Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

Sometimes when I need to go some places where it is safer to ride on the sidewalk for a short distance and cross at a cross walk with the pedestrian signal . (It's ok where I live in Texas).

Since most people do NOT look right before turning on a red light, I do the following:

1. I wave at them to make sure they see me, then cross.

2. If they have dark windows, I do not cross if someone is turning right

3. I also watch the other cars turning right. (Not sure if their light is red?)

3. I have my headlight flashing at all times

Thinking if keeping my rear lights flashing would help in any situations.


Andy

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On Wed, 12 Jun 2019 15:38:36 -0700 (PDT), AK
wrote:

Sometimes when I need to go some places where it is safer to ride on the sidewalk for a short distance and cross at a cross walk with the pedestrian signal . (It's ok where I live in Texas).

Since most people do NOT look right before turning on a red light, I do the following:

1. I wave at them to make sure they see me, then cross.

2. If they have dark windows, I do not cross if someone is turning right

3. I also watch the other cars turning right. (Not sure if their light is red?)

3. I have my headlight flashing at all times

Thinking if keeping my rear lights flashing would help in any situations.


Andy

Probably anything that increases the chances that someone would notice
you is advantageous :-)
--
cheers,

John B.

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On 6/12/2019 6:38 PM, AK wrote:
Sometimes when I need to go some places where it is safer to ride on the sidewalk for a short distance and cross at a cross walk with the pedestrian signal . (It's ok where I live in Texas).

Since most people do NOT look right before turning on a red light, I do the following:

1. I wave at them to make sure they see me, then cross.

2. If they have dark windows, I do not cross if someone is turning right

3. I also watch the other cars turning right. (Not sure if their light is red?)

3. I have my headlight flashing at all times

Thinking if keeping my rear lights flashing would help in any situations.

A lot depends on how fast you're entering the intersection. Are you
stopping, or slowing to walking speed well before proceeding? If not,
you're still at increased risk unless there's nobody around - and if
there were nobody around, you probably ought to be in the street anyway.

Motorists turning left into the street are also a hazard. So are ones
driving straight across into it. And if you're busy looking back,
motorists approaching from your right might be surprised by your speed,
too.

There are a couple sidewalks I use regularly for very short distances,
so I don't say "never ride sidewalks." But there's a lot to watch for.
They're actually more complicated (and have worse crash data) than most
roads.


--
- Frank Krygowski

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 8:19:52 PM UTC-5, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/12/2019 6:38 PM, AK wrote:
Sometimes when I need to go some places where it is safer to ride on the sidewalk for a short distance and cross at a cross walk with the pedestrian signal . (It's ok where I live in Texas).

Since most people do NOT look right before turning on a red light, I do the following:

1. I wave at them to make sure they see me, then cross.

2. If they have dark windows, I do not cross if someone is turning right

3. I also watch the other cars turning right. (Not sure if their light is red?)

3. I have my headlight flashing at all times

Thinking if keeping my rear lights flashing would help in any situations.

A lot depends on how fast you're entering the intersection. Are you
stopping, or slowing to walking speed well before proceeding? If not,
you're still at increased risk unless there's nobody around - and if
there were nobody around, you probably ought to be in the street anyway.

Motorists turning left into the street are also a hazard. So are ones
driving straight across into it. And if you're busy looking back,
motorists approaching from your right might be surprised by your speed,
too.

There are a couple sidewalks I use regularly for very short distances,
so I don't say "never ride sidewalks." But there's a lot to watch for.
They're actually more complicated (and have worse crash data) than most
roads.


--
- Frank Krygowski

They are more complicated, but I am super careful.

I ride expecting most drivers to be inattentive, inconsiderate, and with slightly lower IQs.

When you waiting by the button for the crosswalk, there is little danger of getting hit from behind.

Not so if you are riding in the bike lane.

Andy

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 6:38:39 PM UTC-4, AK wrote:
Sometimes when I need to go some places where it is safer to ride on the sidewalk for a short distance and cross at a cross walk with the pedestrian signal . (It's ok where I live in Texas).

Since most people do NOT look right before turning on a red light, I do the following:

1. I wave at them to make sure they see me, then cross.

2. If they have dark windows, I do not cross if someone is turning right

3. I also watch the other cars turning right. (Not sure if their light is red?)

3. I have my headlight flashing at all times

Thinking if keeping my rear lights flashing would help in any situations.


Andy

Crossing at crosswalks around here isn't too bad. For real fun try crossing at the crossings near the roundabouts. Those crossings are located precisely where drivers don't expect anyone and are accelerating out of the roundabout.

Cheers

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On 6/12/2019 9:27 PM, AK wrote:
On Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 8:19:52 PM UTC-5, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/12/2019 6:38 PM, AK wrote:
Sometimes when I need to go some places where it is safer to ride on the sidewalk for a short distance and cross at a cross walk with the pedestrian signal . (It's ok where I live in Texas).

Since most people do NOT look right before turning on a red light, I do the following:

1. I wave at them to make sure they see me, then cross.

2. If they have dark windows, I do not cross if someone is turning right

3. I also watch the other cars turning right. (Not sure if their light is red?)

3. I have my headlight flashing at all times

Thinking if keeping my rear lights flashing would help in any situations.

A lot depends on how fast you're entering the intersection. Are you
stopping, or slowing to walking speed well before proceeding? If not,
you're still at increased risk unless there's nobody around - and if
there were nobody around, you probably ought to be in the street anyway.

Motorists turning left into the street are also a hazard. So are ones
driving straight across into it. And if you're busy looking back,
motorists approaching from your right might be surprised by your speed,
too.

There are a couple sidewalks I use regularly for very short distances,
so I don't say "never ride sidewalks." But there's a lot to watch for.
They're actually more complicated (and have worse crash data) than most
roads.


--
- Frank Krygowski

They are more complicated, but I am super careful.

I ride expecting most drivers to be inattentive, inconsiderate, and with slightly lower IQs.

Yep. Fully half of them are below average!


--
- Frank Krygowski

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 9:19:52 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:

Motorists turning left into the street are also a hazard. So are ones
driving straight across into it. And if you're busy looking back,
motorists approaching from your right might be surprised by your speed,
too.

In 30+ years of commuting, I've been hit twice. Both times, the driver was coming from the opposite direction and turned left in front of me.

There are a couple sidewalks I use regularly for very short distances,
so I don't say "never ride sidewalks." But there's a lot to watch for.
They're actually more complicated (and have worse crash data) than most
roads.

I'll occasionally use a sidewalk. There are a few intersections on my commute where the road is rather narrow. There isn't enough of a shoulder to pass on the right, and too much traffic from the other direction to pass on the left (not to mention that's illegal 'round these parts). In those cases I hop the curb up to the intersection. And yes, I wait for the green light to cross the intersection :)

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On 13/06/2019 2:31 p.m., Zen Cycle wrote:
On Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 9:19:52 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:

Motorists turning left into the street are also a hazard. So are ones
driving straight across into it. And if you're busy looking back,
motorists approaching from your right might be surprised by your speed,
too.

In 30+ years of commuting, I've been hit twice. Both times, the driver was coming from the opposite direction and turned left in front of me.

There are a couple sidewalks I use regularly for very short distances,
so I don't say "never ride sidewalks." But there's a lot to watch for.
They're actually more complicated (and have worse crash data) than most
roads.

I'll occasionally use a sidewalk. There are a few intersections on my commute where the road is rather narrow. There isn't enough of a shoulder to pass on the right, and too much traffic from the other direction to pass on the left (not to mention that's illegal 'round these parts). In those cases I hop the curb up to the intersection. And yes, I wait for the green light to cross the intersection :)


Law was just modified in Quebec to allow cyclists to proceed on the
pedestrian walk signal. Gives us a jump on the traffic and makes sense.

Pedestrians have the right of way but we're on the street anyway, not in
the crosswalk. Riding on the sidewalk is illegal here.

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On 6/13/2019 4:07 PM, Duane wrote:
Riding on the sidewalk is illegal here.

Weirdly enough, riding on the sidewalk used to be mandatory here! At
least in theory, that is.

Someone in the Ohio Bicycle Federation found out that many small Ohio
communities had very similar and _very_ crazy bicycle ordinances. As a
result, the OBF successfully lobbied the state for a law that said
municipalities could not pass bike traffic laws that were fundamentally
different than the state's.

So I dug into the local ordinances, and found to my amazement that
bicyclists were not allowed to ride on a street if a sidewalk was
present. Bicyclists had to stop and walk across all intersections with
"through streets," whatever that meant. (It was undefined.) One could
not leave a bike parked, even for a minute, without locking it. Children
under 10 could not ride on any street... and so on.

I typed up a document explaining the follies of each such measure, and
pointed out that the village was in violation of state law. The village
solicitor then urged village council to repeal all those ordinances as
an emergency measure, which they did.

I still don't know why dozens of little burgs had those identical laws.
Someone theorized that decades ago, some company found a way to sell
packages of laws to little towns. These crazy laws don't matter much
since they're never enforced, but they might have caused trouble if a
negligent motorist were to hit a bicyclist who was not on a sidewalk, etc.

--
- Frank Krygowski

Crossing at pedestrian walk
 

On Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 4:07:58 PM UTC-4, duane wrote:
On 13/06/2019 2:31 p.m., Zen Cycle wrote:
On Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 9:19:52 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:

Motorists turning left into the street are also a hazard. So are ones
driving straight across into it. And if you're busy looking back,
motorists approaching from your right might be surprised by your speed,
too.

In 30+ years of commuting, I've been hit twice. Both times, the driver was coming from the opposite direction and turned left in front of me.

There are a couple sidewalks I use regularly for very short distances,
so I don't say "never ride sidewalks." But there's a lot to watch for.
They're actually more complicated (and have worse crash data) than most
roads.

I'll occasionally use a sidewalk. There are a few intersections on my commute where the road is rather narrow. There isn't enough of a shoulder to pass on the right, and too much traffic from the other direction to pass on the left (not to mention that's illegal 'round these parts). In those cases I hop the curb up to the intersection. And yes, I wait for the green light to cross the intersection :)


Law was just modified in Quebec to allow cyclists to proceed on the
pedestrian walk signal. Gives us a jump on the traffic and makes sense.

Pedestrians have the right of way but we're on the street anyway, not in
the crosswalk. Riding on the sidewalk is illegal here.

Riding on sidewalks is generally illegal here as well, but it varies from town-to-town (called 'town by-laws'). I've even seen "cyclists must walk bikes in crosswalks" in some towns.