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May 9, 2006
A Pareto-dominated situation?
One of my main bike rides requires crossing one of the major Palo Alto commute routes (University Ave from 101), with a stop sign in my direction. If you pick the wrong time to go (like rush hour) then it can be very hard to find a lull in traffic to get across. On a bike, that is... Turns out that there's a crosswalk right at the intersection and so if you walk across the crosswalk, cars have to stop for you. On the other hand, as I understand it if you ride across and there's traffic then you're effectively running the stop sign. So, instead I get off my bike and walk it across the intersection--which isn't fast when you're wearing cycling shoes with Speedplay cleats. We'd all be better off--at least in this scenario--if we treated bikes in crosswalks as walking: cars because they didn't have to wait as long and I because I don't have to get off my bike and mess up my shoes. I suppose it's arguable that in other settings we don't want bikes and pedestrians mixing in crosswalks, though.Posted by ekr at May 9, 2006 11:35 AM | Filed under:
Comments
Maybe you could unclip from one side and use your bike as a scooter, coasting along while balancing on the other foot. That might make you legally a pedestrian and you wouldn't have to hit the ground too much with your cleats.
Posted by: Hal at May 9, 2006 4:10 PM