(DonQuijote1954) wrote in message . com...
This why I put my bicycles away...

A while back, my daughter and I were riding bicycle down the sidewalk
(riding with traffic is out of the question, since this is a major
street and my daughet is small) and, as we neared the intersection, I
noticed a car competing with us for the flashing walk signal. Well,
luckily, the lady stopped. However, that triggered her anger and she
got out the car and yelled at me some unprintable insults before
roaring away in her powerful Firebird. And I wonder, am I on the
wrong?


Yes you are,totally. One has no business riding a bicycle on a
sidewalk. Cycling on a sidewalk is far to dangeous in almost all
instances.

Sidewalks are intended for pedestrians, among other users, who
typically travel at 4-6 km/h versus bikes who travel anywhere from
~12 to 30+ km/h. A driver making a turn is not monitoring a sidewalk
for something traveling at 20 km/h. He/she is looking for a ped at 6
km/h.

And of course a pedestrian is not expecting a cyclist to ride up
behind him at 20 km/h. Peds have much more lateral mobility than does
a cyclist. The pedestrian can easily step sideways into the cyclist
with nasty consequences for both walker and cyclist.

I think you probably scared the woman badly and while she might have
been a bit intemperate in her words I don't really blame her. She
probably did not like the fact that your bad cycling habits could have
made her hit a child.

John Kane
Kingston ON.


Rest of nonsense deleted.