Dealing with adult sidewalk riders: What is to be done?
There have already a couple of interesting discussions on this topic here. But one obvious question remains: What can we do about the problem of sidewalk riders?
Some have already suggested informal, individual ways of dealing with the problem, e.g. calling them out, not moving out of their way, telling them its illegal, etc. I myself employ most of these on a regular basis, but individual solutions aren't cutting it.
This is a serious problem. For starters, it's dangerous for pedestrians (and for the bikers too, incidentally). It's also frustrating for other bikers, who frequently have no idea what a sidewalk rider will do next (e.g. will they swerve out onto the street, then back to the side walk... will they cut in front of you when you have a green light accross the crosswalk? who knows...).
The problem is largely one of education, I think. Of course, there will always be that jerk that rides on the sidewalk anyway and yells "exSCUZE ME!" when you're trying to walk. But I think that 3/4 of sidewalk riders just don't know that its illegal, unsafe, and not the way to ride a bike in the city.
Any ideas about how to address this problem? Obviously this city has far larger fish to fry (e.g. fighting the punishing service cuts to CTA, school closings, layoffs of teachers and bus-drivers, TIFs, the deportation of fellow Chicagoans, etc., etc.). But this is still a problem that needs solving.
Any ideas?
Some have already suggested informal, individual ways of dealing with the problem, e.g. calling them out, not moving out of their way, telling them its illegal, etc. I myself employ most of these on a regular basis, but individual solutions aren't cutting it.
This is a serious problem. For starters, it's dangerous for pedestrians (and for the bikers too, incidentally). It's also frustrating for other bikers, who frequently have no idea what a sidewalk rider will do next (e.g. will they swerve out onto the street, then back to the side walk... will they cut in front of you when you have a green light accross the crosswalk? who knows...).
The problem is largely one of education, I think. Of course, there will always be that jerk that rides on the sidewalk anyway and yells "exSCUZE ME!" when you're trying to walk. But I think that 3/4 of sidewalk riders just don't know that its illegal, unsafe, and not the way to ride a bike in the city.
Any ideas about how to address this problem? Obviously this city has far larger fish to fry (e.g. fighting the punishing service cuts to CTA, school closings, layoffs of teachers and bus-drivers, TIFs, the deportation of fellow Chicagoans, etc., etc.). But this is still a problem that needs solving.
Any ideas?
Views: 205
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jason W on
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Your efforts are better spent educating drivers, not cyclists. I personally will ride on an empty sidewalk if the road is poor for bikes.
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Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on
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Yes, and it would also be nice if walking across the street couldn't get you run over by someone blowing a stop sign or a red light.
H3N3 said:Maybe talk to them and find out why they ride on the sidewalk?
And-- if a cyclist takes to the street directly because you implored them to, and they get killed by a distracted or reckless or aggressive driver-- will you accept responsibility for their death? Before you push these indivduals out into the street it would be nice if our streets were less deadly places to bicycle.
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Permalink Reply by Bicycle Poet on
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There is certainly a lot of room for improvement in good biking behaviors from the cyclists in Chicago. Sidewalk bikers are only one of the symptoms that stems from a tremendous growth our city has seen over the past decade in uninformed, new cyclists.
Where do Chicago's new cyclists learn appropriate cycling behavior? The answer is: most don't -- until maybe they are lucky enough to ride with more experienced riders who can demonstrate good behavior.
If we want to reduce sidewalk biking, headphone biking, and other poor biking practices we all see everyday, we need to establish an education campaign that takes this on full force.
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Permalink Reply by Wesley Dolezal on
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shove 'em
iggi said:clotheslining them?
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Permalink Reply by Dan Korn on
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You say that it's dangerous, but do you have any evidence to back up that assertion?
Every single week, on average, one pedestrian is killed in the City of Chicago. Not by bikes, but by cars.
And not just on the streets, but on the sidewalks too, and even in buildings:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2518174,taxi-crash-downtown-7-ele...
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/loop-crash-eight-people-...
Find me one instance of a pedestrian killed by a cyclist on a sidewalk in the last ten years and I'll eat my handlebars.
People love to rail against cyclists with all sorts of anecdotal stories about how they "almost" got hit by a bike, how they "could have" gotten injured or killed, how they are so annoyed about "reckless" cyclists. These stories are nothing but a shell of sensationalism with nothing at all substantive inside. It's bad enough to hear people dredge up this tired old BS to defend their own terrible driving habits in a pathetic attempt to somehow dilute the blame for all the automobile-related carnage on our roads. It's even worse when we do it ourselves.
Cyclists riding on sidewalks isn't a problem that needs solving at all. Please redirect your activism towards something that will actually save lives. Either that, or go yell at people for littering, because that does more damage than sidewalk-riding cyclists.
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Permalink Reply by Dr. Doom on
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Cycling on the sidewalk isn't dangerous to pedestrians (though it is really irritating when done by anyone who isn't accompanying a small child), it's dangerous to cyclists. Cars aren't looking out for bikes coming off curbs, and collisions caused by idiot cyclists doing so are fairly common.
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That might actually work
H3N3 said:Kiss 'em.
Wesley Dolezal said:shove 'em
iggi said:clotheslining them?
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Well said Dan! We need to qualify "dangerous" here. Cars kill pedestrians and cyclists. Cyclists might knock over a pedestrian. One results in an owie, another results in the morgue...
Dan Korn said:You say that it's dangerous, but do you have any evidence to back up that assertion?
Every single week, on average, one pedestrian is killed in the City of Chicago. Not by bikes, but by cars.
And not just on the streets, but on the sidewalks too, and even in buildings:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2518174,taxi-crash-downtown-7-ele...
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/loop-crash-eight-people-...
Find me one instance of a pedestrian killed by a cyclist on a sidewalk in the last ten years and I'll eat my handlebars.
People love to rail against cyclists with all sorts of anecdotal stories about how they "almost" got hit by a bike, how they "could have" gotten injured or killed, how they are so annoyed about "reckless" cyclists. These stories are nothing but a shell of sensationalism with nothing at all substantive inside. It's bad enough to hear people dredge up this tired old BS to defend their own terrible driving habits in a pathetic attempt to somehow dilute the blame for all the automobile-related carnage on our roads. It's even worse when we do it ourselves.
Cyclists riding on sidewalks isn't a problem that needs solving at all. Please redirect your activism towards something that will actually save lives. Either that, or go yell at people for littering, because that does more damage than sidewalk-riding cyclists.
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Again, cyclists who ride on sidewalks frequently get into accidents with cars because no one expects them to go flying through crosswalks.
The idea that it's anywhere near remotely okay to knock over a pedestrian is unbelievably asinine. I would tackle someone off a bike if I saw them doing that. It's less irresponsible than cars blowing stop signs in the same way that stabbing someone is less dangerous than shooting them.
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