Considerate people should be allowed on the sidewalk

To the editor:

Re: 'Sidewalk cyclist a danger,' Letters, Feb. 9.

There's no reason why the sidewalks can't be safely shared - as they are most of the time. Pushing cyclists off the sidewalk puts more people in greater danger of even greater injury.

I've been riding for almost 60 years, and I'm still a pretty good biker. Mainly, I ride in the woods where the riding is exciting and challenging, yet safer since I don't have to worry about cars.

In the city, I prefer to ride on the road, but sometimes that is dangerous and the sidewalks are empty and safer.

My experience is the sidewalks are almost always empty of people and of bikes.

If I ever do find myself riding a bike and approaching a pedestrian, I give them an early and wide berth, moving to the road or on to the boulevard.

The problem is really about consideration and thoughtfulness toward your fellow humans.

The cyclist who would run you down, will do so on a sidewalk, on a road, in a parking lot or in the middle of a field because they don't care about you.

When I walk on a sidewalk, what runs into me are other pedestrians.

I suspect most who do so come from other countries where they tend to walk and drive on the left-hand side. My tactic now is to stop and let them go around me, instead of allowing myself to be forced off the sidewalk, but some of them will walk into me anyway. Should we ban pedestrians from the sidewalks as well?

Interestingly enough, large numbers of pedestrians have no concerns about sharing the sidewalk with bicycles. You only have to go down to the boardwalk area to see all the people who prefer to walk on the bike paths with the cyclists, to see the proof of that.

Banning all cyclists from sidewalks is dangerous, counter-productive, a waste of resources and inconsiderate.

There's no reason to put cyclists' lives in danger on a busy road when they could be riding safely on an empty sidewalk.

Considerate riders pose no danger to pedestrians at all.

Banning considerate riders because of a few inconsiderate ones is not the answer, any more than banning all drivers from the roads because of the rather large number of incompetent ones.

It's not the bicycle or the rider or the pedestrian or the sidewalk that is the problem.

Why don't we just address the real issue - make it illegal to hit people with bicycles, or more practically, create a law that makes it a felony to ride recklessly or closer than five feet from a pedestrian - unless of course, they're on the bike paths. Then they should be fair game.

Charles Gadsby