| I sympathize with both your sidewalk-borne POV and those who are vehemently opposed to it. Unfortunately, bicycle safety is not primarily a behavioral issue, but a structural one. Road and sidewalk etiquette are important, but these territorial disputes between car, bicycle, and pedestrian are inherently unsolvable. Cyclists, being neither heavy fast steel nor slow moving soft tissue, really belong on neither road nor sidewalk. A different layer of infrastructure is needed to really solve the problem, but unfortunately such a layer doesn't easily retrofit to existing US cities. Even dedicated bike lanes along existing roadways can be an overly compromised and unsafe solution, for instance when they are bordered by a line of parked cars, doors just waiting to be opened in front of the cyclist. As much as I love all things bicycle-related, it's for these reasons that I believe cycling as transportation will always remain a niche activity in the US. For me, riding near traffic requires zen-master focus, alternating between the attitudes of assertiveness and invisibility. I view the sidewalk as a tool to be used when appropriate, e.g. when there are few pedestrians and vehicular traffic is murderous. |