Oh, as if it wasn't dangerous enough already..

[gridlore]

Talk radio hosts are encouraging their listeners to be aggressive against bike riders, whining about not wanting to share the road.

Bloody Hell, as if it wasn't hard enough to dodge hurtling metal already, we've got these nimrods bitching? My bike occupies about five square feet of road space. Deal with it. There is no way in hell I'm going to ride on the sidewalk when I'm doing 12 mph, about three times the average walking speed.

http://www.bikeleague.org/mediacenter/quickresponse.htm

Comments

[lysana.livejournal.com]

And dear gods, the last thing pedestrians need is more bicycles on the sidewalks. I keep fantasizing about clotheslining someone when they do that, especially when there are clearly marked bicycle lanes in the road they're avoiding like the plague. I'm not that violent normally, but each bicycle feels like a low-grade threat due to the speed difference. It builds up the more I walk to different places.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I've ridden on sidewalks, but only when riding in the street presents such a danger that I simply have no other option. And I regularly ride along Almaden Expressway. When I do ride on the sidewalk, I keep my speed down, and watch for anyone walking out of doors and the like.

To be honest, it's less stressful to dodge cars!

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

The sidewalk's also a lot less likely to have a sixpack's worth of bottles in it, serving as improvised caltrops. But I suppose that's more an artifact of living near campus.