Bicyclist hit me an my dog while riding on the sidewalk

[Treasure.explore]

A bicyclist hit me and my dog while I was walking on the sidewalk last
night – on the sidewalk! A man on his bike was riding on the sidewalk
riding on N. Harvard Street past the Harvard Football Stadium – riding
towards Western Ave. I was walking my dog in his same direction and
the man ran his bike into the back of me an my dog. He didn’t stop
and he kept on riding. I have lived in this neighborhood for about 20
years and in the last 4 or 5 years I have noticed more and more people
(adults) riding their bikes on the sidewalks? How can we prevent this?

[Parmenter, Barbara M]

I'm an adult who sometimes bicycles on sidewalks for safety reasons in Allston-Brighton. But first let me say there is NO excuse for running into a pedestrian on any sidewalk, or even causing a pedestrian to FEEL unsafe on a sidewalk or crosswalk. I hope you and your dog were not injured. And there is no longer any excuse to BE on the sidewalk on that section of N. Harvard Street. It used to be the dangerous part of my bike commute to work (I won't go into details but it was horrific there), but with the new bike lanes and paving, it is now the safest section of my commute. I see people biking on the sidewalks still, and get very frustrated myself, as we bicyclists should always be on the street if it is safe to be there.

But please do understand there are other areas where it is very unsafe to bicycle on streets. And that bicycling on sidewalks is legal in Massachusetts outside business districts except if prohibited by local laws. To get to work, I would either have to bike on Western Ave, or I have to bike down the wrong way on Lincoln Street in North Allston, or I have to bike on its sidewalk. There's NO other option - most of the streets there are designed to keep cars from cutting through the neighborhood, which is a good thing. But it also means those nice quiet streets are not open to me heading the other direction on my bike. So for safety, I choose to bike on the sidewalks there, very slowly, stopping for pedestrians. I believe bike lanes are planned for Western Ave.

Same with the Larz Anderson Bridge over the Charles River - you have the chaos of the street and very angry motorists, or you have the sidewalk. There is some discussion of narrowing the bridge down to a single lane in each direction to add bike lanes, which would be wonderful for me as a bicyclist, but I'm guessing will bring a gale storm of resistance from drivers, which I also understand.

So please support bicycle lanes in the city to keep everyone safe. In the case of the person who was hit on the sidewalk on North Harvard Street, it obviously didn't make a difference, and I apologize to him/her as a bicyclist. I don't know how to hammer safety practices and just plain common decency into my fellow cyclists re going slow and always yielding to pedestrians. Greater enforcement by police of all traffic laws regarding drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians is the best thing I can think of. And now that there are bike lanes on North Harvard Street, they city could put NO CYCLING signage on the sidewalks as they do in Harvard Square, again enforced by tickets. I worked a couple summers in Eugene, Oregon, and saw police there handing out tickets to people walking, biking, and driving for various infractions, and it did seem to be a much more sane and safe environment for everyone. Getting a ticket is a good, quick, effective education in traffic laws.

Barbara Parmenter

-----Original Message-----
From: allstonbr...@googlegroups.com [mailto:allstonbr...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Treasure.explore
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 1:20 PM
To: AllstonBrighton2006
Subject: [AB2006] Bicyclist hit me an my dog while riding on the sidewalk

A bicyclist hit me and my dog while I was walking on the sidewalk last

night - on the sidewalk! A man on his bike was riding on the sidewalk
riding on N. Harvard Street past the Harvard Football Stadium - riding

towards Western Ave. I was walking my dog in his same direction and
the man ran his bike into the back of me an my dog. He didn't stop
and he kept on riding. I have lived in this neighborhood for about 20
years and in the last 4 or 5 years I have noticed more and more people
(adults) riding their bikes on the sidewalks? How can we prevent this?

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[shredbette]

I believe that in most of Boston it's illegal to ride on the sidewalk in BUSINESS districts, but legal in residential areas. Many adults ride on the sidewalk because they're too scared to ride on the streets. That section of North Harvard now has a bike lane which is fairly comfortable to ride in (at least compared to other bike lanes around the city). But some folks just don't feel comfortable riding on the streets!

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--
Chris Ditunno
617-413-3538

[Michael Price]

Shredbette: All you say is true but I don't see  shred of dismay or even acknowledgement that the biker hit a person and didn't have the courtesy to stop and apologize and see if anyone was hurt. you seem to say since some feel its dangerous to ride in the street even where there is a bike lane specifically for them its okay for them to cause others danger and fear.

[shredbette]

I didn't express that in my reply because Barbara already did so and I agree with her comments. If possible, anyone hit or scared by a cyclist on a sidewalk should get as much information as possible and (as appropriate) call the police to report the incident. ALL users of the sidewalk should respect the right of others to use that space safely for the purposes for which it's intended. It's never okay to cause danger and fear on a sidewalk, whether there's a bike lane or not. But I personally believe it's also okay to ride on the sidewalk even if there's a bike lane and even if it's illegal if you have a reasonable fear that you or your child(ren)/friends/etc. may be seriously harmed or killed if you ride in the street. Unfortunately, the bicycling infrastructure in Boston has not yet caught up with the demand, so often cyclists (particularly families and/or novices) have no other reasonable choices. But please understand I never said that I believe it's okay to terrorize and collide with other users on a sidewalk! (I guess I assumed that this was understood!) I'm a cyclist, driver and pedestrian... and also a human. Of course I don't want to exercise my rights (or occasionally break the law by riding on the sidewalk in a business district) at the expense of others' personal safety!