I live in one of the more bikeable cities in the US and pedestrians are more of a danger to cyclists than the other way around usually as pedestrians will loiter in bike lanes for some reason. The big bike offenders are kids on ebikes and the city’s rental bikes which both attract people who couldn’t care less about safety, otherwise anyone on their own bike tends to follow the rules or go slow enough to be able to stop.
In my experience, delivery riders and bike messengers are also reckless assholes.
I fully agree that the greatest hazard is the obliviousness of pedestrians. They don’t look, don’t listen (often because they’ve got earbuds in) and, though they generally know not to step in front of moving cars, they’re perfectly fine with wandering into bike lanes.
as pedestrians will loiter in bike lanes for some reason.
I have read the explanation that humans walking perceive themselves primarily as humans and not as participants in traffic which have to watch out constantly for faster objects.
This makes a lot of sense to me since the “humans walking” mode of locomotion has evolved for millions of years without faster things being around.
I go to the Netherlands fairly often and it’s more a (quickly) learned behavior to check for cyclists before crossing the bike path. Unlike motor vehicles, they can approach you silently, so you need to remember to look. In my experience, a couple of near-misses, followed by some pithy Dutch epithets, is all it takes to focus the mind.
I live in one of the more bikeable cities in the US and pedestrians are more of a danger to cyclists than the other way around usually as pedestrians will loiter in bike lanes for some reason. The big bike offenders are kids on ebikes and the city’s rental bikes which both attract people who couldn’t care less about safety, otherwise anyone on their own bike tends to follow the rules or go slow enough to be able to stop.
In my experience, delivery riders and bike messengers are also reckless assholes.
I fully agree that the greatest hazard is the obliviousness of pedestrians. They don’t look, don’t listen (often because they’ve got earbuds in) and, though they generally know not to step in front of moving cars, they’re perfectly fine with wandering into bike lanes.
I have read the explanation that humans walking perceive themselves primarily as humans and not as participants in traffic which have to watch out constantly for faster objects.
This makes a lot of sense to me since the “humans walking” mode of locomotion has evolved for millions of years without faster things being around.
I go to the Netherlands fairly often and it’s more a (quickly) learned behavior to check for cyclists before crossing the bike path. Unlike motor vehicles, they can approach you silently, so you need to remember to look. In my experience, a couple of near-misses, followed by some pithy Dutch epithets, is all it takes to focus the mind.
My experience in San Diego as well.