Get Out of My Bike Lane

You&#39;d think some of the many Toronto bicycle cops would be more ontop of this. I usually see them riding in packs. Yesterday I saw two of them riding on the sidewalk! Sadly, I didn&#39;t have my camera with me at the time.<div><br /></div><div>It&#39;s all very well blogging and taking pictures of offenders, but how is this translating into offenders being ticketed and violations being reduced?</div>

Thanks for posting this for me Tim - it&#39;s great to get the word out!&nbsp;&nbsp;

hah! I am mildy amused at the attention that this non-issue has raised.?<div>It makes me think of all the time (and I would say 75% of ALL bike activities that I witnessed are like this) where a cyclist has run a stop sign (or stoplight!?!) with other vehicles/pedstrians &#39;hatefully&#39; watching; weasled through traffic as if cyclists are some type of &#39;super-citizens&#39; not subject to laws, common sense, or basic human norms &amp; mores; ridden on busy sidewalks, lawns, hedges, handicap ramps. Courtesy starts at &#39;home&#39; cyclists! - clean up your own &#39;kind&#39; before diverting your slacker-angst to the &#39;majority&#39; of other citizens&#39; normal daily activities - remember 75% of all bike activities fall into these life-demoralizing activities.<div>Hah - and in case you were wondering - I am a Toronto pedestrian - not a driver!</div></div>

I have to agree with Jer, cyclists as a group seem to be more unfriendly, impolite, aggressive, non-compliant, hubris-filled, self-important, and &#39;pretty-much think the worlds is against them&#39; (which may be true).<div>As someone who cycles, drivers, and walks in approximately equal measure - cyclists do seem to get a raw deal - however, they don&#39;t handle it very well.</div>

yah - it&#39;s a real jungle out there for all modes of transportation - it seems like blocking the right-hand lane area is a source of a lot of problems - some European cities have barriers between the road and sidewalk, all the way along busy streets, that appears to have prevented a lot of taxi-unloading, courier-unloading, jaywalking and other vehicles from spontaneously &#39;pulling-over&#39; - i like it - it may disable the free-and-easy street scene for people who want to pop across the road between lights and - probably really expensive and space-consuming...

<p>Scarewalker is not far wrong, actually.&nbsp; Cycling can be scary, and I have had more than one cyclist run into me -- literally -- who translates that fear into a sense of entitlement.&nbsp; Yes, cycles are allowed to be on the road.&nbsp; No, that doesn&#39;t mean they can ram into pedestrians who have strayed from the sidewalk, or jaywalkers, any more than cars can. (Or, for that matter, cycle down sidewalks with aplomb and plough into people, although other cyclists do seem to get that that&#39;s just wrong.)&nbsp; The fact is that the cycles are virtually-silent road vehicles that drive along the part of the street most likely to intersect with pedestrians.&nbsp; Many cycles don&#39;t seem to think this entails any special responsibilities or issues.&nbsp; Common sense and experience both say it does. </p><p>FedEx trucks in bike lanes as some sort of crime?&nbsp; Please.&nbsp; Delivery vehicles, etc.&nbsp; <br />are constantly blocking the right-hand parts of streets, parking on sidewalks, etc.&nbsp; Light bulb: drive around it.&nbsp; Just like cars switch lanes when there is a parked vehicle ahead.&nbsp; Just like pedestrians walk around giant objects parked on sidewalks.</p><p>I mean, really. </p>

<p>as an avid cyclist i usually side with bikers.&nbsp; i will have to agree with Jer and Scared Walker that there are&nbsp;A LOT of wreckless bikers out there that give the rest a bad rap.&nbsp; Last week I saw a cyclist blow through a red light on dundas only to find himself on the hood of a car that had the right of way.&nbsp; the driver of the car was pretty worried about the cyclist, but also a little miffed becuase of some minor damage to her car.&nbsp; as i was watching this i crossed at the same intersection from the other side of the street, with the right of way, and a cyclist from the other direction barely missed slamming into me as they tried to barrell through the same red light.&nbsp; he then yelled out a self-righteous cry - &quot;More bike lanes for Toronto!&quot; completely ignoring to apologive for nearly hitting me...</p>

<p>I am in both camps.&nbsp; I empathize with the cyclists who have their bike lanes not taken seriously(in fact, treated with contempt) by motorists, and asking them to drive around, into traffic, is a little ridiculous.&nbsp; However, there are a HELL of a lot of cyclists with the aforementioned &#39;sense of entitlement&#39; that act like, because they&#39;re environmentally conscious, they own the road, and are basically just huge jerks.</p><p>Can&#39;t we all just get along?</p><p>&nbsp;Steve: Google &quot;Cyclist Kills Pedestrian&quot;, in quotes.&nbsp; It happens, a lot.<br /> </p>

<p>I cycle every day, and I think getting upset with delivery trucks stopping in the bike lane is going too far. Like others have mentioned, cars have to go around them too, and where else can they stop?</p><p>&nbsp;Next time you want a parcel delivered, remember the only way these people can be efficient is by stopping right in front of their destinations.</p>

am i the only cyclist who thinks there should be LESS bike lanes? they&#39;re garbage. i&#39;d rather just ride in the car lanes so that cars know i&#39;m there, than have bike lanes that are blocked and then get treated like crap by drivers whenever i do go into the car lanes because they think i no longer belong there.

&nbsp;I am sick of reading about how no cyclists follow the rules of the road.<ol><li>I almost always follow the rules of the road while cycling, as most utilitarian cyclists do.&nbsp; There is a subset of the cycling community, composed&nbsp; (mostly I assume) of couriers, courier wannabes, sidewalk surfers, and people who &#39;are training, so they don&#39;t want to break their rhythm.&#39;</li><li>I am sure we can all agree that more cars than bicycles run red lights at any given intersection in a given time frame.</li><li>Being hit by a car is much worse than being hit by a bike.&nbsp; I do admit that cyclists can kill pedestrians too, but&nbsp; I think this has happened fewer than five times in the past ten years.</li><li>Sidewalk surfers are scum and deserve to be treated as such.&nbsp; I fully advocate that the able bodied stand in their way, jostle, and in general annoy the shit out of them until they drive on the road where they belong.&nbsp; I don&#39;t mind so much if someone is creeping along at the pace of foot traffic, but anyone travelling at over 8 km/h deserves nothing but contempt.</li></ol>With that being said, there is definitely room for improvement in terms of the interactions between cyclists and other users of roads and sidewalks and vice versa.&nbsp; This is precisely why bike lanes, education, and enforcement are important.

I'm curious. Is it "illegal" to rollerblade on the sidewalk? The idea seems laughable to me, but some woman snapped that at me as I squeezed through her large group of friends that were taking up the entire sidewalk, one of which was walking a bike on it.