I think in this case opposite means biking on the sidewalk in the opposite direction of the adjacent lane. To illustrate the dangers consider a motorist slowing and making a right turn across the sidewalk. Let's say the car is moving at 20mph and the bike is moving at 10mph. If they are going the same direction the car has just passed the bike at a relative speed of 10mph giving the driver a good opportunity to notice the bike. If the bike is going the other direction the relative speed is 30mph giving the driver much less time to notice the bike.
Dave -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul T. O'Leary Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 4:27 PM To: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Bikies] A little gem I found on the opinion page of the WSJ ---- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > * riding in the 'opposite' direction is a significant factor in bike/car crashes > Actually, there is no "opposite direction" on sidewalks. All sidewalks, even the inner sidewalk of the Square on Saturday morning, are two-way pedestrian thoroughfares. "Direction" is a reference to the vehicle traffic lanes that happen to be adjacent to the sidewalk, but it's irrelevant to the traffic on the sidewalk. Of course, a lot of drivers forget this, esp. when they approach a street with one-way vehicular traffic. They forget that FIRST, there's a two-way pedestrian thoroughfare. This is where the crashes come from. But that has nothing (well, it should have nothing) to do with the direction of the vehicle traffic lanes. There is no way to operate a bicycle on a sidewalk in the "opposite" direction to pedestrians, as the letter-writer suggests, as pedestrians go in both directions. --------------- Paul T. O'Leary Chronic Nuisance Madison, WI USA _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
