Hacker News Reader

Comment by lamontcg | Hacker News Reader

The only time I nearly hit a bicyclist they were riding in the sidewalk where I didn't expect them at all when they crossed in front of me. I like having the option of using the sidewalk when the street is a mess (particularly to bypass construction zones safely) but in general sidewalks are the wrong answer. Anyone who thinks they can boil it all down to yelling at bicyclists to just get off the roads isn't really trying to make bicycling safer. False concern for their safety.

That #1 type of collision in the linked article here ("right cross") becomes much worse with bikes on the crosswalk.

View on HN

That is why I suggested:

> Avoid crossing street at intersections that are not ultimately regulated by traffic lights. Instead try to find a crossing, preferable with traffic lights, on a street with enough distance to intersections where cars could suddenly appear from.

And a car driving on sidewalk should be super focused. I mean the car does not belong there at all!

Your suggestion is just nonsense that you haven't bothered to think through at all. You'll find the most traffic lights down arterials, but all the side roads feeding into the arterial will have stop signs so that the arterial can move faster.

Dunno why you're talking about cars driving on sidewalks. I was talking about when I bike I sometimes do use the sidewalk when the street is a mess. You also have to bike the whole way at not much more than walking speed.

Which I think is your preferred solution. Get all the bikes onto the sidewalks and make them go as slow as pedestrians and then people won't use bikes and you'll never have to negotiate passing one on the road. Which is all about your convenience, and the opposite of bicycle safety.

My misunderstanding, I misread part of your comment and was thinking you meant using the sideway as a car driver for some reason.

I am a bicylce rider, that wants to survive. I dont drive by car. Some car drivers are reckless and the cars they command are pretty dangerous. That makes me avoid car lanes.

My prefered solution is separate bike lines - separate from cars, separate from pedastrians. To avoid #1 problem listed on the page I prefer crossings that are ultimately regulated by traffic lights, i.e. no free right turn when light is red. Otherwise the safest spot to cross a street is on official crossings, best is with traffic lights, where you have enough distance to road turns or intersections. So that car drivers have a lot of time to see you crossing the street and you can see cars coming on both lanes when checking in both directions. When it is too close to a turn, a car can appear from around the corner without you being able to see each other first. A bit like the "right cross" and "crosswalk slam" issue from the website. Almost all the other issues are related to driving on the car lanes, hence the call for separate bike lanes.

I know it is not applicable everywhere - what can you do when there are no bike lanes... Fortunately in my home town we have enough space allocated for those and lots of traffic lights.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com