Re: Yeah... Right
My cycle route to my old part time job back when I was in college involved a cycle lane, and also involved a significant portion of the journey spent on the pavement instead.
This was due to the lane hopping on and off the road at different points, whilst having no dropped kerb to allow for it. Going up and down curbs while travelling in the general direction of the road is more dangerous as it requires you to pull out into traffic to get a decent angle to mount the curb, or worse cycle out into the road coming off it.
Obviously you look at the traffic and do it when safe, or you try to, but staying on the pavement (there wasn't heavy foot traffic) was safer.
Contrary to that, when I was cycling to or from College itself, the bike lane was on the pavement.
Pedestrians (mostly other college students) would often just walk along both the path and the cycle lane, right in the way of cyclists.
One afternoon, someone deep in conversation gesticulated wildly, and flung out his arms to full stretch, just as I was passing by.
He wasn't on the cycle path, but he was right next to it, and there was nothing I could do about it in the fraction of a second before we made contact.
Thankfully I knocked his arm out of the way instead of being knocked off (though it did hurt). The open bottle of drink in his hand went right over him.
I was quite happy to tell him that it was his own stupid fault, just like it would be if he stuck his arm out into moving traffic on the road.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
