"You should be on the sidewalk, it's safer"

On my ride home, during a particularly hellish climb up a particularly surprisingly long and steep hill, some.. "recreational cyclist" told me this as they were going the opposite way down that hill at a rather slow rate of speed (obviously, slow enough that they could tell me while going down as I was going up). I should have said "wearing a helmet is even safer" or "not distracting someone legally operating a bicycle on a roadway is even more safer" or even "yes, I know all about safety in the probably 10,000 miles I've ridden over the past two and a half years, while I'm sure you've maybe put a hundredth of that on your shiny new wal-mart mountain bike" but I nodded and continued my quest. A little faster. I ride faster when annoyed.

Here's the deal, and any cyclist will tell you this as well, riding on a sidewalk is probably the least safe thing to do, and should only be used as a "last resort" kind of thing. I'm serious. But, roads are super scary and you should never ride them! This is probably the most common thing I hear. I tell people I ride on roads, even side roads, and they react with utter and complete terror. Then I tell them there are even times that I ride on a roadway, even though there is a bike path nearby, and they react with something akin to "he's just a crazy biker". Well, see, I thought so too. Then I learned some things:

1.) Riding on a sidewalk, in most municipalities, is illegal. Nobody seems to know definitively if this is true in Lincoln, and really I don't care if it is or not. But hey, it's a reason!

2.) Riding on the sidewalk endangers walkers. This is kind of a big one, as a sidewalk is generally big enough for two people to walk on, or one bike. Come flying over the hill on a sidewalk and someone is ending up in the grass, in the ER, or worse. On a multi-use (we cyclists love to use "bike", but really not so true) path it's different because they are generally wide enough to accommodate a bike and a person or two. Or 4 or 5 roadies (idiots).

3.) Riding on the sidewalk makes it harder for drivers to see you. Most commonly when I state this, I hear "but.. they don't need to! You're on the sidewalk!" Yeah, but what do sidewalks cross? ROADWAYS! DRIVEWAYS!! All kinds of places where cars are! For the year or two before I started cycling, I walked to work, and even then cars were oblivious to me on the sidewalk. What's the last thing you do when backing out of your driveway, if at all? Look at the sidewalk. I have heard of, or seen more cyclists in car-to-bike accidents on driveway entries that I've seen on the roadway. And I PERSONALLY have almost been killed more times on sidewalks, by a huge margin, than on roadways.

4.) Sidewalks are poorly mantained dangers to bicycles. This is another big one. How many times have you, especially in Lincoln, seen huge cracks in sidewalks? Ride over one, once, at speed. Please wear a helmet. And don't try to sue me for injuries.

Okay, sidewalks are bad, but seriously, why ride on roads?

You are subject to the same laws cars are. This may seem bad, but really it's good. They have to yield the right of way to you (most don't), and most importantly, if there is a collision there's a clear way to establish fault. Sidewalks, many times, are on private property and cause issues with establishing fault.

You are more visible. This seems to be the contrary, but seriously, you are more visible. That is, if you do what I do and "take the lane". Meaning, I generally ride near the middle, or at least need the 1/4 lane mark on the road. Add blinky tail and headlights to add to this effect.

Finally, most important, roads are sooo much smoother! This is dumb, in a way, but very true. On Sunday, in near 90 degree heat and nearly completely dehydrated I made a 5.5 mile trip home in 15 minutes, averaging 22mph. All on roadways.

Yes, I will admit that there are harrowing moments on the road. Yesterday, in particular, there was a half mile stretch of road filled with fucking assbrained morons, mainly in sport utility vehicles (kudos to you, construction guy and H3 lady, you fucking asshats), who thought that driving close enough that their mirrors bumped my arms (H3 assbrain lady) is cool. I made sure they knew how cool it was (in, for me, an oddly cool and collected manner) when I arrived to the stop light shortly after them.

That's all my news for today. Oh, the LHT is back with a newly rebuilt rear wheel, thanks Cycle Works! I sent Specialized a love letter hoping that will result in a warrantied-replacement rear wheel for my Hardrock, but I'm not holding my breath. Which is cool, still love the company, and the bike, will just have to wait longer until I can swing the cash to build a new wheel!