A couple of times, this week, I have nearly been in a collision with a pedestrian who decided to suddenly strike out from the sidewalk and march across the bike lane, mid-block. Usually it seems that they are wearing some electronic device which provides both amusement and distraction. I haven't seen one "look both ways" yet--that's certainly what I was taught to do.
I say this as though it's just peds. Half the cyclists I see are playing the same game. No helmet, riding in and out of traffic, wearing ear-buds. One guy I saw last week did lazy circles in the middle of the intersection at Arden and Bell while waiting for eastbound Arden Way traffic to let off a bit so that he could run the OTHER HALF of the light. We were both waiting to travel south on Bell--the light was red the whole time.
So I cannot and would not endorse any sort of battle to the death between cyclists and peds. We are often pitted against one another, though, for our little share of the road. In the photos above and below, cyclists and peds are marginalized together and more often then not wind up bickering amongst themselves rather than noticing the real problem. How many times have we inconvenienced one another in the 12th Street railroad underpass, on the Fair Oaks Bridge, or on the submarginal surface that blends sidewalk with minor freeway along any of the hundreds of miles of street in Sacramento's Sprawl-ville?
The fact is, if you look at either of these pictures, both are wholly dominated by the automobile. These aren't really exceptions to the rule, either. Sure, Mid-Town is pretty bike friendly. If you ride across either river or venture south of the 50 Freeway, it's a whole different world.
Motorists have demanded and do receive the vast majority of the space needed to travel to and fro in Sacramento--like most places in the U.S. Indeed, motorists alone receive sufficient continuity in travel-ways to go where they want to go pretty much whenever they want to go. On my bike, I have one safe bridge across the Sacramento River--and I must share that with pedestrians. Motorists have three bridges.
These riches have led motorists to think of themselves as having exclusive right to travel-routes. Horns blare and fists shake. "Get out of the traffic lane!" one fellow shouted to me, forgetting that I was traffic. Indeed, had I moved aside, he could have gotten closer to the next car in line, also stopped at a traffic signal.
Motorists may claim to be a majority. Remember, though, that nearly EVERY ONE of us is a pedestrian. Improvements to pedestrian infrastructure stand to benefit everyone. I really intend to toot the horn for cyclists... but for all the new bike lanes I have seen in ten years, I have seen precious few new pedestrian spaces. We were all pedestrians first.
I believe that an important step toward winning back some of the Road from the Motor is to remember that as cyclists and peds, we really can travel together on the same surface--even if the vehicle code calls bikes vehicles. Bicycles travel at human-scale speeds, whereas automobiles might as well be rocket-ships.
Further, I believe that as cyclists and pedestrians, we must use what space we have--each one with the other in mind. It's going to be a while before one of those lanes in the 12th Street underpass is dedicated to two-way bike traffic. In the meantime we must ride responsibily. For the most part, sidewalks are for WALKing. Bike lanes are for biking--and bikes are allowed the full-use of a vehicle lane on the road.
TAKE THE LANE! Smile at a pedestrian.
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