Bike transportation in Downtown?

[danem]

At the end of the day it's perfectly legal to ride your bike on the sidewalks in Duval as long as you yield to pedestrians.  So until the law changes there's really nothing that's going to stop people from doing it.

You're right. When I was a kid, I believe it was illegal. Or so a cop told us when he visited my elementary school in 1980. And to be fair, you can't really blame people for riding on sidewalks when there are practically no bike lanes.

Reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ

I feel like I saw this video because one of you guys posted it on this site. Maybe, maybe not.

[tufsu1]

Here's some more info. on green lanes

http://fastlane.dot.gov/2012/06/green-lanes.html?goback=%2Egde_1178607_member_121638660

[peestandingup]

And thats really what a lot of us are missing arguing about streets vs sidewalks. Certain situations call for different methods to get where you're going since its such a broken system. And also, some are just simply not comfortable riding with traffic & with no shoulder. And they probably never will be. I'm not blaming those people or think they're "hurting the cause" when the city they live in isn't providing them with any alternatives. And I'm including myself in that camp.

If you're going to use the sidewalk, get off the bike.  It's pretty simple, cause or not. 

Why are you uncomfortable riding on the roadway with no shoulder?  Lack of doing it? 

I'm worried about putting my motorcycle on the interstate, because I haven't been riding for very long - do I bitch about the speed limits being too fast?  No.  I take a safer - LEGAL - route that I feel comfortable with until I'm ready. 

If you're uncomfortable riding your bike down Park St. (heavy traffic, no medians, lots of on-street parking and blind driveways) then just jump over a few streets to Riverside or Oak until you're ready.  What's the problem?  Why should every street cater to everyone when there are other viable options withing a few hundred feet of each other?

Sorry, but I'm not gonna subject myself (or my child) to the risk just to support "the cause", esp in a city that's brain dead when it comes to stuff like this & will take 20 years of dodging cars to turn it around. Mean mug all you want at me, but fuck that. Its never going to happen. Not in a city that's ranked at the top for pedestrian injuries/deaths & at the bottom for bike infrastructure.

I would never put my kid or my dog in harms way intentionally.  When I'm with either, I stay off of the main thouroughfares.  When I'm on my own, I pretty much ride where I want.  If you're going to get hit, you're going to get hit.  It won't matter if you're on Blanding, Riverside or King St.  there are bad drivers everywhere.

Oh, yes yes. Because I don't want to put my kid in harm's way & ride with the cars in a city that's ranked among the most dangerous for pedestrians/bikes, with little to no infrastructure to support them, I simply MUST not know how to ride. Is that it?? Lol. No offense, you might be a genius in real life, but that's a pretty ass backwards stupid thing to say.

But for your information, I've biked in/lived in much bigger cities than Jax & was very comfortable riding off-sidewalk in them. Know why? Because they actually supported what I was doing. I didn't have my kid at the time, but looking back, I'd have no problem taking her for rides there. Here that's simply not the case. Forgetting that most streets don't even have shoulders, hell, even in the so called "bike lanes" that we do have, most aren't even wide enough to accommodate the width of her trailer & it would be spilling over into the street. No thanks. I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

But hey, that's your business if you think otherwise & want to subject yourself to it. Just don't cry about it or be shocked when you get clipped or get flattened by some redneck in his monster truck. Stay safe.

[urbanlibertarian]

When I was in Cologne, Germany they had a stripe down the middle of the sidewalks.  The part closest to the street was for bikes.  is that legal here?

[peestandingup]

When I was in Cologne, Germany they had a stripe down the middle of the sidewalks.  The part closest to the street was for bikes.  is that legal here?

Here's what that looks like. I could def get behind this & it seems like it would be fairly easy to implement. Sam Marco & Springfield should have done this when they redid their sidewalks.

[cline]

I came across this report recently by VTPI discussing the thought by many motorists that bicyclists and pedestrians have less of a right to use roads than motorists.  I think this mentality is rampant in  Jax.  Thought it might be of interest to some since it kind of goes along with this conversation.

http://www.vtpi.org/whoserd.pdf