I hear all the points of view about riding on the sidewalk. In general, I avoid riding on the sidewalk almost all the time. On rare occasions, I will ride on the sidewalk if there are no pedestrians and there is no other option. I was told by the executive director of the local bike advocacy group (Bike East Bay) that many cyclists say the main reason they do not ride is that they do not feel safe riding in the street. I can understand this. Unfortunately, this has led to creation of "protected" bike lanes and other paths in and around the East Bay of the SF Bay Area. Instead of resolving the problem, this creates new problems - bikes going both ways behind parked cars, bikes shooting out into traffic, bikes encountering cars turning in front of them (because they could not see the bicycle behind a parked car).
What rarely gets mentioned here is that people in the US have a completely different attitude toward driving than drivers in much of the world. When I visit India, I see bikes, cars, busses, trucks, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, etc. all careening down the street at maximum speed, literally inches from each other (sometimes less) with no road rage. Further, given the number of vehicles on the road, accidents are rare. When an accident does happen, it frequently does not go well for the driver of a motor vehicle if a cyclist or pedestrian has been injured or killed. I think what really needs to happen is that a paradigm shift. Not sure how to make it happen - I think the cost of driving will bring this on independently. Namaste, Corwin On Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 4:34:28 PM UTC-8, PG wrote: > > I'm turning 67 in a week, and haven't ridden in a couple of months. The > last time out, a woman blew a stop sign at an intersection -- presumably > while texting, base on her body language -- and if I'd been 100 feet closer > to the intersection, I would have been creamed. I shook for a couple of > days afterwards, and haven't been motivated to go out since. As with most > of us, this isn't an isolated incident. > > My instinct is to quit riding. A couple things are behind that. Because of > my age, my reflexes, depth perception, and general eyesight are in decline. > > I only ride on the road, as mountain and trail riding don't appeal to me. > I guess I could start spinning at home to keep my fitness level up. > > I know the odds are that I will be fine, but even a minor accident would > take months to recover from. A major accident could result in permanent > damage. > > Am I overreacting? It's been several months and I've had no urge to ride > again. > > > Paul > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/e8cbd6b3-60d1-4132-aafd-a7a615547f7f%40googlegroups.com.
