I regularly ride in the city so I'm not just used to traffic but comfortable with it. Almost jaded.
But this was a new perspective for me.
The routes I took, Northern Blvd, and the service road of the Long Island Expressway are major routes, and cars move much faster than they do in the city. On my way back I was biking during rush hour, and although only one car actually honked at me, for the most part if there wasn't a buffer zone, they didn't exactly give me any room when they passed me at high speed. Sometimes there was NO buffer between the cars and curb. I was looking in my rear-view mirror the entire time.
These are drivers rushing to get home, hating being stuck in traffic, hating their jobs, hating their lives, hating bikers or anyone else for being 'in their way.'
Now, there's a law that says bicyclists are not supposed to ride on the sidewalk. But riding along, I see plenty of bikers doing just that.
And honestly? I can't blame them.
I saw a lady in her 50's with a front basket full of laundry, riding on the sidewalk going about 5 MPH.
How can you tell her to ride in the street with the cars?
I honestly wouldn't recommend it. I CAN'T recommend it. This isn't like Europe where biking is part of the culture. The driving mentality here is one of a sense of entitlement.
Car drivers honestly believe to the bottom of their deepest fiber that the road is for them, to the exclusion of all others.
This is NOT a bike-friendly nation.
Before this ride, I was asking around for other biking destinations. I asked a friend in White Plains, and she tried to discourage me saying "Not a bike-friendly ride here."
At first I thought to myself, "I'm experienced, I could handle it."
But after today, I know what she means now.
Car drivers need to be re-programmed to realize the road does not belong to them.
At the same time there also needs to be biker education: Not riding the wrong way down streets, in bike lanes, and to yield to pedestrians. Bikers are not innocent in this either.
And neither are city pedestrians. Jaywalking, walking against the light...
There needs to be a top-down re-education of everyone that uses public roads.
Whether this is possible in my lifetime, I don't know.
Your experience summed it up perfectly! I used to see cyclists on the sidewalk in White Plains and think "WTF is wrong with you! Get on the street!" But since cycling up there I understand what drives them (no pun intended) to ride on the sidewalk. The drivers are not used to cyclists and though there are less cars/traffic, I feel it's more dangerous to ride on those streets. I also agree with you though that I'm not sure we will see that mental shift in our lifetime. But there has been a little progress so far, we just have to keep plugging along...
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