Comment 40129

By moylek (registered) - website | Posted April 25, 2010 at 10:36:15

A. Smith writes

Kids should be able to ride on the sidewalk, just as long as they know that pedestrians always have the right of way.

There's nothing more dangerous for a cyclist than cycling from a sidewalk into a cross walk - that's how a very large percentage of the accidents between cars and bikes occur.(1) This is not a good solution for children moving much above adult walking speeds.

A. Smith also writes

Moylek, converting dirt roads to paved roads helps everyone and hurts no one. Converting car lanes to bike lanes helps only cyclists and hurts people who use cars.

Well, once the roads became friendly to cars, the volume and speed of vehicle traffic (and changing technology and behaviour, of coures) drove cyclists off of the roads; so paving did hurt cyclists.

And is it so hard to acknowledge that many drivers are cyclists? And that many more can become cyclists as the infrastructure improves? It's like saying that sidewalks hurt people who use cars or buses hurt people who use cars or buildings hurt people who use cars - as if drivers never leave their cars to use sidewalks, buses, or buildings . . . or bikes.

And finally: for heaven's sake, I'm one of the few people here who post under my own full name and that full name is at the bottom of every single post I make - and that name is not moylek.

1: For example, see Risk Factors for Bicycle-Motor Vehicle Collisions at Intersections. I've seen cars hit bikes three times in the past five years; each time, the idiot cyclist was entering the road from a sidewalk.

Comment edited by moylek on 2010-04-25 09:41:40

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