Riding on sidewalks

burninrubber

I have to say that it is hard to ride sidewalk or road. My son (18yrs) has been bumped a couple of times riding on the road, so then I told him to ride on the sidewalk and I would pay the fine. Two days ago my husband was riding his bike on the sidewalk, thinking all was good, watching the road as well as the sidewalk. There was a car on his right about to make a right hand turn in a car, my husband and him had eye contact, did the nod and he let my huband proceed across the intersection when **WHAM**. An SUV driven by a young man decided to not stop before the stop sign and my husband was mangled. That is how I came across your site looking for information on biking accidents and broken backs! That is right I said broken backs!
I have to say that was easily the worst day of my life, having a police officer bring the bike to my door and then drive me to the hospital where my husband was. The whole way reaming me out in the backseat about my husband being on the sidewalk instead of the road, and that even though the driver was also at fault my husband was an inexcusable idiot for being on the sidewalk! I had no idea how my husband was, if he was dead or alive, but I had this cop freaking on me about the laws in our city.
My husbands broke the L2 and L4 vertabrae in his back and fractured his hand. He is at home in bed for 6-8 wks with me looking after him.
What I see is that you can't win. He is very lucky to be alive, and he thought he was being so safe. From now on all bikers have a spot in my prayers everyday! Ride safe, be aware, and watch out for @$$ holes! I hope everyone that thinks they are safer on the sidewalks realizes differently now!
One leisurly bike ride has ruined our year, Christmas and all. At least our 5 children still have thei father! Thank God!

cdat

Very sorry to hear about your dilema, I think you are right, sometimes it seems like you can't win. I live in Buffalo, NY, and my brother had his leg broken in a similar incident several years ago. The scene was almost identical- in his case the driver fled the scene and was caught by the police. My brother sued him and won, and got all his medical bills and lost wages paid by the driver, but he also took a lot of flack for being on the sidewalk. I believe that if the driver hadn't been stupid and fled, my brother wouldn't have gotten a thing because he was wrong for being on the sidewalk. My advice would be to consult an attorney and see what your rights are. It seems to me that a cyclists rights strongly depend on where you live,in some areas the police and legal system can be pretty unsympathtetic. Good Luck to you and bets wishes for a speedy recovery.

nanook08

You are right, you just can't win. I've found that it doesn't matter where I ride, what roads, or what time of day, I always run into at least one moron on four wheels. But at the same time, riding on the sidewalks just isn't safe. And in most places it isn't even legal. But the key to getting respect as bikers is to be consistent and to follow the rules of the road. Stop at stop lights and signs, ride on the shoulder where you can, use hand signals to makes turns, etc... It always infuriates me when i see bikers blatantly disobeying the law, because it makes the road less safe for me. When cars get cut off, or a bike tears across the road in front of them, drivers get pissed and wonder why should I respect them, if the bikers clears have no respect for the laws of the road? And they are right! I refuse to ride with my bf unless he'll ride on the road with me. And I always get into arguments with an acquaintance who is a cop in Rochester and who refuses to follow the rules of the road. She's constantly swerving through traffic, cutting people off, and never signals to turn.

If you want people to respect you, read up on traffic laws, follow the rules, be respectful to cars, don't flip them off or start yelling back, and do what you can to make people aware of your rights on the road.

here's a clip that user vr40 posted that fits the topic perfectly.
Here is a video clip http://easylink.playstream.com/katu...eaths_530pm.wvx

cdat

Very well put. It seems to be a case of darned if you do, darned if you don't. For every one rider who does it right, there are two who do it wrong. Education would help everybody, in the past few weeks the close calls I had were because motorists didn't know or care what the hand signal meant. I indicated a left turn and had a car speed up and make a right turn in front of me, the excuse was that they thought I was waving them around. The logic of how waving them around me gave them the right to cut me off and turn in front of me escapes me, but the police thought it made sense, so they drove away without a citation. (They seemed more concerned with the shouting match that occured after the incident.)

Ryanotokyo

QLD just made it legal again not long ago. It's always been legal in Japan. That's the only way it can be. Where else can the kids and grannies ride? There will always be a few eeejuts and hoons. It's our job to give them an earful.

nanook08

No one in their right mind would cite a kid or an elderly person for riding on the sidewalk, especially at the rate they are likely to be riding. It's the ones riding at the faster speeds that they are worried about, because they come up on pedestrians so fast, and usually don't wait with the pedestrians to cross the sidewalk when the light flashes for them. But most people should be riding on the roads.

Ryanotokyo

Yea - but if it's illegal, then it's illegal. I can't imagine any law saying that you can ride on the footpath if you're under 16 or over 60, but not otherwise. It just wouldn't be enforceable. And then what do you do about the cyclist who's 40, but just out of hospital after a heart bypass or something, or a 22yr old with a disability, or just someone who WANTS to ride slowly. These people should not be, and can't feasibly be forced onto the road by any caring society.