Bikes are for Sidewalks...

[Kisa]

unless you want to get ran over. Today, there was 15 or so punks on bikes riding in circles. When a car came by, they wouls intentionally block the car's path and would not move. Cars had to inch their way through the sawrm of pests. Eventually, a cop car came down the street and the yelled at the brats and they scattered. I stopped the officer to thank him, making sure to tell him how they were blocking traffic. His response? "Just floor it next time; They'll move"

[Seshat]

unless you want to get ran over.

Actually, in Australia, bicycles are deemed non-pedestrian traffic, and are required to use roads unless there's a specific bike path. Sidewalks/footpaths are for pedestrian traffic only.

Police do have a tendency to 'not notice' young children who are just learning to ride and are unsafe to be on the roads, though. Young child using the footpath to learn to ride her bike? Where? What kid?

HOWEVER: I totally agree with you in regard to those abusive little #*($s who were misusing the road. They shouldn't have been doing that.

[Pezzle]

unless you want to get ran over.

No.

When a car came by, they wouls intentionally block the car's path and would not move

This is a simple case of traffic obstruction by a non-pedestrian vehicle, obviously a gaggle of kids. However, riding on the sidewalk is stupid and dangerous to yourself and other pedestrians.

[Engmfj]

In many places bikes are not allowed to be ridden on the sidewalks - and that includes most places in Canada as far as I'm aware. Why? Because it interferes with pedestrian traffic and there have been many cases where bikes have plowed into pedestrians, causing severe injuries to both sides.

Same rules here. If there's no specific cyclist lane, they have to go on the street and adhere to the rules of traffic. Most cyclists around here don't care one bit, though - they'll rutinely ignore traffic lights and stop lines, ride on sidewalks and in ped crossings, and turn out into traffic without looking, signalling or caring, etc. And then they'll always bitch and whine about how they almost get run down, when they run a red light right in front of eg. busses or a lorry, who have no chance in hell of braking fast enough.

[HeroOfNotBashingSkulls]

I'm not sure about the rest of Canada.. But in my town, Toronto, Brampton, and other Southern Ontario cities, it's just fine to ride on the sidewalk.

But this reminds me of a story...

I work at a local computer store. Not a very big techy, but I can work with customers, make a few suggestions, tell them basic stuff and so on. Anyways, I was going to ride home on my bike. (I live 15 minutes away) and I saw a group of kids just sitting in a parking space chatting. It wasn't a big deal, they were just in that one space, not even doing anything wrong. But a truck with 2 guys in it pulls into the lot... I thought they were just going to pull into another parking space. HA! I was wrong!

They start yelling at the kids, one of them saying "GET THE F*** OUTTA THE WAY!!!", when there was CLEARLY 15 other spaces available, since there was only 2 other cars there. They proceed to pull into that EXACT space. The kids weren't blocking anything, they were mostly out of the way already. They looked at the guys going "Wtf??" as was I. I was ready to go over there and rip those arse-hats a new one. But they were 2 big guys, so I said nothing.

Who yells at a kid for being out of the way? And who SWEARS at a group of them? That's just idiotic, rude, and downright heart-breaking. I wish that was big enough to report them to the police.

The kicker? They were just going into the convenience store.

Edit: Well, apparently it's against the law to ride on the side-walk here. Although it's unenforceable, so says one of my co-workers. Thank god, otherwise I would've been up to my neck in tickets

[protege]

Police do have a tendency to 'not notice' young children who are just learning to ride and are unsafe to be on the roads, though. Young child using the footpath to learn to ride her bike? Where? What kid?

Yep, quite a few will do that. Hell, I used to ride my bike on the sidewalks. Most of the sidewalk-cruising was while on vacation...when I was about 6 But, the best had to be on the Cape May boardwalk in the mornings. No traffic lights, no stupid tourist drivers, no buses, and other annoyances to deal with. Of course, you had to be off the boardwalk/promenade by 9am.

[HotelMinion]

OMFG it peeves me to no end when cyclists do that! With the sidewalk just there, empty as can be. Especially - oh, ESPECIALLY - when they do that wobble thing, where their bikes starts to wobble and before you know it they fall right off into the path of your oncoming car and you make road pizza. And you KNOW they're doctors or lawyers, who can hire the best bloodsuckers to suck you dry from their injuries or death. Once I had a young preteen boy, just pedaling away in the MIDDLE of the fucking road -!- I honked my horn, thinking he would move to the side, NO! He just kept pedaling, twisting his neck to look behind him at me every so often. A twisted neck would be the least of his injuries if he came in contact with my steel bumper! But then, there's the guilty conscience, ya know.

[radiocerk]

Bikes counted as vehicles in every state I've lived in, supposed to be on the street, moving with traffic. This has not stopped me from riding on the sidewalks (especially when biking after 10 pm) but only when the sidewalks are clear. And frequently, I biked against traffic, just so I could know which entitlement based driver was about to kill me.

[Flying Grype]

In my city bikes are supposed to be on the street. You can get a ticket for riding on the sidewalk unless your wheels are under 24". That exemption is so that kids can ride on the sidewalk when they are too young to learn traffic rules.

Bikes are also supposed to follow the rules of the road, so if some stupid brats were pulling stunts, that's a problem. But it's a problem when stupid brats do it with cars too. The cars don't belong on the sidewalk.

Don't blame all of us for what a few stupid ones do, please. Many of us do bike like vehicles, as we're supposed to.

[XCashier]

Bikes counted as vehicles in every state I've lived in, supposed to be on the street, moving with traffic.

True, though the city I grew up in had no bike lanes anywhere. And people drove like lunatics, so I had no choice but to ride on the sidewalk. Yes, it was frustrating, but I'll take breaking the law over getting run over any day.

Where I live now, there are bike lanes and paths everywhere, which is much, much better. And fortunately, most bicyclists stay in the lanes (unless they're turning left, then they're in the left turn lane). Wish that more places were like that.

[Mr. Security]

Where I live in Canada you can't ride on the sidewalk but i've been biking for over 20 years and just the past 2 years I've pretty much biked everyday to work and pretty much everywhere and you know where I am 90% of the time, The sidewalk. Drivers here are nuts and it isn't even remotely safe to ride on the road unless it's mid-night- early mourning. The thing is that even though it's illegal to ride on the sidewalk police don't enforce it because they know it's safer and it's not worth there time. I have never gotten a ticket and I even biked past 2 bike cops and they didn't say anything or even look back as I pasted them. The one thing that annoys me the most are the EW bikers who ride down the middle of the lane and backing up traffic and then have the nerve to get pissed when cars honk at them and if a car even gets remotely close to them they start ranting and swearing at the driver about their right to the road etc. listen iut's very hard to keep up with the flow of traffic all your going to do is get people mad at you and guess what a 2000lb car will beat a person on a 50lb bike anyday

[Kogarashi]

The only times I've ridden a bike on the sidewalk when I really shouldn't were similar to other posters': it just wasn't safe otherwise. Specifically, during my short stint at the craft store in Utah, I would ride my bike to work because my sister-in-law needed the car for school most days. The residential street we lived on was tame enough, and I rode in the bike lane as was proper.

But when I got to the main drag through town that would take me to the craft store (down near the mall), I signalled properly and looked several times before pulling into the left lane, then pulled immediately onto the sidewalk (so yes, I was going against the flow of traffic, but was no longer in the road). Not only were there no bike lanes on the main drag, it was also approximately five lanes wide from this intersection all the way to the craft store (two lanes each way, turn lane down the center). There were a lot of large businesses on this road, lots of fast traffic going at least five over the speed limit, and a bridge with no sidewalks and barely any shoulder. That bridge scared me the most.

So when it was time to take the main drag, I got on the near sidewalk instead, stopped properly at each crosswalk and walked the bike across, and when I got to the bridge I actually crossed the railroad tracks it went over instead and then continued on the sidewalk on the opposite side. Luckily the craft store was also on this side of the road, so I didn't have to cross the main drag (let alone twice) to get to work.

The town I currently live in? Generally does have room (and slower traffic) for bikes to be on the road on most streets, so I'd much prefer if the cyclists around here would behave like vehicles rather than assuming they always have the right of way and making up their own rules as they go. I really wish it were possible to carry around cookies or something to give to the few-and-far-between cyclists I spot who are actually behaving properly.

[FuzzyKitten99]

Same rules here. If there's no specific cyclist lane, they have to go on the street and adhere to the rules of traffic. Most cyclists around here don't care one bit, though - they'll rutinely ignore traffic lights and stop lines, ride on sidewalks and in ped crossings, and turn out into traffic without looking, signalling or caring, etc. And then they'll always bitch and whine about how they almost get run down, when they run a red light right in front of eg. busses or a lorry, who have no chance in hell of braking fast enough.

They do this because of the modern mentality of winning the 'lawsuit lottery'. I have seen riders just dart out into traffic, not even looking for cars.

Too many times I was late to work when I worked near DT Mpls because bikes don't go more than 15mph, and the speed limit was 40 (50 in some spots on that road) and I was stuck behind one that I couldn't pass for 2 miles or more.

[Pezzle]

I have seen riders just dart out into traffic, not even looking for cars.

To be fair, more than a fair share of cagers do that too. Jump out wherever they want without signaling or looking, typing away on their cellphones.

[Captain Trips]

California law is very clear: bicycles MUST obey ALL traffic laws. Riding on the sidewalk? If not legal for a car (which it isn't, btw) then it's not legal for a bicycle. And yeah, they don't enforce it with little kids. Hell, I wish they did enforce it for adults, even! Too many times I've almost been run over walking down the sidewalk by someone who thought it was a bike path.

Mind you, it may be SAFER to ride on the sidewalk, but it's not legal...

Now, if someone is riding in a clearly unsafe manner, and they get injured as a result, it is definitely their fault. Yeah, listen to the cop - just floor it, they'll move...at least a few feet along the ground if nothing else.

As it so happens, a friend of ours did kill a bicyclist who was a) riding a night without lights, b) riding at night wearing black, c) riding on the sidewalk (at this point, in the crosswalk) and d) rode in front of a freeway offramp without even looking. So, yes - she hit the cyclist. Know what the cops did to her? Make sure she got home safely. (Know what the San Diego Useless/Trivia said about her? "She was drunk." She's a devout Buddhist, never touches a drop...) Lesson: don't be afraid to hit a cyclist if they are obviously in the wrong.

(Disclaimer: no, I am not advocating violence. But should an accident happen, these idiots would only have themselves to blame. They sure were trusting of countless car's brake systems, though...)