Martin Lund asked if it's okay to ride a bicycle around the Capitol in the area commonly referred to as the terrace as distinct from the area commonly called the sidewalk. Let's look at the intent as well as the letter of the law. The intent is to protect pedestrians and ensure that pedestrians on the sidewalk are not intimidated by bicyclists. A basic tenet of bicyclist safety that I learned long ago from one of my mentors is: Never compromise someone else's safety for your own convenience. In any area with significant pedestrian use, it is best to either ride in the street or walk your bicycle on the sidewalk, or find another route rather than ride on the sidewalk when pedestrians are likely to feel threatened by your presence in their space.
In terms of the letter of the law, the law would probably work against you here. A sidewalk is defined as "that portion of a highway between the curb lines, or the lateral lines of a roadway, and the adjacent property lines, constructed for use of pedestrians." Around the Capitol the "terrace" is paved, there are benches for people to sit on, water fountains, pedestrian access to/from parked cars, etc. The entire area from the curb to the Capitol lawn could be viewed as fitting the definition of sidewalk. There is no definition of a terrace (or other term for this space) in the motor vehicle code. The concept of the terrace (or planting strip or furnishings zone, etc.) is more of a planning and design concept/definition where we use a series of zones to define the area between the curb and the adjacent property lines. The model that I use for this space uses neither the term sidewalk nor terrace (although some use the term "Sidewalk Corridor" to refer to the entire area between the roadway and property lines, which again goes against your argument). Instead there are four potential zones in the sidewalk corridor between the roadway and the property lines. Depending upon the specific situation, some, all or none of these zones might exist. The four zones are the curb zone, the furnishings zone, the through pedestrian zone and the frontage zone. See Portland's Pedestrian Design Guide at http://www.trans.ci.portland.or.us/designreferences/Pedestrian/default.htm All you need to do is scan down this page this see how these terms are used. Open the PDF if you want to see more. Arthur Ross Pedestrian-Bicycle Coordinator City of Madison 608/266-6225 _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
