09 3 / 2009
"How about we stay off the sidewalks? Why are bikers so incensed when the police hand out tickets for this? I’m only guessing, but each sidewalk biker must believe that he or she… is the exception, the one careful biker, which is a very car way of thinking."
A great article with plenty of crossover appeal for San Francisco. I’ve been thinking a lot about the rapidly increasing bike ridership in cities not being “enough” to legitimize it as a form of public trans in public opinion… following the basic rules and being courteous citizens will help, as it helps in every other human interaction scenario I guess. But then, why should drivers of bikes have to live up to higher expectations than drivers of cars? We’re all the same people really, prone to blowing red lights and intimidating the littler fish in the sea of traffic. Cyclists are scrappier by virtue of their circumstances, but far less dangerous than auto drivers, and no group of people is fundamentally more virtuous than another on the road, much as we wish it were so. This is why we need the physical infrastructure to facilitate many modes of transportation equally. Still, it helps nobody when you spurn etiquette and law and ride on the sidewalk (or evade the muni fare, or drive on the shoulder or transit-only lane.)
