The data suggests that well over 100 percent of Montrealers have a reason not to ride a bicycle and yet amazingly a tiny pedaling percentage persists.
Politicians have taken to encouraging the city's cyclists without giggling, in spite of the fact that the number of bicyclists on our roads will never become a significant voter bloc.
You'll note from the above multi-coloured pie chart based on relatively unsourceable data, that many people have too much stuff or people to transport (didn't even put that one in) and are too young or old to ride a bicycle. And it's winter here about eight months a year.
I was an avid cyclist from between the ages of 24 and 34,drove my bike year round once almost losing my right ear to frostbite usually at a relatively slow pace. I never really felt a great need for bike paths.
When in doubt, I just rode on a sidewalk.
Please don't ride on the sidewalk. I can't tell you how many times my kids and I were nearly hit by hipsters on Bixi bikes while walking around town. Wear a helmet and ride on the road like a big boy. If in doubt, walk your bike. Especially through underpasses: I get that they are scary to ride through on a bike, but they are even more terrifying as a pedestrian walking with his family with selfish dimwits zipping by on the sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteBaron Empain
Gotcha Baron, totally agree. Firstly, I always rode pretty slow. When I ride (rode, don't have a bike anymore) on a sidewalk it's empty and I'm on a snail's pace anyway. If a pedestrian crops up, I just stop and politely go around slowly or just stop and let them pass. It's amazing how many sidewalks are totally empty. Over here in the West End on St. James there's miles of sidewalks and only rarely do you ever see anybody walking on 'em.
ReplyDeleteI did a lot of riding in snowstorms and stuff, that was my favourite, so there were moments when I could go for quite some distance without encountering a single person on a sidewalk.
I agree with Baron, nearly run over by stupid kids on the sidewalk, not hipsters or bixis. I was nearly creamed last week by some adolescent zipping past me like a maniac, not even warning me he was approaching.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I admit that there are times when I'm riding my bike home along sherbrooke and go up on the sidewalk for one block,then turn up my street. I go very very slowly and always alert people. I don't do it as a rule, it's just to avoid bad traffic and a dangerous intersection, and the sidewalk on that block is very wide.
There are some streets where the traffic dives too fast, where there are always nasty cracks, pot-holes, and defective sewer gratings next to the curb where I sometimes ride (like on St. Croix and Lafleur), that riding on the sidewalk is preferable and, anyway, rarely used by pedestrians.
ReplyDeleteOnce on Bates Road--which was undergoing roadwork and sidewalk repairs at the time--I zipped around two cops walking alongside who told me to stop, but I simply pointed out that I had no choice under the circumstances, and they waved me onward.