HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/19/2023 Item 2, Rands
From:Barry Rands <
To:Advisory Bodies
Cc:Fukushima, Adam; Tom Schmidt; SLOBC Board
Subject:Bicycle Riding on Sidewalks-ATC Item#2
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
When I saw this on the agenda, my knee-jerk reaction was to want to express a strongly worded objection to any change
in the City's current prohibition of riding on sidewalks. But after reading the well written article on the topic in the
agenda packet and seeing how many bike-friendly cities allow exceptions to this rule, I see that this is indeed a topic
worthy of consideration. I am glad that the article affirms that, in general, cycling on a sidewalk is less safe than riding
responsibly on the street...in spite of what a cyclist may feel is the safer alternative. We need to be wary of giving cyclists
a false sense of security. But as the article suggests, there may indeed be locations and attributes of the cyclist and their
bike that may create a situation where the sidewalk is a safer alternative. I, for one, have ridden on the sidewalk for as
long as a block because the alternative was to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get to the other side of the road, then merge
into traffic to make a left turn. The sidewalk was obviously the safer and faster option.
But how do we craft language that allows reasonable exceptions? That is the tricky part. Some of the exceptions to
consider:
Cyclists must dismount when pedestrians are present and when using pedestrian crosswalks. This will help
preserve safety of pedestrians and is easily enforceable.
Cyclist may use the sidewalk when a bike lane is not present
Cyclist may use the sidewalk for short distances (one block or 500 feet)
Cyclist may use sidewalk in non-commercial zones (My feeling is that only excluding the downtown business
district is not sufficient. I would think that riding the sidewalks on Foothill, for example, would not be safe for
the cyclist or pedestrians)
In your considerations, I would suggest you also look closely at bicycle use, accidents and bike-ped collisions on existing
bikeways where bikes and pedestrians share the same space such as the Bob Jones Trail and the new bike path on
Madonna. Has the Madonna bike path on the sidewalk led to increased bike trips and fewer accidents? That would be
good information to know, though it may be too early to tell.
Sorry I can't be at the meeting tonight to hear your deliberations. I'll be eager to hear what you conclude.
--
Barry Rands, Advocate
San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club
(805) 704-1549 (cell)
www.slobc.org
To help protect your privacy, Microsoft Office
prevented automatic download of this picture
from the Internet.
1