Bicyclists and pedestrians on sidewalks at SJSU
Just as a follow up to let you know I am still concerned about the use of bikes and other human powered vehicles on campus. This is from an e-mail from Bob, a friend who is a retired faculty member at SJSU. Bob is a serious cyclist. He follows the rules of the road. He operates his bike in a safe manner on the road. Yes, Bob even wears a helmet.
Bob wrote:
Saturday morning January 2 I was riding my bike along Capitol expressway to get to the eastern hills. It was a flat section and I was riding at 25 mph. Could have been operator error, the handlebars just snapped out of my hands and I went down hard. There are some undulations in the pavement of the breakdown lane where I was riding, caused by tree roots growing under the pavement. I have ridden over them without incident hundreds of times, but not this time. My pelvis is broken in two places, but there is only a millimeter of displacement in one of the fractures and the other break was not displaced, the Orthopod did not think that it required surgery, which I guess is major if they have to do it. No bracing internal or external. He said I should be fine if I keep weight off of the leg for six weeks.”
The point is, even when we manage risk and do everything right; the consequences of a bicycle crash are severe. There is no metal shield around bicyclists or pedestrians to dent. You do not have a fender bender on a bicycle, instead you get bruises and possibly broken bones or worse.
Yet, in general, the benefits of cycling to campus far outweigh the risks. We cannot forget; even sedentary lifestyles have risks, as does our dependence on foreign oil. In my opinion we need to take sensible, managed risks, to get the most gain from that risk. That is why, despite the risk, I am a strong advocate of the proper and safe use of human powered transportation vehicles to get to campus and safely designed streets and other facilities for their operation getting to campus. I support having showers for employees and safe parking facilities for bicycles at SJSU.
At the same time I do not support bike riding on campus sidewalks because I do not feel the benefit exceeds the well documented additional risks of riding on campus sidewalks shared with pedestrians. Bicycles can be ridden to campus and walked on campus.
Even if you are the unusual SJSU cyclist who rides slowly and rings a bell at pedestrians as you approach you have no way of knowing if the pedestrian has a disability, if the pedestrian can hear or see you or if the pedestrian has the ability to get out of the way.
Bob is just one of two cyclist friends I know who are safe cyclists and are recovering from pelvises broken in recent cycling accidents. Another friend, Sandy, is also in a similar predicament. I expect both to return to cycling after they mend. Cyclists at least choose to bear the risks of cycling, pedestrians who may be hit by cyclists do not get to choose.
Cycling has risks that need to be managed to be done as safely as possible. I am not convinced the folks I see riding on campus, in the way they are riding; typically are even aware of the risks they are putting themselves or pedestrians at.
