Thursday, April 1, 2010
No, I Won’t Get on the Sidewalk.
Words Wes Cheney
Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 6:05 am
I was heading south on Granby Street at sunset last week, getting ready to climb the bridge over the Lafayette River when a shiny black Cadillac sedan rolled up next to me.
Get off the sidewalk, lads.
A polite woman asked out the open window,
“Would you please get on the sidewalk?”
To which I replied, with a rebel yell, “NO!”
What I wish I had said was, “I’ll ride on the sidewalk when you ride in the back of the bus.”
Let me back up & set the scene a little bit more: my daughter was riding a trail-a-bike hitched to my touring bike (three wheels for 2 people). We were both wearing helmets & backpacks, there were two red “blinkie” lights on our bike pointing backwards, and two white lights pointing forward. At 6:45pm, the traffic in the three southbound lanes of Granby Street was moderately light. We were riding a couple of feet to the left of the curb in the far-right lane.
There is an attitude prevalent in Norfolk that bicyclists belong on the sidewalk. It’s an attitude that’s held not only by drivers, but also by some cyclists. The street is for cars, the sidewalk is for everyone else. It’s an attitude that seems to span generations- I’ve seen guys in their sixties trying to navigate a sidewalk on a beach cruiser when there is an almost-empty four-lane road next to them.
Legally speaking, there’s a Norfolk City Ordinance that prohibits cyclists over the age of 16 from riding on the sidewalk. Sadly, I seem to be the only citizen in Norfolk who knows about that rule.
This curious site is what's called a "bike lane." (Weird. We know.)
Even if it was legal, it still wouldn’t be safe- cyclists traveling on sidewalks are three to four times more likely to be involved in an accident than those riding in the street. Because of the abundance of visual obstacles and the greater speed of cyclists compared to pedestrians, people do not see a cyclist cruising down the sidewalk until its too late: store doors open, drivers turn right, baby strollers round a corner, and WHAM! that cyclist is laying on the pavement in pain, all because they were trying to ride “safely” on sidewalk.
Cyclists need to take the lane and ride with both authority and responsibility. If it’s a narrow lane, ride in the middle of it. Make the cars behind you respect you. The drivers may honk, but only the truly psychotic will dent their fenders to run over you.
Signal your intentions. Even if the nearest car is a hundred yards away, still give them the courtesy of signaling a right or left hand turn.
Don’t run red lights and endanger yourself or others. Sure, if it’s 6am and there’s no cars, a rolling stop is just fine. But if it’s rush hour and you’re running red lights, you’re just generating bad karma for the next cyclist.
We’re changing the culture here in Norfolk, one pedal stroke at a time. We have the right to ride in the street, and a responsibility to do so in a safe, predictable manner.
Get out there and ride.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Wes Cheney builds bikes and boats from bamboo, shoots video, takes photographs and composes polemics. He also accepts challenges and commissions.
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They ride on the sidewalk outside my place because they don’t like riding on the cobblestones. I used to be able to tell you how many times I’ve nearly been hit while on foot, but I’ve run out of fingers.
Wes, excellent article. One thing you point out that I really agree with is that cyclists need to take the high road when it comes to responsibility – signaling, stopping at lights, etc. It’s the same as when we tell children, “If you want to be treated like an adult, first act like one.”
I face an additional challenge of riding my bike with a dog running beside me. To the best of my knowledge I’m not breaking any regulations: the bike is in the street and the dog is on a leash. Still, we try to be extra polite because some angry driver might try to get a ban on dogs running beside cyclist owners.
I agree completely…I’ve told people that riding bikes on the side walk is illegal. They usually don’t believe me or don’t understand why. I tend to ride on streets that have less traffic for no other reason than to stay out of the way. When I do interact with traffic I signal and also pedal my ass off so I’m not an inconvenience for the most part. One pedal at a time my friends.
I had someone tailgate me on Hampton today. I almost stopped and threw my bike through his windshield.
I generally agree with any bike rhetoric AltDaily sees fit to publish, however…
Laws or no laws, towing a child behind your bike on Granby anywhere near rush hour is irresponsible and should be avoided.
In a brighter future where roads, bikers and drivers in Norfolk are more accommodating, fine… but being aware (which I am sure we all are) of the dangers this area presents for biking, why take the risk?
@worried: because the risk, in general, is greatly exaggerated. Like Wes, I ride on streets with my children (2 and 5) regularly. We stay visible, ride confidently, and signal our turns and stops. I find the single most helpful thing, the one rule that I try to follow, is to make eye contact with drivers. I need to know that they see me. I always do this before attempting to cross streets or driveways when cars are waiting to cross or turn. If I don’t get eye contact with the driver, I will stop and wait. I never assume that I am seen.
Amen and wishing you all good karma in your biking. I would be scared to hell having my kid behind me on the road like that but I’m overprotective and wimpy. We need rebel yellers like you to keep things moving.
I noticed that the last time I was in city hall in Norfolk (at the permits office) they had a pamphlet about bicyclists and sharing the road at the desk when you walked in. It did not have much information, but most of what it did say you mentioned in this article…
Perhaps that pamphlet should be in more accessible places!
And as for those with worries- for those people who do not make enough to always be able to afford gas, (or want to live more green-ly) sometimes towing a child with a bike is unavoidable. If the bicyclist is in danger of being hit while on the road it is the driver who rear-ends them who is most at fault for being irresponsible.
People around this area really need to realize that sitting in a car does not make them invincible. I have run into more problems in this area where I was almost killed by other drivers while driving my car than I can count- much more than anywhere else I have lived, and that list is pretty long and varied also.
How exactly, “Worried,” is it “irresponsible” to ride a bike with a child on Granby Street, rush hour, or otherwise?
Is it irresponsible because other users of the road might be distracted by their cell phone, radio, or passengers?
Is it irresponsible to teach my daughter to provide her own locomotion, and not depend upon a gas pedal?
Is is irresponsible to choose a mode of transit that does not endanger others in a moment of distraction?
Is it irresponsible to choose a mode of transit that is safer, cheaper and greener?
Or is it irresponsible to exercise my legal right to use our commonwealth’s roads when another class of users might be even negligibly inconvenienced? I would hope that you wouldn’t subscribe to such discrimination…”We like you people, but we just wish you wouldn’t come around here.”
As a cyclist, I have a greater chance of fracturing my collarbone than the average, sedentary driver. But, I’ve got less of a chance of dying from heart disease, and I’ll probably live longer too. (And if your interested, yes I can cite the scientific studies to back up those assertions).
When a third of American children are obese, we need to leave the minivans at home and start walking, biking and moving by our own two feet. We can change our obese, sedentary culture one pedal stroke at a time.
If its the law, its the law. Bikes off the sidewalk.
This is a law thats screaming for reform, however. Worst case scenario for a cyclist accident on a sidewalk? Scrapes and maybe a broken bone or two? Worst case scenario for a cyclist accident on the street? Yeah.
Maybe I’m not supposed to say this, but by and large I feel decidedly unsafe biking on the streets of Norfolk. If the sidewalk is an option I’m almost always gonna take it.
(Keep in mind that I have tiny legs and don’t bike terribly fast.)
In my view, Jesse, it’s cool to ride on the sidewalk if you’re riding at sidewalk speeds…no faster than a jogging mommy & stroller.
But if you’re going to be keeping pace with automobile traffic at 15mph+, then you need to be in the street.
We don’t tolerate or motorcycles traveling our sidewalks at 20mph, and we should treat cyclists no differently.
Form follows function, and lane follows speed:
Slower Traffic, Keep Right!
Tom, look at the statistics:
http://www.massbike.org/info/statistics.htm
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/health/risks.htm
Cycling on the sidewalk is 2-4 times as dangerous as cycling in the street. On the street cyclists can see and be seen. There are more blindspots, obstacles and intersections on sidewalks- every driveway is a potential collision with another cyclist/pedestrian/driver.
If you’re traveling faster than 15pmh, you need to be in the street. If you’re traveling slower than 5mph, you need to be on the sidewalk.
Truly disheartening to hear Norfolk police officers would try to urge cyclists onto sidewalks. Back in my days as a militant cyclist, I used to delight in telling anti-bike troglodytes that it was the League of American Wheelmen who harnessed the political will for the paving of roads, for the sole purpose of making it easier for cyclists to get around:
http://www.greentechhistory.com/2009/05/how-bicyclists-built-the-roads-that-carried-the-cars-that-pushed-them-off-the-roads/
Did I miss something John? When & where were Norfolk police officers urging cyclists onto sidewalks?
The bike cops that I’ve met all know that, as city employees, they’re legally permitted to ride on the sidewalk “in the performance of their duties.”
Cops are also allowed to ignore other traffic laws, and drive their cars on sidewalks & lawns “in the performance of their duties,” but they generally do not choose to do so without due cause.
However the bike cops in Norfolk regularly ride on the sidewalk, setting a horribly bad example to the general public. You can read more about it on my other blog:
http://fotobywes.blogspot.com/2009/09/norfolk-bike-cops-get-off-sidewalk.html