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Is America Really That Bad?
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this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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And America can't be bothered to build safe bike lanes. I refuse to ride my bike on the road. Anyone who doesn't like me riding on the sidewalk can fuck off
The problem is you’d have to tear up a shitton of infrastructure to do it because built-up areas have no room to extend road widths safely to accommodate bike lanes. The driver behind that problem (pun intended) is the car culture and lack of public transportation. They can’t get rid of car lanes to hand them over to walking/biking dedicated areas because there’s too many cars and people that rely upon them to get around. There would never be enough people that would vote for or support such a project. Rural areas DGAF and are too poor to build bicycle infrastructure.
It’s not that we can’T be bothered, it’s the usual problem of Americans not wanting to pay for anything that they don’t use themselves or that might inconvenience them even though it’s good to get cars off the roads and keep people safe.
It's disingenuous to say rural areas are too poor to install public transportation. It's that there's too much to install (too much space) for any given user. Just economics of rural areas. It doesn't make sense unless we can significantly reduce the capital investment and running costs of public transport.
But riding on the sidewalk is less safe! Not just for pedestrians, for YOU, the cyclist. There are more hazards and less visibility.
Baseless statement, elaborate
It's not more dangerous for pedestrians because I am aware and respectful of them.
So tell me exactly how it's more dangerous for me to be on a further-removed pathway, protected by a curb and other objects like light posts.
Not baseless, data-driven. This isn't, like, my opinion, and this is the reason it's illegal for adults to ride on sidewalks in many municipalities.
There are more obstacles on the sidewalk, and sidewalk is more prone to be uneven. Most bicycle accidents aren't bike vs. car, but now vs. environment: unexpected bumps or drops, debris, obstacles like poles and tree branches.
But the real problem is visibility. People step out onto sidewalks not expecting a speeding cyclist, risking collisions. But more importantly for your safety, motorists aren't expecting you there, either. So when you are going across intersections, they cannot see you –because you're in the wrong place, and because as you point out, there are streetlights and sign poles and other objects between you– and may turn into you .
so the only case these apply are when the cyclist isn't paying attention to their surroundings... which is the real reason it's dangerous, and when you eliminate that, I would rather have bikes passing next to people than cars passing next to bikes, because the latter is actually deadly when someone does make a mistake
You can't anticipate someone stopping out of a storefront or doorway, though, especially not at speed. This is not something you can eliminate.
Of course you can't predict the future, and neither can motorists. What you can do is ride at a speed reasonably slow enough that you can react to people, and you can ride on the side of the pathway further from the doorways.
And like I said already, a bike on person accident at slow speed is favorable to risking my own life or life-changing injury by riding in the street.
If you're trying to change my mind, stop trying. For anyone reading this, petition your local government to build safe bike lanes with solid barriers and we won't have to have this argument.
I will give you that. The DC area is incredibly cyclable / walkable and it's nice, considering how scarce and expensive parking is.