Quote:
Originally Posted by wooohooo
To be honest, I find it terrifying to be on a major road with cars. I'm not going to bike down Crowchild with cars narrowly missing me. That's just too Damn scary...
Probably why I haven't biked in over 10 years. If I'm not allowed to be on the sidewalk, I'm not going to bike at all.
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To be fair, the hard line doesn't really make sense in MANY cases, and thus ins't enforced. Just an example off of the top of my head - Biking down Falconridge Blvd/52nd Street, there is a bike path on the east side of the road. At 64th Ave, by the Co-op, the bikepath is a sidewalk, then further south, By the McDonalds in Falconridge, the bikepath is again just a sidewalk, and south of McKnight, at the 44th Ave/Temple Drive intersection, there's a Gas Plus where the bike path is again sidewalk width. If you are biking down that path, what are you supposed to do? Jump on the road for those short stretches?
Back in early spring one time I rode my bike to work, but my normal, shorter, safer route was still covered with snow, and the bike path beside 52nd street was covered in snow as well, so I rode on 52nd street until the snow melted. In the morning, heading south, the time I biked was after the rush, and was not too bad. However, the first time I tried to ride back home at around 5, I rode for one block, and then gave up with trying to ride on the road, because I was terrified. Cars whipping by in the same lane, harly moving over, me trying to ride in the gutter, with still had a little bit of snow in it, so I'm trying to avoid the hard packed mini drifts in the gutter, meanwhile not trying to veer too far into the traffic lane. I rode (slowly) on the snow covered path instead, climbing over plowed drifts, etc, because I wanted to get home alive. After that, when I would bike home along Metis Trail/36th Street even though it's a longer distance yet, because it has a wide shoulder lane.
The point is, there are times when riding on the road is just not an option. Where riding "according to the rules" is just not an option.