Small Sidewalk Cycling Hullabaloo

On the New Hill East listserve a woman rightfully complained that her 5 year old had been hit by a cyclist on the sidewalk and then she and her children had a near miss with another sidewalk cyclist only a few days later. Hitting a pedestrian on the sidewalk, even an erratic five year old, is inexcusable. But then she added

Please: bicycles belong on the street, not the sidewalk. There is a reason these laws exist.

Which led to a long chain of emails about what the law actually says, where cyclists should and shouldn't ride, etc...One person called for a law prohibiting sidewalk cycling on streets with bike lanes. Ironically she used East Capitol as her example, which is the place I most often see joggers in the bike lane. Most people felt as I did, that whoever crashed into her child wasn't riding safely, but that a ban on sidewalk cycling was a bit excessive. In general the discussion was refreshingly polite.

The Hill is Home followed up with a post letting people know where they could find out what the law actually says.

Comments

[ontarioroader]

Not to discount this incident, but that listserv is an endless source of entertaining yuppie whining second only to the Cleveland Park listserv. I highly recommend subscribing to both if you're an insomniac or have some free time and simply want to realize that your life could be so much worse.

[oboe]

...entertaining yuppie whining...

Yep, whining about things like traffic, school fundraisers, and recommendations for roofing companies.

IOW, it's a neighborhood listserv.

Keep on keepin' it real, ontarioroader.

[Richard Layman]

this made it to the anc-6a list as well. There were only a few comments, including mine, but people made some very good points.

[Chris]

These neighborhood listservs are hilarious fun. Richard Layman, you know what I'm talking about (ie, the Columbia Heights listserv).