These two groups will never stop having occasional conflicts,there are hot heads on both sides.
It my moral character that motivates me to give even a rude bike rider plenty of room,and I am just not in such a hurry anymore,those days are gone.
It would honestly bother me if I injuried anyone be they pedestrian,bike rider,or another car driver. In my city (Tucson) when a bike rider gets hit and the driver flees there is a mob after the guy,its not good to be that guy, you MUST stop and help,don’t hit and run,things will go very bad for you when caught,but it still happens,most of the time the runners are driving impaired,how could you live with yourself?
If you can “easily” average 15 mph on a bike, you’re in way better shape than I am or you ride a lot.
Understand that when I say “average”, I mean a GPS verified average, or actually being someplace 15 miles away one hour from now. My peak speeds an my typical 18 mile ride are around 35 mph going down one particular hill that slows me down to around 6 mph going the other way.
Most car drivers don’t average 15 mph in downtown traffic.
Correct. Not only can it puncture tyres, but it can mean the bike has to move into the main road to get past the trash. Going back and forth into and out of traffic is not safe. If they don’t notice the trash, it can flick the tyre turning them into the traffic or causing loss of control, possibly spilling them and their bike suddenly into the path of traffic.
Note: some of the questions are Massachusetts specific. Kind of hard for an Ohio resident who has never ridden a bike in Mass to answer those questions. Even some of the non-specific questions could be invalid for out of state responses since they could have different laws.
I’ve been to South America a few times…Mainly Chile. Santiago Chile has a population of about 5 million. HUGE city. Drivers there make a NYC cab driver look like a little-old-lady on her way to church. There are also several hundred thousand bikes on the road…HOWEVER…The roads were designed for the bikes and cars to ride simultaneously. There are dedicated bike lanes and bike trails. It can be done…IF it’s designed correctly. Trying to retrofit a bike system into a OLD city like Boston is a nightmare.
I know the generally accepted definition of average. I also know what median, mean, standard error, standard deviation and many more probability and statistical terms mean. My top speed on a bicycle was 59 mph and I am sure I chugged up mountains slower than 6 mph. I used to average 20 mph on 50 mile on my regular rides in the mountains (unless the wind really kicked up), but there are no mountains where I now live.
What is your point?
My point is that reasonably fast cyclists can not practically ride on sidewalks without endangering themselves and pedestrians. Six mph on a bicycle is too fast for a sidewalk.
Most “old” cities like Boston (meaning, cities that had their streetplans laid out before widespread use of privtae autos) have plenty of tertiary roads that aren’t really used for getting from point A to point B by cars. These roads are fine for cyclists to use as-is.
On the few “bottlenecks” where the only choices for cyclists are primary roads, then you can engineer in something.
I’ve always found city riding to be quite doable (although I suppose intimidating for those unused to mixing it up w/ autos). It’s the suburbs and exurbs that are a nightmare!
OK, so I take it that you do understand that if you go up a long hill at 6 mph and then come back down it at 36 mph your average speed was 10.28 mph, not 21 mph, right?
A lot of people don’t understand this which is why you see so many people going 80 mph down the freeway yet they don’t run to their cars or fill gas as fast as they can.