A bicycle is NOT a car or a pedestrian

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

One thing I wonder... I have seen bike paths (marked as such) running alongside roads that did not have bike lanes. The bike path (again, clearly marked) was smooth and on the other side of the ditch from cars. Why do bicyclists not use those where they are available, but instead ride in the road anyway?

While I can not speak for everywhere, I can for the places that I have lived.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Every place that I have lived and the place I do so currently has had bike paths that are for cyclists only and were voted for and the money allocated to create a safe network of connecting pathways that would allow for those of us who live in town and do not want to waste the gasoline to bike from their houses behind the main shopping strips to said shopping areas.

Especially as the traffic lights would mean that from my house to the Walmart was 5 minutes quicker by bike than by car.

But in these places the network never happened. Where I live now we have a nice paved pathway running from one shopping strip to another and not have it connected to any of the other places that it was supposed to. That the proposed several miles of pathway ended up being a straight half-mile path from the K-Mart plaza to the Walmart.

If you actually want to get on to the pathway you need to risk life and limb on the major multi-lane divided highway that is the main drag to get to it.

In the place I lived previously it was a bit better. There was a massive network connecting the residential districts to each other via the pathways. It was nice, there were tunnels under the interstate and the major highways, there was lighting on them powered by solar collectors and batteries and the mains (when the batteries were drained or were in need of replacing).

But all of the businesses backed out of the deal and would not give up the very narrow strip of out parcel land needed to connect the shopping to the network of residential pathways. So as before, you have to eventually deal with some of the most inattentive-asshole ridden stretches of multi-lane divided highway.

In fact one stretch has a notorious record of at least one pedestrian injury per month and three fatalities per year.

And I can tell you why I do not ride on the bike lanes. Because very few people are willing to notice us. The last night I rode on a bike lane was the night I had someone run into my bike.

I was standing there on my bike to wait for a car to turn left so I could go on. It was night, I had my lights on , I was wearing my reflective vest, and I was stopped in the bike lane waiting for this guy to go.

He clipped the front tire and wrapped it back into and around my leg.

Luckily a passing pedestrian saw that I was under my bike with my leg awkwardly trapped in such a way that I could not leverage it off of my leg unless I could dismount the bike which thanks to the pinned leg I could not do. He managed to pry it open enough to get my leg out and apart from a few scrapes, the only injury was to my dignity and my wallet.

Aluminum Rims are not cheap.

Since then I ride the sidewalks. They allow me to get where I need to go, there is a buffer between me and the assholes driving, and as long as I don't go flying down the sidewalks like a jackass no one has complained about it yet.

[Boozy]

actually riding on the sidewalk is a higher risk(some studies put the risk of a vehicle cycle crash at over 4 times higher for sidewalk riders) as at every driveway and intersection, cars are not expecting fast moving bikes but slow moving pedestrians so when they scan for pedestrians they won't see the cyclist because they're back farther(cyclist around 10-15mph vs. pedestrian at 1-3mph).

This is an excellent point. I despise cyclists using sidewalks, both as a pedestrian and as a driver.

Sidewalks are for people going about 3 or so mph. Even if you're a runner, you'll only be going 7 or 8 mph tops, and you have the advantage of extreme manoeuvreability and stopping power using your own two feet. You don't get that on a bicycle.

I recently came very close to hitting a cyclist who was using the sidewalk. I went to make a right turn, and they came out of NOWHERE, at at least 15 mph. He fell off his bike from stopping too suddenly, and then yelled at me. I felt terrible, but I really didn't see how I could have prevented what happened. Like I said, one second there was no one, and the next, BAM! Bicycle.

The thing is, if he'd been using the bike lane, I'd have seen him approaching in my rearview mirror. The bike lane runs flush to the road, whereas the sidewalk curved in and out somewhat, and was partially obscured by bushes and tall grass (which the city really needs to reconsider).

[lordlundar]

actually riding on the sidewalk is a higher risk(some studies put the risk of a vehicle cycle crash at over 4 times higher for sidewalk riders) as at every driveway and intersection, cars are not expecting fast moving bikes but slow moving pedestrians so when they scan for pedestrians they won't see the cyclist because they're back farther(cyclist around 10-15mph vs. pedestrian at 1-3mph).

stats here

how not to get hit by cars

The problem with those studies is that while they do show a higher crash rate for sidewalks, they don't cover the effects. A crash on a sidewalk there's a good chance of both parties surviving with minor injuries. A crash on the road has a solid chance of the cyclist needing to have body parts peeled off the road.

Ideally, a separate (and acknowledged) cycling lane and everyone in all 3 groups (driver, cyclist, pedestrian) being aware of all their surroundings would resolve a lot of this. But when you have a situation like where I live with the only dedicated cycling routes are recreational only and an attitude amongst both pedestrians and drivers is "go bother the other group!" (yes, every spring I see letters in the papers of drivers saying "ride on the sidewalk!" and pedestrians saying "ride on the road"), It's in my best interest to do what's least likely to put me in hospital.

[Silverharp]

I guess what's getting to me is the culture shock, as well.
Moving from Salt Lake City (Which is notorious for it's bad drivers) to the Portland area (which apparently has a bad rep for entitled cyclists) I'm in a "Well shit, 1/2 dozen of one, six of the other", esspecially since I'm foot bound until I can get another car.
Thanks the gods for a good public transit system, though!

[Ginger Tea]

I remain confused at this. If you are going straight through the intersection and were riding up until the light, why would you not ride through, then dismount when you get to the other side, walk the bike around so that you were lined up with the new direction, then mount up and ride through the intersection in the new direction as you would if you had been going that way prior and only stopped due to the light changing?

Very few of the right turns I am making where I dismount are controlled by lights, thankfully these are only on days off going into town and not a daily event. most of my route is a straight line.
If it is light controlled and each quater has to wait its turn, it's safe for me to turn right without the other end comming at me or cars behind me wanting to go straight.

Some days traffic is so heavy that to cross the road to head off to work, it is easier to cycle the other way down to the lights and then uturn there, but I would have that problem on foot too, although on foot why needlessly cross the road

We had snow over the weekend and where the cycle lanes are, they were still under snow so I had no choice but to stay on the clear road, thankfully it was weekend traffic going away fom town so not much there, but it made the roads narrower, hell on the way home I almost had a wing mirror of an ambulance hit me, I felt something but I think it was the air disturbed by it.
It wasn't the larger modern units possibly a ferry passengers from one hospital to another and it wasn't running sirens or owt and I was in the cycle lane (what had been cleared) but I couldn't but notice the irony of an accident almost being caused with an ambulance.

Back on cycling on the pavement
It's full of snow

But I don't know about where you live, but I see alot of peeps on the road and more often on the pavement (especially without lights) cycling with both hands in their coat pockets, so even if I didn't make a sudden move he (predominantly male) has NO steering abilities.

So picture the scene, you are facing traffic at a bus stop looking for your bus, you move occasionally to the inside or towards the kerb to get a better look and someone is cycling against traffic on the pavement with hands in pockets, all it takes is for someone to return to the wall they were sat on after double checking the time table and wham bike all over you.

One time I was going home by bus, it had gone dark and had some shopping bags on me, those larger reuseable ones that UK supermarkets use.
both arms semi out stretched so I didn't get my knees whacked, school kid old enough to be on the road commes towards me (again probably no lights) but not at speed, I wasn't in the mood to go either side and when you do that with fellow pedestrians you always end up going the same way anyway.
He gets closer and finding me not moving swerved and squealed as he ran onto the uneaven semi dried mud.

[Andara Bledin]

Sidewalks are for people going about 3 or so mph. Even if you're a runner, you'll only be going 7 or 8 mph tops, and you have the advantage of extreme manoeuvreability and stopping power using your own two feet. You don't get that on a bicycle.

While this is true, it doesn't address the fact that the people most likely to hit cyclists will actually slow down and look at the sidewalks, but won't even glance at the bike lanes at all.

This is most likely due to the fact that there's almost always someone walking somewhere, but almost never someone cycling. Out of sight, out of mind.

^-.-^

[Boozy]

I don't make a point of checking the bike lane before turning, but I do check my rearview mirror when slowing for a turn, as do all good drivers. This means I can see all approaching traffic, bikes included.

Even most drivers who don't check their rearview will signal their turns, which a cyclist can see more easily from a bike lane than from the sidewalk.

[HYHYBT]

I wish I could remember which book it was in, but every time I see this conversation I'm reminded of a scene from one of the "Incarnations of Immortality" books. Someone or other, in approaching Nature's home, goes through a sort of test. The details are changed so he doesn't realize what's happening (different forms of transportation, different setting) or that the others are him, but basically he meets himself as equivalents of a walker, a bicyclist, and a driver, nearly colliding and leaving thinking how inconsiderate the other two were each time.

[jackfaire]

Even most drivers who don't check their rearview will signal their turns, which a cyclist can see more easily from a bike lane than from the sidewalk.

I had a driver almost run me down pulling into a right turn lane because he didn't think he needed to check his rearview mirrors to cross the bike lane.

[telecom_goddess]

I guess what's getting to me is the culture shock, as well.
Moving from Salt Lake City (Which is notorious for it's bad drivers) to the Portland area (which apparently has a bad rep for entitled cyclists) I'm in a "Well shit, 1/2 dozen of one, six of the other", esspecially since I'm foot bound until I can get another car.
Thanks the gods for a good public transit system, though!

Oh do you mean the same public transit system that is experiencing millions in a budget shortfall and are going to raise fares and cut service again -- and it's not going to end next year either.

[blas87]

What drives me bananas is this time of year (not so much this year because thank the Lord in heaven we've had a really mild winter), the sidewalks and sides of the road are usually so covered in ice and snow and whatnot (damn if people really need to shovel their sidewalks or the city has to do their job in snow removal), that it's hard to maneuver around residential areas or smaller commercial areas because the pedestrians and bicyclists have no other option than to ride/walk practically in the middle of the road because the bike lane has been obliterated by snow, and the sidewalks are suicide to walk on.

[telecom_goddess]

What drives me bananas is this time of year (not so much this year because thank the Lord in heaven we've had a really mild winter), the sidewalks and sides of the road are usually so covered in ice and snow and whatnot (damn if people really need to shovel their sidewalks or the city has to do their job in snow removal), that it's hard to maneuver around residential areas or smaller commercial areas because the pedestrians and bicyclists have no other option than to ride/walk practically in the middle of the road because the bike lane has been obliterated by snow, and the sidewalks are suicide to walk on.

That right there bugs me as a pedestrian. They clear the middle of the road but do nothing for the sidewalks, and yes it can be suicide to walk on them. I have shoe chains I put on to keep me on my feet on ice...if it wasn't for those I would never get anywhere in the winter sometimes.

[HYHYBT]

I love living where it snows rarely enough that it makes sense just to stay off the roads and sidewalks for a day or do