If we ever get real bike lanes on the streets of Winnipeg, I may consider biking on the road. Until then I'll be on the sidewalk, being careful not to hit anyone. I'd rather be hit by a bike while walking, than either hit a person on a bike with my car or be hit by a car on my bike. Honestly don't care much about that 'law' anyway, nobody enforces it and it is a stupid law.
that's just pure stupidity. sorry, but it is.
i bike and drive. so i see it from both sides.
i think bikers are much, much worse than drivers. more guilty in being unpredictable and breaking most biking/traffic rules.
as a driver, you don't want the unpredictability of making a right-hand turn, looking for pedestrians, and then having a bike come out quickly from a sidewalk. even 10-15 km/hr on a sidewalk is unpredictable, and cities like toronto, where there are bus shelters, garbage bins, etc, the bike can come from out of nowhere.
when i bike on the street, i'm hugging the curb. maybe 1 ft from the curb so i'm taking up maybe 2 to 2.5 ft of the street. i laugh as cars slow down or can't figure out how to go around me. um, the lane fits me and you. just move towards that dotted line and you're fine.
i've been in 2 bike accidents. both were on toronto paved trails. one involved me flipping over my handlebars because an idiot biker got off her bike in front of me and blocked the entire trail. broke my clavicle. fun. the other involved a pedestrian walking on the bike lane (hey, those bikers that walk on the pedestrian's sidewalk: this is how it feels for someone to be in YOUR lane), me going around him, and him deciding to put his shoulder in me for no ****ing reason and knocking me off my bike. fun.
bikers should just follow the rules. no sidewalk. no weaving. no riding through crosswalks. stop at red lights. signal. don't use a crosswalk to make a left turn. if that happened, then lots of problems would be solved.
on saturday, i got into a fight with a driver. dude ran a stop sign and almost hit me. i had the right of way (i was on a thorough street and he wasn't looking at oncoming traffic). as i pedaled by, he rolled down his window. thought he was apologizing. no. he was telling me that he had the right of way. we got into a heated discussion and he ended up literally driving behind me, flooring his truck, trying to knock me off my bike. i was hoping on the sidewalk, cutting down alleys, etc, trying to shake him. finally lost him. i don't know if he wanted to kill me or just scare me, but that's a pure lunatic move. road rage.