I have traveled by bike in London, Holland, Honolulu and Japan. Nowhere have I been more terrified than in Greater Boston. Frank Caro’s suggestion that bicycles should be banned from all sidewalks in Brookline is outrageous. I would throw myself in front of an oncoming train before I would bike in Brookline traffic. The idea that painting “bike lanes” on already overfilled streets makes cyclists safe is absurd. The fact that many cyclists prefer to ride in the street for speed and efficiency does not mean they are not constantly at risk.
A cyclist hit my car recently while I was driving out of my driveway. If she had been riding on the sidewalk, I would have seen her and she me. Instead, she had vanished behind parked cars in the seconds it took me to determine that the road was empty. It was a traumatic experience for both of us.
Cyclists discomfit pedestrians and motorists alike, and there is much they can do to clean up their act in both venues. However, I have to believe that the rate and severity of accidents involving cyclists is much greater on streets than on sidewalks. When we get Dutch-style bicycle lanes in Mr. Caro’s “long run” (read: extremely long run), Brookline will be justified in banning bicycles from sidewalks, and not one day before. — Kathe Geist, TMM, Precinct 3