Sidewalks

One change in consumer habits created by rising gas prices is the rising prominence of the local usually ‘upscale’ grocery store. And this before the recent near doubling of gas prices. Here in Milwaukee county in Wauwatosa a Rainbow Foods replaced the Sentry on State Street, and then converted back to an upscale Sentry store within the year. Sendick’s expanded to several new locations. The Pick n’ Save also on State Street has musicians playing on the weekends. hello

The first picture is the Pic-n-Save on State Street. Completely remodeled and turned high-end. The sidewalk feature added to the parking lot is not unique. Many if not all new development (e.g. Lowe’s on Burliegh) contain such features.

The next picture is Whole Foods, with its very wide sidewalks, on the East Side and as on the UWM campus bikes are numerous. The student population is strongly into bicycling and this will hopefully carry over onto their later years. Of course the radius of travel for a college student cannot be much over two miles, if that.

The next picture is The Outpost, also on State Street. One bicycle most likely that of an employee in the rack. One was also in the rack at the Pick-n-Save. The final picture being the Sendick’s’ on North Avenue; a remodel of an old Kohl’s Foods store. One bike and two scooters, and one bicyclist leaving as I drove up. There are no schools of higher education near by, only neighborhoods. The difference, the terrain is generally flat in the surrounding area unlike the river valley the State Street stores rest in.

Here is a blog post in which the first commenter clearly cannot tolerate riding on the street. It may appear she is in the minority but you have to consider who the readers are. The arguments against adults bicycling on sidewalks are valid for an experienced rider moving as fast as possible. I would argue those potential riders who cannot tolerate riding in traffic, or past parked cars whose doors may swing open at anytime, would not be going nearly as fast. They would be operating like pedestrians rather than vehicles at intersections, stopping and looking both ways. And they would be moving even slower than a child on a bicycle and easier to see.

Here is an article on bicycling in Britain. Documenting the results of a predominance of parents expressing a general fear for their children riding bicycles in traffic. My personal observations suggest this is a widespread fear in our nation among all age groups. Bike lane advocates also are moving to alternatives that create much greater separation from the automobile.

There are certain areas where I ride my bike on the sidewalk. Where Watertown Plank Road goes under highway 45 or parts of Hawley Road and pedestrians are near non-existent. I have two reasons that at times I do. First, it is much safer and second I’ve been stuck myself behind a bike in these stretches and know the frustration a driver feels. Highway 100 is an impossible ride with traffic speeding in all lanes and in some stretches there are no sidewalks. Of course it is illegal for an adult to ride a bike on the sidewalk. But should it be?

Bicycle advocates fight hard to protect bicyclists rights to roadways and vehicle status. They are generally ardent riders who ride many a mile and are in excellent shape. Unfortunately, there is a large group of potential riders that do not want to interact with auto traffic at all (even in a parking lot) when riding a bike, so don’t. As gasoline prices continue to rise and people grow more environmentally conscience there is an opening for promoting the use of bicycles for everyday tasks such as going to the grocery. Trek, a responsible bicycling advocate, has targeted this group with several models most notably the ‘Lime’ recognizing a large market that shuns shifting gears, and even hand brakes, as too complicated. In my own travels I spent three years overseas with a bicycle and public transit as my only form of personal transportation. In parts of the world where bikes enjoy wide use, multiple gear bicycles are almost non-existent for everyday use and all have baskets or a cargo rack.

I have brought up the issue of riding bicycles on sidewalks with bicycle advocates in the past and have always been met with a resounding, “No!” The reality is that is what we have already done in the new Canal Street corridor. Some will say the cities are not designed for such use of their sidewalks. They are if you widen the sidewalks. I recall all the Traditional Neighborhood Development types lamenting the past and the loss of the corner grocer. People did not drive their cars to the corner grocer. While the corner grocery is gone, the neighborhood grocery is on the rise.

The older parts of our cities were designed for our sidewalks to accommodate significant pedestrian traffic. I remember when we all walked to school every morning. Now many of our sidewalks are nearly empty. Altering the sidewalks to accommodate a specific user group is a kin to the building of bike paths and lanes. The difference is the potential users have no representation. A user group not particularly athletic or mechanically minded that would only travel short distances on every day errands. If gas prices continue to rise, a group potentially much larger than any group of bicyclists we have now. A group whose use of bicycles, on errands they had used their cars for in the past, would be making the largest contribution to fuel conservation.

The multi-use paths in our County Parks are ten feet wide and handle a variety of traffic of all different types, age groups and activities. They are quite crowded at times and accidents rare. There is a beauty to our sidewalks. They are size perfectly for their traditional use. But as gas prices increase, if the bicycle truly is an alternative to our energy and environmental needs there are places where the sidewalks should be widened and adults allowed to ride at slower speeds. Restricting this privilege to single speed bicycles may be the best way to control the speed.

Rather than engineering and reconstructing roadways to include bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks on stretches such as highway 100, here in Milwaukee County, would serve the fore mentioned user group. Sidewalks along Highway 100, where they have sidewalks, have few pedestrians and many destinations are currently only accessible by automobile. Ten-foot wide multi-use path on both sides along the entire length of Highway 100 would give access to jobs and shopping to bicyclists.

A ten-foot multi-use path on one side of Watertown Plank Road from Highway 100 and the Village of Wauwatosa would be similar to what was done on Canal Street. However, for most of the city, for those who will not travel more than two miles by bicycle on an errand, what would be the proper criteria for widening the sidewalk?

A combination of destination, terrain and crime are determinants for other locations for wider sidewalks. Local grocery stores and shops such as video rental or health food stores, being the main target, where consumer products would fit into a bicycle basket. The target user group not necessarily being the athletic type, there is no need for wider sidewalks in hilly areas. North Avenue is an ideal model where there are few hills in the surrounding neighborhoods to frustrate the target user group. Not that every sidewalk be widened, but those on one side of a street that would be central in a neighborhood and feed to the desired locations (North Avenue in this case), which can also include connections to bike paths. The final piece to the puzzle is the perception of crime. Low crime areas and secure bicycle parking facilities in any circumstance are necessary. Large numbers of inexpensive bicycles are the norm where bicycles enjoy widespread use and drastically reduce the threat of bicycle theft. A goal metropolitan areas have been trying to achieve in a variety of fashions.

My opinion is based highly on anecdotal evidence, common observations. I would argue that such observations are more relevant than the social engineering so prevalent in government and the professional community. Built on an understanding of why the majority of people are not riding bicycles rather than deciding how people should live in spite of themselves.


Part of a response from Shea Schachameyer of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin;

...as a bicycle advocate and a regular bike commuter I discourage people from riding on the sidewalk as statistically it's more dangerous to bike on the sidewalk than in the roadway. Yet, as a bicycle advocate I am all too familiar with people's fears of riding with traffic. .....
Bicyclist education and motorist education are both essential in creating safer conditions for bicyclists. The Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin as well as most other bike advocacy organizations offer adult bike education classes to give people the skills and confidence to safely bike in traffic and on trails.