Where do you bike?

[beboots]

 Another discussion question came up to me today as I biked down to the farmer's market in downtown St. Albert today. I was biking along the river, which has a lovely walking trail... and suddenly, a chain link fence barred my way. Apparently they were doing construction on something in that little valley - I think a sports field of some description. But that's no call to close down about a kilometer of picturesque bike paths! I felt completely justified going down to the river and bypassing the fence. Nobody works on construction sites on Saturdays. 

(Nobody works on construction sites EVER.) 

Anyway, once I'd picked the leaves out of my hair (I had to push my way through the woods to get around the barrier on the other side of the "construction zone" too) I got to thinking about another bicycle issue. 

Should you ride on the road, or the side walk? 

Now I need to preface my discussion here. I'm not talking about bicycle-friendly European cities like Amsterdam, with their bicycle-only lanes and bicycle parking lots and such. I'm talking about Edmonton, which has several dozen (I believe) bicycle fatalities every year because of collisions with cars, that has next to no bicycle lanes. 

(I think the justification is - if the roads are covered with ice and snow for at least five or six or even eight months a year, why waste space on a lane that will be only used during the spring and summer months? HOGWASH, I SAY!)

Anyway, despite the lack of safe bicycle lanes and the preponderance of huge pickup trucks on our roads (thank you, Alberta cowboy hick stereotypes!), there are a few bylaws that insist that bikes, well, bike on the road with all of the cars. 

Now, I can understand disallowing bikes to cycle along the sidewalk of the few very busy pedestrian areas we have, like Whyte Avenue. But everywhere else? Not so much. 

I bike on the sidewalk. Why? Because almost nobody walks on them. A bicycle can more easily avoid a pedestrian than a motorised vehicle can avoid a cyclist. Also, the worst thing that can happen to a pedestrian if struck by a bike? Some bruises and scrapes, perhaps a broken limb. 

Not a crumpled bicycle frame and a swished cyclist, like what happens when a cyclist is struck by, say, a truck. Going at, MINIMUM, like 60 km/h. (Speed limits within the city are 50km/h, but it's a rare driver who actually slows down THAT much.)

Now, why should I be forced to bike along the road with vehicles going at least 50 km/h faster than I do? Legally, they can't pass us if it's a one-lane road. This just causes frustration on behalf of the driver, causing even more danger for the cyclist. Most motorists in Edmonton, at least, don't really know how to share the roads safely with cyclists. (Most motorists in Edmonton are idiots who should never have passed their driver's tests, but that may be a subjective opinion on my part.) 

I'm not just talking out of my rear end, guys. Four years ago, I was hit by a car while biking to work in the morning. I still feel far safer biking on the almost abandoned sidewalks than on the potholed road, plzkthankz. This is a very relevant issue to me. Judging by the preponderance of "ghost bicycles" (bikes painted white and tied to a lamppost near where a cyclist is killed as a kind of memorial and reminder) around the city, I'm sure it's relevant to others as well. 

If the City of Edmonton cannot provide cyclists with a safe bike lane, why can we not legally use the sidewalks? 

Discuss. 

Comments

[kuiskata]

I bike on the sidewalks (when I actually bike, which isn't all that often). There was an article in the Journal a few years back where a few police officers actually said that despite the bylaws, it's practically unheard of for them to be enforced.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for being unenforcible! ;)

A few points

[edmontonbikes.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Hello,

The sidewalk riding bylaws are entirely enforceable. That the police choose not to enforce it on roads outside of downtown or Whyte Ave is a matter of discretion: they don't feel it's serious concern outside of these area, and they're probably right. There are many laws that work like this, and are only enforced where it seems to be appropriate. It doesn't mean they're unenforcible.

That aside, I'd like to address the meat of your post: riding on the sidewalk from the cyclist's perspective.

There were 2 cycling traffic deaths in the city in 2009. One was a 60-year old man who lost control of his bike at the intersection of 156 St and Stony Plain Road.

The other was a man crossing the Yellowhead at night without a helmet, or, more importantly, any kind of light or reflector.

These are not typical situations indicative of dangerous streets: the first case is exceptional (cyclists mostly avoid such major intersections, and randomly losing control of your bike right at that moment is something of a freak accident). The second case was almost certainly avoidable.

As far as bicycle-pedestrian collisions, there are a number of cases where pedestrians have been killed on trails by cyclists (or, in one recent Calgary case, a rollerblader). This is pretty rare too, though. As a pedestrian, it is certainly, at the least, irritating when a cyclist blasts by on the sidewalk. I imagine the issue would become a lot more pronounced if the City started encouraging people to bike on the sidewalks.

Finally, and most importantly, we come to cycling safety on the road vs. the sidewalk.

Motorist-caused car-overtaking-bike collisions account for about 0.3% of cycling accidents. This is primarily caused by poor cyclist visibility from the rear at night, and is something that's easily addressed.

Car drivers see what's in front of them, if nothing else, and have no desire to crash their vehicle into anything.

Almost all bicycle-car collisions happen at intersections. When you ride on the sidewalk, you dramatically increase the number of intersections that you're crossing. Every alleyway, driveway, and street crossing now becomes a potential conflict area, made worse by the fact that vehicles aren't expecting fast-moving traffic on the sidewalk. Cars turning left and right, coming out of driveways, and turning off the roads aren't looking for you, and would have a hard time seeing you in time even if they were looking.

This 1998 study (http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Library/Moritz2.htm) found the crash rate for riding on the sidewalk was 1026 crashes/million km, while the crash rate for cycling on a major road (without bike lanes) was only 41.

The fact is, cycling on the sidewalk is more dangerous than cycling on the road. Cyclists fare best when they behave and are treated as vehicular traffic. Yield when changing lanes. Don't ride the wrong-way. Position yourself in the lane appropriate for your destination (e.g. make left turns from the left lane). Riding predictably and and where cars expect to see traffic keeps cyclists safe. Darting in and out of a parking lane to avoid parked cars, or riding in the gutter or on the sidewalk leads to collisions.

There's a lot more depth that I could go into, but basically, encouraging sidewalk cycling would simply encourage more cycling collisions. Better education for cyclists and drivers, as well as better on-road infrastructure is what we should be talking about. Sadly, most car-bicycle collisions are primarily due to cyclist error. But that does mean that you have a lot of control over your own safety.

The Edmonton Bicycle Commuters' Society offers CANBIKE basic and advanced on-road riding courses that cover effective cycling in a lot more depth. Reading a bunch of statistics about collisions won't make you feel more comfortable riding on the road than on the sidewalk, so check out the courses if you're interested. But I just wanted to provide a bit of insight into why cities almost always ban cycling on sidewalks. It's for the safety of the cyclists.


Regards,

Chris Chan
Edmonton Bicycle Commuters' Society
http://edmontonbikes.ca

Re: A few points

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the information! I definitely appreciate the effort to further educate people like me. ;) I will definitely have to digest this information!

[anyjen.livejournal.com]

I hear you... I don't own a bicycle now, and though I used to own one when I was a kid, I mostly used it to cycle for fun, not to get from point A to point B (I was too lazy).

I now live in a much bigger city than I used to live as a kid, and I once borrowed a bike from a friend. It was supposed to be only for a short period of time (it was to take part on a demostration made on bikes) and entirely surrounded by other bikers, so I judged it safe. The thing is, I then had to return said bike... and face the traffic.

This was at night in a well-lit city, at a time few cars are around, and it was still a terrifying experience. Cars just don't respect cyclists, and though the law in my country forces us to ride close to the sidewalk and step on the curb when at lights, the myriad parked cars makes this impossible. I had to cycle in the lane meant for taxis, and none of them were very happy about it.

Of course, motorists in my city are notoriously bad drivers (the words "drives like a maniac" come to mind often while on a taxi) but I guess if the situation in your city is even half as bad as over here, then I can't blame you for not wanting to ride on the road.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I totally know what you mean! Terrifying, especially if cars honk at you. The one experience I didn't like while biking in Killarney in Ireland was that one bit where we had to bike on the sidewalk (to avoid biking on a narrow stretch of road by a blind corner around which cars frequently came hurtelling) and got yelled at by a few locals. D: