Today Tue Wed
It is forcast to be Clear at 11:00 PM EDT on May 21, 2012
Clear
29°/15°		 It is forcast to be Clear at 11:00 PM EDT on May 22, 2012
Clear
26°/14°		 It is forcast to be Fog at 11:00 PM EDT on May 23, 2012
Fog
24°/13°

17 Comments

news

Bikes on Sidewalks: Nuisance, Menace or Self-Preservation

By Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

2006_4_12cyclinghearts.jpg
Torontoist is kicking himself for missing this article but we’re glad that the eagle-eyed people at Spacing Wire caught it. Actor, sometime mayoral candidate and now Globe and Mail writer Albert Howell wrote this reasoned analysis on why cyclists ride on sidewalks and why pedestrians shouldn’t be blaming cyclists but the municipal government for its lack of adequate cycling infrastructure.
We agree with Howell, riding on the sidewalk, contrary to popular belief is not fun for cyclists. We can’t go very fast and there are far too many newspaper boxes, bus shelters, Eucan bins and people to make riding on our sidewalks actually convenient. Some cyclists merely do it because riding on the street next to (at best) oblivious and (at worst) hostile drivers isn’t exactly safe.

I’m not saying cyclists can ride on a sidewalk the same way they do on a road; they have to be respectful of the people walking. But there’s also no reason for pedestrians to treat bicycles like they are some huge danger, the most recent statistics that I could find show that in Canada, vehicles kill one pedestrian every day, on average. Bikes are not killing you, cars are; either quickly by running you down or slowly by fouling your lungs.

We couldn’t agree more. Also to reopen an old can of worms we want to send off this counterpoint to Jacob Richler’s “let’s tax cyclists” article in the Post last week. Maybe you should be paying Mr. Howell and Torontoist, Jacob?
Photo from Bike Lane Diary

Filed under: , , , , ,

Report error Send a tip

Comments

  • x_the_x

    This is absurd. If you ride a bike, obey the traffic laws, get off the sidewalks, respect the flow of traffic, stop at red lights, don’t block cars turning right, etc.
    I don’t care if biking on the sidewalk kills fewer people than cars do (presumably, not driving on the sidewalk, though the comparison, to make sense, would have to imply this). Is death really the relevant standard? How about mild annoyance with having to avoid you as we walk?

  • jeremy

    do you take up the entire sidewalk when you walk?… id rather my friends ride the sidewalk then have them smeared under car. i’ve yet to see a close friend be doored by a human. so its midly annoying that you have to step aside when a bike comes by.
    yes, death is the relevant standard.

  • anne

    err… on narrow sidewalks with even a few pedestrians, actually we DO take up the whole sidewalk. is it an unreasonable compromise for cyclists to dismount for a few minutes and walk their bike when they have to resort the sidewalk? in the absence of that small courtesy, along with the complete and utter lack of regard for people attempting to walk, it’s no wonder we get so irritated.

  • matt

    Downtown people shouldn’t be riding on sidewalks. But I can completely understand why. But in the burbs I think it is fine to ride on the sidewalks cuz no seems to use them up there. I am usually fearless, but once I get north of Eglinton on any main road, I switch back and forth between the sidewalk and road depending on how bad the road is near the curb or how aggressive the drivers are being.
    When I see chinese woman riding on the sidewalk I want to tell them to get of, but then I rememebr that they are not driving (good) and they are much much safer there than on the road.
    This will be a never ending debate until Toronto has decent bike infrastructure.

  • http://crazedmonkey.com/ ian Stevens

    This would make sense if I didn’t see people riding on the sidewalk adjoining quiet low-traffic roads or using the sidewalk when it’s convenient (ie. to go east on Wellington). I ride on the streets all the time, even on the busiest streets and at night, and I’ve never had a problem. In fact, I feel safer on the road than I do on the sidewalk. Pedestrians move erratically, cars do not. It’s just a matter of paying attention, making yourself visible, obiding the law and going with the traffic flow.

  • k brigger

    Statistically speaking, a cyclist is more likely to be in an accident if he/she rides on the sidewalk than if he/she rides on the road. There was that accident in Mississauga a couple of weeks ago when a cyclist crossing a bridge on the sidewalk crashed into the guard rail and flpped over it. He fell to his death. If he had been on the road, that wouldn’t have happened.

  • rek

    In Osaka the bike lanes are part of the sidewalk, not the road.

  • Leocyfer

    Bikes belong on the road, and they need to follow the same laws as cars.
    And with that in mind, they should have to pay the same fees as cars. Proportionally, perhaps, but none the less. And insured as well. If you want to ride on my road, then you pay what I’m forced to pay by the government and you can hate them too. License the bike and the rider, so tickets can be handed out to though hotshots who think it’s cool to use the left turn lane to make their turn. Then they scamper as fast as they can across to the right as soon as they’ve made the turn because now they’re in the middle of the road. This little act holds up everybody behind them, oh hell it’s usually a “him”, and makes us all wish for the days of old when one could put people of stupidity in, say, wooden stocks for a fort-night.
    And for every smug bike riding “greenie” who still believes that cars are choking them, they should do the research first before opening they’re yap. It’s that bus or the giant SUV that just past you that’s doing you in, or that cement truck or the street sweeper.
    Even then it would take years before the effects would be known. Now lets factor in all the carbon dioxide you’re blowing out while pumping along saving the planet, and in the long run, I’ll take my car.
    Do you know what nation contributes the most in Greenhouse Gasses? Mainland China. Know what they also have billions of there? BIKES!
    All that exhaling.
    As for danger on sidewalks. In the suburbs where I play, it would be those pestilent little ass wipes on skateboards whizzing by ON the sidewalk that are likely to get you hurt around here. Thanks for the rant, I’ll be here all week!

  • gary

    Cyclists who ride their bikes on the sidewalks and ding their bells for pedestrians to get out of the way infuriate me. I’d like to ride a bike to get around, but I don’t. Why? Because I think it’s just too dangerous in this city. But passing the danger onto pedestrians by riding on the sidewalk is not a solution, and cyclists who do so while criticizing car drivers are huge hypocrites.
    I wish everyone would just obey the frickin’ laws we have. Cars and bikes, stop at reds, behind the line, and watch for pedestrians when you make turns. Pedestrians: cross on green, don’t jaywalk dangerously or impede cars who have the right of way, and don’t saunter out on red and yellows so turning cars get trapped in the intersection. The rules are there for a reason. But for some reason in our society everyone seems to think they deserve green lights all the time. Bah. End rant.

  • tino

    I am so bored with people complaining about bikes
    riding on sidewalks while cars are running over your grandma in the suburbs without even bothering to stop.
    Everyone in this town cheats. I know, it’s hard to accept the truth when it’s spoken but I think the old chinese proverb holds true in this case:
    “In a land of many laws, many laws will be broken.”
    The car experiment is killing us, let’s look at other options.

  • popo

    I hate all people on wheels. I don’t discriminate on type of wheels.
    I’ve been run-over by a bicyclist riding on the sidewalk, and it hurt. A lot.

  • danbi

    You hate people on wheels? or you hate the wheel itself? While I won’t downplay your level of hurt, I would like to think that person didn’t run you over purposely.
    But your experience says a lot:
    Toronto, still, is definitely NOT bike friendly.
    While the City claims the bike lanes will increase, the basic infrastructure of the city needs to change first. How we zone our spaces, how we design our communities, and how we change public perception of open space. I think the culture of Toronto still hasn’t accepted bikes as being a necessary part of the social and visual fabric. Rather it adores the automobile, the six lane highways, the big strip malls and it’s bigger parking lots. Biking is the cleaner, cheaper, and safer way and the City needs to build infrastructure to support that….but there is no moolah for anything, apparently.

  • hiffy

    Maybe I’m a bit biased but people who claim cyclist ought to be taxed are a bit narrow minded. I pay taxes too; you’re being a bit naive if you think that absolutely none of my income goes towards the roads or other methods of transportation.
    If you want to look at things in the long run, we produce less pollution, kill less people (per capita, not only overall) and have a smaller ecological footprint.
    Finally, riding a bike points out how a lot of traffic laws are made up because cars are inconvenient.
    If biking were the main method of transportation, would our residential areas really be the maze of one way streets they currently are?

  • Patrick

    I’m a city cyclist, and I ride on the roads all the time. Unless you’re 8 years old, if you can’t find the courage to stay off the sidewalk, you shouldn’t be on a bike.
    That said, the city needs to be made far more bike-friendly than it currently is.

  • http://brokenengine.blogspot.com brokenengine

    I have to call bullshit on this article, and I totally agree with Patrick. I ride a bike too, and I NEVER ride on the sidewalk. I’m SO sick of me and/or my wife (WHO IS 6 MONTHS PREGNANT NO LESS, so imagine how angry-bear-protective I am) being nearly run down by some cretin on their schwinn who think they own the sidewalk. And then he/she runs a stop sign as they’re looking back over their shoulder to give me a dirty look.
    Next one gets a clothesline/forearm shiver/nearest-hockey-stick-in-the-spokes.

  • ml

    My God there’s a lot of animosity out there. A couple of points: Toronto is not designed for bikes, which is unfortunate, because the roads would be less congested and the skies less smoggy if people biked more. But if cyclists are going to be stuck between being a car and being a pedestrian (which they are; it is near impossible to safely operate your bike by car rules. Just try making a left hand turn off a major street during busy traffic), the guiding principle should be to not disprupt the proper flow of either of those spheres. I.e. don’t assume all drivers can see you and have to defer to you. They’re not alway expecting you and aren’t always sure what you’re going to do. At the same time, if you need to get on the sidewalk, you should do so in the knowledge that pedestrians not only have right of way, but it’s THEIR space. You should be going slowly enough that you don’t disrupt them at all, and you should get out of their way if there’s not enough space. Until the cities we live in actually treat cyclists as a legitimate mode of transportation and accomodate them with direct routes and bike-only thoroughfares, it is up to cyclists to work within the confines of the system that already exists. Let the drivers drive and the pedestrians walk; the benefit of cycling should be that it’s a no-impact form of transportation, and that includes the impact you have on the people you share the streets with.

  • ml

    My God there’s a lot of animosity out there. A couple of points: Toronto is not designed for bikes, which is unfortunate, because the roads would be less congested and the skies less smoggy if people biked more. But if cyclists are going to be stuck between being a car and being a pedestrian (which they are; it is near impossible to safely operate your bike by car rules. Just try making a left hand turn off a major street during busy traffic), the guiding principle should be to not disprupt the proper flow of either of those spheres. I.e. don’t assume all drivers can see you and have to defer to you. They’re not alway expecting you and aren’t always sure what you’re going to do. At the same time, if you need to get on the sidewalk, you should do so in the knowledge that pedestrians not only have right of way, but it’s THEIR space. You should be going slowly enough that you don’t disrupt them at all, and you should get out of their way if there’s not enough space. Until the cities we live in actually treat cyclists as a legitimate mode of transportation and accomodate them with direct routes and bike-only thoroughfares, it is up to cyclists to work within the confines of the system that already exists. Let the drivers drive and the pedestrians walk; the benefit of cycling should be that it’s a no-impact form of transportation, and that includes the impact you have on the people you share the streets with.