Hey! I'm not oblivious, I was ON the cycle path, it's just a shared one that we let pedestrians on.
And assume they understand the meaning of the word share.
I do grant you that there are numbnuts cyclists out there, however, having been horribly broken three times while obeying the law riding on the roads, I understand people who won't. I still ride on the roads (and cycle paths, including the shared ones), but I sympathise with people who ride on the pavement – in Sydney in particular it takes a great deal of belligerence to stay on the road. That said, if you must ride on the pavement, you should only ever ride at the slowest pace possible and always give way to everyone, because it is the pedestrians' space.
Sadly, in some parts of many cities, there are no safe routes on the road. I've been clipped by buses going through red lights, hit by a taxi going through a red turning arrow around the car already stopped at that light, and only avoided being rammed up the back at another red light because I heard it not braking and jumped up onto the median strip.
I am the sort of cyclist who quotes the road rules chapter and verse and obeys them, and my rule of thumb is to ride as though I were a bus and never try to enter a space a bus couldn't: I still have motorists trying to kill me most days and vague texting pedestrians wandering out in front of me at random moments. At least the kids had some degree of self-preservation this afternoon and worked with me on the not killing them plan.
no subject
And assume they understand the meaning of the word share.
I do grant you that there are numbnuts cyclists out there, however, having been horribly broken three times while obeying the law riding on the roads, I understand people who won't. I still ride on the roads (and cycle paths, including the shared ones), but I sympathise with people who ride on the pavement – in Sydney in particular it takes a great deal of belligerence to stay on the road. That said, if you must ride on the pavement, you should only ever ride at the slowest pace possible and always give way to everyone, because it is the pedestrians' space.
Sadly, in some parts of many cities, there are no safe routes on the road. I've been clipped by buses going through red lights, hit by a taxi going through a red turning arrow around the car already stopped at that light, and only avoided being rammed up the back at another red light because I heard it not braking and jumped up onto the median strip.
I am the sort of cyclist who quotes the road rules chapter and verse and obeys them, and my rule of thumb is to ride as though I were a bus and never try to enter a space a bus couldn't: I still have motorists trying to kill me most days and vague texting pedestrians wandering out in front of me at random moments. At least the kids had some degree of self-preservation this afternoon and worked with me on the not killing them plan.