though. Definitely doesn't make for the most relaxing commute...

I call it the glass gardens. lol

The branches bug me the most since I am a tall rider. And if I duck, I lose line of sight.

This is New Jersey. You don't touch anyone's trees, not even your own without a process. I knew someone years ago that cut a tree on his own property and the neighbor filed a complaint with the town because they claimed they looked at that tree through their kitchen window for 30 years. The guy ended up having to put up another tree to satisfy the town. You'll probably have charges brought against you and at the very least an opportunistic homeowner will squeeze you for some money in return for not bringing charges.

lol, I can see that! I should be ok because this is on a street area with no homes.

I pretty much stopped sweeping bike lanes and the like, between our city ordinance and after being confronted by a hostile home owner, I learned from city officials that anything that I sweep or cut, I must haul away. Add in the fact that I was also a target of harassment by a few motorists, though they were not in large numbers, but enough to not make cleaning the BLs worth the effort.

Ride in the tire tracks in the lane - less debris there, and consider some serious tires - I commute on Schwalbe Marathon Plus which laughs at glass in the road.

please read my op. Tire tracks are not possible on this area of my commute.

I've worked for municipal tree depts. before. If they're public trees then there is an agency somewhere that has jurisdiction over them. If you cut them, they will come after you. There is a right way and a wrong way to trim trees and tree wardens do not like citizens taking matters into their own hands.

That said, if you find out the agency they will usually be glad to trim them for you if it will not harm the tree. Although trimming a tree so an adult can ride their bike on the sidewalk may not be a top priority.

I live in the great City of Los Angeles, CA. LA is virtually broke. Anyway, our streets have thousands of trees including my street. Tree trimming used to take place every 3 to 5 years until the crash. Any, I called the city to request tree trimming on our street since the branches were so low that pedestrians had to duck. The letter I got back informed me that there was no money in the tree trimming budget, or most other city services. However, my street was still on schedule to have its tree's trimmed, in 50 years. This is not a typo, 50 years. As far as glass, forget about it.

I often carry some garden hand pruners and trim small branches interfering with passage along sidewalks. In my city you can easily ask for forgiveness but permission is almost impossible. The city sees permission as creating potential liability but if the thing is already accomplished, carry on.

My thoughts excactly!

Don't trim. Bend until they are out of your way. If they happen to break, oh well.

At least they still have enough people on staff to respond to letters about tree trimming.

We had sick city trees for years on our street,they dropped so much sap nobody could wear shoes in their house and you couldn't park a car anywhere near them,it would trash the paint.

Every year,by the end of summer,there would be an inch of sap on the street,it would pull the shoes off your feet if you walked on it.

The city did nothing after 5 years of pleading with them by me and everybody on my street.They said they would give us a permit to have them trimmed/removed at our expense...gee thanks!

I can only take so much bull.....So I fired up the chainsaw,trimmed the tree to look like a totem pole,dragged the branches out in the street,carved the face of the head of parks and rec(that's who trims our trees) into the tree and called the city and told them to come get there crap out of the street.

They threaten me with a lawsuit,I laughed hard.Within 2 weeks,they found the time to remove all of the trees in my block and plant new ones.

All of my neighbors and I had a good laugh over that one.......

The city has plenty of money to rebuild the golf course,invest in a Bob's Big Boy,tear down a perfectly good high school and rebuild it....but no money for tree trimming and fixing the streets.

You just need to build a fire under their hiney.....

I will stop and "trim" branches or sweep glass off of a mup for me and everybody,I have no problem with that,I'm not in a hurry,I'm on a bicycle.

+1...or 2. After all I don't ride a unicycle.

My city is pretty good at trimming trees and keeping glass of of the MUP that is the backbone of my commute. This means that I encounter a city truck or "gator" on the mup almost every day, driving at about 5 mph. It's completely worth it, of course...but there's no free lunch.