Everyone Wins With Complete Streets

[dougskiles]

It depends on what type of bike riding you do.  If you are going for a casual ride and never go faster than 10 mph then riding on the sidewalk is OK.  When you get around 20 mph on a road bike, a sidewalk is the most dangerous place you can be and not just for yourself but for pedestrians.  Mailboxes, utility poles, signs, benches and bus stops come at you pretty fast.  But the greatest danger is a car pulling out of a driveway.  Most drivers pull out into the sidewalk before they begin to look for anything coming at them.

[I-10east]

^^^Valid points. Esp. coming down the viaduct on Beaver, talk about a fast bike ride.

[doglover]

Well, sidewalks are for WALKING. And if you do ride on them, it is more dangerous when you cross at intersections because many cars will make right hand turns right on top of you.
It seems like bicyclists get pissed on either way. For example, I was riding my bike one weekend on Park St by King Street and nearly got run over by a car pulling out of a parking space. I decided to briefly take the sidewalk. It was a broader portion of sidewalk, yet this guy walking yelled at me to get off the sidewalk and ride in the road. And this is Riverside, so I guess if you wanna ride your bike in the burbs you're really f'ed

[Timkin]

hmm... like it was HIS sidewalk you were riding on. How nice of him.

[urbaknight]

IMO the area on Beaver St & Garfield St is complete. On foot, you have sidewalks, On bike you have sidewalks What's wrong with riding a bike on the sidewalk? Are we THAT spoiled when a very spread out city like Jax gotta have freakin' bike lanes throughout it's 800 some-odd square miles? I'm not playing Frogger by stupidly riding a bike on already narrow Beaver St! Transit, JTA bus, oh I know, it's not trendy or sexy enough for yall like a streetcar. This is just one mans take that I know alot of MJers will completely disagree with.  

Up North, you can get a ticket for riding a bike on the sidewalk. But down here, the drivers are so awful and they're allowed to run you over if you're not in a car. Even I, being visually impaired, can ride my bike through the streets of my hometown with little trouble! If our great leaders can pass legislation that would crack down on bad driving, like we do up north, then things would be better for all of us. If we did that, I feel that with all of those "bad drivers" being at least cited, our budget problems would be solved, and with a surplus to boot.

[JeffreyS]

IMO the area on Beaver St & Garfield St is complete. On foot, you have sidewalks, On bike you have sidewalks What's wrong with riding a bike on the sidewalk? Are we THAT spoiled when a very spread out city like Jax gotta have freakin' bike lanes throughout it's 800 some-odd square miles? I'm not playing Frogger by stupidly riding a bike on already narrow Beaver St! Transit, JTA bus, oh I know, it's not trendy or sexy enough for yall like a streetcar. This is just one mans take that I know alot of MJers will completely disagree with. 

Give me friendly competent bus drivers on well designed routes I will ride. In fact Bus is an indispensable part of any advanced transit system.  That said Streetcar Now.(For the financial benefits).

[urbaknight]

Well, sidewalks are for WALKING. And if you do ride on them, it is more dangerous when you cross at intersections because many cars will make right hand turns right on top of you.
It seems like bicyclists get pissed on either way. For example, I was riding my bike one weekend on Park St by King Street and nearly got run over by a car pulling out of a parking space. I decided to briefly take the sidewalk. It was a broader portion of sidewalk, yet this guy walking yelled at me to get off the sidewalk and ride in the road. And this is Riverside, so I guess if you wanna ride your bike in the burbs you're really f'ed

It's really time to get more aggressive with these bad drivers. Arm yourself if you have to, I certainly do. Because they don't give a shit about you unless you're driving too. I've been getting into shouting matches with them. I am so close to pulling a driver right out of his window and showing him "my law" since the laws here clearly don't work for pedestrians. It's time to get tough with bad drivers, coj won't do it, jso won't do it, all that leaves is us on foot. Let us stick them up their asses!