What started out as a quirky little story about a cyclist in Toledo getting a traffic ticket after he was struck by a pickup truck has turned into a controversy over where bikes belong.
It's easy to make light of the story, considering the ironic nature of the incident. But anyone who bicycles regularly can see the bigger picture here.
To recap: Melvin Surprise, 22, was riding his bicycle on the sidewalk adjacent to a busy Toledo street when a pickup struck him as it pulled out of a shopping center driveway. A policeman gave Surprise a ticket because city code says no one over the age of 15 can ride a bicycle on the sidewalk.
The City Council set about to change the law to allow cyclists age 14 and up on sidewalks where the speed limit on the adjacent street is 35 mph or higher.
The Toledo Blade reports that the law change came to a screeching halt Tuesday night after some council members said that constituents were concerned about walking on sidewalks that were being used by cyclists.
There are many good reasons not to ride on sidewalks: getting smacked by a car pulling out of a driveway or smacking another pedestrian are just two of them.
John Forester, the California-based guru of effective cycling, says: “Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.” That means, among other things, riding in the street and using the center of narrow traffic lanes so cars and trucks don't try to squeeze past. They should have to change lanes to pass, just as if they were passing a car.
(Forester's website is definitely worth studying; he has posted many of his articles about cycling safety, facilities, education, etc. In addition, he has a book, “Effective Cycling,” published through MIT Press.)
Another cyclist points out that many state traffic laws, including those in Ohio, run counter to this wisdom. Fred Oswald writes at his website “Sidewalk laws and Other Dangerous Bicycle Ordinances”:
“Imagine if the people who write motor vehicle laws were non drivers. Now imagine that some of the police who enforce the laws also did not know how to drive. What's more, imagine that road engineers who design roads were ignorant of how cars are driven.”
Very funny, but that's what most bicycle riders face everyday when they take to the streets.
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