I commute to and from school daily by the highway on a bike.
I'm on the footpath because there is no way I'm cycling on the highway.
Here in NSW, it's illegal for cyclists to be on the footpath above 12yo.
I scan every driveway for cars, I go on the rough grass patches to give plenty of space to overtake pedestrians
I'd consider myself a very aware cyclist.
In the newspaper I'm reading stories of people getting hit by cyclists on footpaths with the cyclists not stopping.
This makes my blood boil for 4 reasons.
- If you are on the footpath you must be alert, technically, you are in the wrong.
- If you happen to hit someone you are morally supposed to see if they are ok.
- Why does the media think it's ok to report bicycle hits and not pedestrian hits from cars?
- We are getting grouped as an overall group and not the minority of cyclists. What if a car hit a pedestrian and the newspaper says "CARS KILL, TAKE THEM OFF THE ROADS" or similar
Personally, I've had 3 incidents with my bike:
- A car pulled out of a driveway to the foot of the road looking down at their phone. It was around a blind corner and I always ring my bell for that corner, my bike took most of the impact. This would have happened whether I was a pedestrian or a cyclist. If I was a pedestrian, everyone would have gone crazy, but because I was a cyclist, no one bats an eye. (Side note, people, please, pull up to the footpath and not the road, so many incidents as a pedestrian as well)
- I was walking my bike across a 3 second old green pedestrian light as a car comes speeding around the corner, into a 3 second old red turning light and almost hits me and the other pedestrians, my front wheel took a hit and me and my bike fell over. Couldn't catch the plate and didn't want to chase after since I didn't know the state of my bike.
- Finally, I had two young adults in a white car tailgating me as I was going 30km/h down a hill in a 50hm/h zone. It was timed such that I'm 99% sure they wanted to get home to see the Game of Thrones premiere for season 4 or whatever. So they got closer and closer to me but I stood my ground. That's when they overtook me in a 3 lane street with parked cars on either side and passed me with (I looked down at my pedal on the side they were passing me on) 15cm to spare. I chased to get the plate, but they sped away. Recently there was a 1.5m passing rule for passing cyclists at this speed, I got 15cm. I relay this to the police on the phone and I get this: "well maybe they didn't know about the new rule". Fine, disregard the blatant dangerous driving for the fact that they didn't know a 6 month old rule. That's when I get a very sassy, unsympathetic "is that all?". Gee thanks police.
Where am I going with this?
I'm not fishing for sympathy, I just want it well known that there has been a ratio of 3:0 of cars nearly hitting me, to me nearly hitting a pedestrian. A 3:0 ratio doesn't warrant all this media outrage against bikes, and all these new rules against bikes.
I'm not saying I'm full footpath, mostly I will go on roads, there is just the odd occasion I need to be on a footpath.
As I driver, I don't want slow cyclists on the road, and all the horns I hear when I cycle on the road seem to agree with me.
Pedestrians couldn't care less about me, the ones I do come in contact with move over 2 steps, the nice ones move onto the grass, but I insist they get back on the footpath.
And police, I've seen 100+ cars see me as I cycle to school, sometimes I get "the nod" out of them. So they don't care.
As a pedestrian I don't mind at all.
Which leads me to my question. What's your stance?
TL;DR If the road is too dangerous for cyclists to be on, should they be allowed to go on the footpath at close to walking speed?
True - always have to be hyper vigilant with driveways where you are unable to see whether something is coming out. Sometimes it's still (mildly) safer than cycling on the road. Kind of have to judge on a road-by-road basis.