From: spindrift - Tues, Mar 21 2006
<snip>
"But then, you have to ask yourself why the cyclists
are on the pavement in the first place. What is it about the road which
persuades cyclists to ride on the pavement, despite the attendant
inconveniences of having to yield at every side turning, coming into
conflict with pedestrians and street furniture and so on? What could be
scaring these cyclists off the roads? It couldn't possibly be the way
cars are driven, could it?"
Occasionally, but very often it isn't. Many pavement 'cyclists' are
doing it because they accept the car-culture's belief that a bicycle is
not a real vehicle and shoud not be on the road, sometimes combined
with a juvenille wish to be seen doing something which annoys other
people. Hence they often cycle on the pavements of roads with no motor
traffic in sight, or on footways alongside cycleways: the whole idea is
to display allegiance to the car-culture, rather than promote personal
safety.
"Cycling on the footway is also more dangerous than cycling on the
road,
and causes distress to pedestrians. So don't do it. "
Absolutely. But we're not likely to be heeded by the offenders: as
above danger is rarely the issue and sometimes there is a deliberate
intention to cause annoyance/distress.
A friend's teenage son was a case in point. His parents' eventually
took away disposed of his bicycle because he:
- refused to fit lights, then when his father fitted them took off the
rear light and angled the front so it would shine in the faces of
pedestrians he met while riding on the pavement (and kept riding in the
dark without the rear light).
- refused to stop riding on pavements, even in the quiet cul-de-sac
where they lived.
The only reason he gave was that 'his friends would laugh at him' if he
cycled on the road or had lights.
Jon
