A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
Serious question, what's wrong with biking on a sidewalk? Personally I refuse to bike on roads because I'd rather not die and will assume the responsibility if I bump into someone on the sidewalks (like I have for decades).
I've never understood why biking in the roads is preferred to anywhere that doesn't have giant heavy machines that move fast.
Serious answer: cyclists are injured or killed more frequently (by distance traveled) on sidewalks than on roads. This is the difference between feeling safer, and educating yourself to be safer.
Stats?
Educate yourself
Nah I'm good. Sidewalks are safer.
Stats?
Just like motor vehicles are dangerous to cyclists, so are bikes dangerous to pedestrians. And in metropolitan areas like Toronto you get very busy sidewalks. Cars, bikes, and pedestrians each need their own separate lanes.
Uhhh, I feel like a car vs a bike is not a valid comparison to a bike vs a pedestrian at all, and thats 100% why I won't ever use the street to ride a bike.
I won't risk dying while riding a bike, but I will risk scratching someone's leg, or making them have a booboo for a week.
Granted the sidewalks here are not as bad as Toronto's for sure, but personally I would end up taking the less travelled side walks.
Either way, you'd never catch me on the road with a bike. Seems worse in every aspect.
Also wanted to mention I'm not against bikes having infrastructure
It's not just a scratch or a booboo. Going 30km/h on a bike, you hit a pedestrian you're going to knock them over, and they risk breaking a bone or hitting their head since they don't wear a helmet. And unlike vehicles that move generally in the same direction in a road, pedestrians move in all directions, enter and leave buildings, etc. The likelihood of a bike-pedestrian accident is much greater if all cyclists use the sidewalk.
Also your premise is wrong - it's not about sharing a road with cars vs sharing a sidewalk with pedestrians, it's about getting actual dedicated lanes for bikes so that they don't need to share their paths.
Even still, ill risk breaking a bone on someone instead of a death sentence for myself. Still a no brainer to me.
Again, I have no issues with dedicated infrastructure, but since all cities seem to be absolutely inept at doing basic tasks, I will continue on the sidewalk because is statistically less fatal then the roads for all parties.
How about declare wfh to be a human right and watch what happens to the gridlock