From: S. Morris Rose [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: To: STRAWSER, Charles Cc: Bikies Subject: Re: [Bikies] Courtesy or Nuisance?
On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 9:04 AM, STRAWSER, Charles <[email protected]> wrote: I think it makes a lot more sense for peds to walk on the right... for all the reasons already described on this thread. On Friday, November 23, 2012 12:14 PM, Scott Rose wrote: I read the whole thread, and I didn't see anybody explain why it makes more sense, much less a lot more sense, for peds to walk on the right. I saw one guy explain why he thinks walking on the left is more sensible. But it's made clear by your forward that the convention on trails is for peds on the right, and clearly it's safer when people follow stated traffic convention than if everybody makes up their own. Less clear is why there is one convention for peds on roads and another for peds on trails. Let's guess that there are a lot of people who don't know what the conventions are. Scott M. Rose West Point Grey, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott, You’re right, it wasn’t made all that clear in the previous thread. Mark Shahan wrote: “The problem is most people don't know that when they walk against traffic on the left, they are suppose to move off the path when on-coming traffic approaches.” But this is not actually the (official) expectation of path users as I understand it. This is what is required of peds walking on a ROAD (not a sidewalk, and not a path). There is one convention for peds on roads because peds in roads (not sidewalks) are expected to yield to vehicles in the road. Therefore, peds in the road must be able to see the approaching vehicles that they are required to yield to, and hence must walk facing vehicle traffic. I believe this is state law, though I’m not going to take the time to look it up. There is another convention for peds on multi-use paths because peds are NOT expected to yield to vehicles (bicycles) on the path. It’s exactly the opposite: bicycles are expected to yield to peds on the path (well, actually, faster users are expected to yield to slower users, but with a few exceptions this generally means that bikes yield to peds). However, it is much easier for everyone (if not necessarily more comfortable for everyone) if all the traffic (bikes and peds) travels in the same direction. Here’s why: If you approach a ped traveling in the same direction as you, but there is oncoming traffic that makes it unsafe (or even just discourteous) to pass, you can ride at walking speed behind the pedestrian until the oncoming traffic clears and it is safe to pass. If the pedestrian you approach is walking towards you (on his/her left of the path), and you must wait for oncoming traffic to pass, at some point you and the ped meet and both must stop until it is safe for one to pass the other. This makes no sense at all (unless you believe that peds walking on the left are expected to get off the path, which I don’t think is codified anywhere in local or state law), it’s irritating for both the walker and the cyclist, and on a crowded path it quickly cascades into bottlenecks. The problem, as you put it well, comes when everyone does not follow the same convention. And too many folks don’t know what the official convention is, or seem to care. For example, I meet pedestrians walking in the road against traffic (even where there are sidewalks) all the time who do not yield to me as a vehicle, and of course I do yield to them because I’m not about to hit a pedestrian in the road simply because they are not following the law. This generally happens on relatively low speed, low volume local streets, so perhaps we have gravitated to a system where peds expect to be yielded to whether they are in a thoroughfare in which they feel relatively safe (such as local streets or paths). That’s understandable, and perhaps it’s even a more appropriate convention. But it doesn’t happen to be the law here in Wisconsin. Chuck Strawser Pedestrian & Bicycle Transportation Planner Commuter Solutions Transportation Services UW-Madison Room 124 WARF 610 Walnut St Madison WI 53726 608-263-2969 www.wisc.edu/trans
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