Dreaded cyclists

I bet most local jurisdictions have laws against it though.

I'm not sure about that. I thought of the same thing too - I haven't been able to check Dallas city or county regs because their servers are apparently powered by a couple of asthmatic elderly gerbils on a wheel and the search timed out, but checking some of the larger suburbs around so far has turned up zero outright bans. Mostly the regs for riding bicycles on the sidewalk are things like:

"A person riding a bicycle on a sidewalk shall yield the right-of-way to all pedestrians and shall give an audible signal before overtaking and passing a pedestrian on a sidewalk."

Or things prohibiting people from riding them on sidewalks in public parks except designated areas:

"Use of vehicles, horses, bicycles, etc. in public parks. (c) It shall be unlawful for any person to ride, use or operate any horse, motorcycle, motor scooter or any other vehicle in and upon the public parks of the city, except in certain areas, drives, trails and pathways specifically designated for such purpose."

Most of the ones I looked at are actually silent on the matter. I did check the local most-stick-up-ass suburb around, Plano. If anyone had such a ban, I would expect them to have it - but even they don't have an outright ban. The closest they get is to ban them from two areas where the sidewalks are narrow and there are lots of pedestrians and one Veteran's Memorial. Otherwise the city is wide open for riding on the sidewalk.

Sec. 12-169. - Riding on sidewalks and other specified areas.

(a) Except as may be authorized by a special event permit, it shall be an offense for any person to use, ride, propel, or operate a bicycle on any public sidewalk, walkway, architectural feature, wall, plaza, steps, or railing within the following identified places as defined in section 14-7:
(1) Downtown District.
(2) Memorial Park that serves as a veteran's memorial.
(3) Legacy Town Center District, specifically public sidewalks adjacent to commercial businesses.

This subsection shall not apply to any authorized city employee while performing official duties or any person who walks a bicycle in the above-referenced areas.

The conduct prohibited in the above-referenced areas shall not apply to shared use paths as defined in section 14-7.

Downtown Plano is basically ten smallish blocks. Legacy Town Center is an outdoor shopping mall. Plano is a rather large suburb, so those and the memorial park are just a tiny part where people can't ride on the sidewalk.

Of course, then we have idiots like these folks who refuse to make their codes searchable online - "Go to our central library lol": https://www.garlandtx.gov/2001/City-Charter-Code-of-Ordinances Ugh.


Edit: Just found another reference to Dallas city code, even though their subcontracted code search engine is still broken. The city of Dallas only bans sidewalk riding in the downtown Central Business District... which makes sense as that's about the only part of Dallas with regular heavy pedestrian traffic during the day. https://dallascityhall.com/departments/transportation/bikeway/Pages/faqs.aspx

Are bicyclists allowed to ride on sidewalks?
Yes, provided riders obey traffic signs and signals, yield right of way to pedestrians, give an audible signal when overtaking and passing pedestrians, and travel in a safe, prudent manner at a speed appropriate to conditions. However, bicyclists are not permitted to ride on sidewalks in the central business district as described in Section 9.1 of the Dallas City Code.

So, yeah, it doesn't look like most municipalities, at least in my area, have any sort of blanket ban on sidewalk riding. To be fair, that's probably because we have very few pedestrians in most areas. Something to do with the regular weather here...
 
I think NYC does ban them from sidewalks but has a ton of segregated bike lanes that for some reason don’t seem to be used much...
 
Missouri disallows bicycles from being ridden on sidewalks in downtown areas. There's good reason for that. When the trophy shop was downtown I would see people on bicycles ride by the front of the building and it clicked, 6+ mph bike versus someone just walking out of a building would be a terrible little accident.
 
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So riding on sidewalks is unsafe. Riding in traffic is unsafe.

Well, Boston has dedicated bike lanes everywhere. Hardly anyone uses them so all they really do is narrow the roads for cars, creating even more congestion.

We should just get rid of bikes altogether, that's the only solution.
 
Funnily enough there are a ton of delivery bikes (often motorized) ride on the sidewalk in busy pedestrian areas
 
 
So i was just driving down Speed Trap road covering my brake and notice the car in front of me has a blue plate.

And then we get to and intersection... and a cyclist runs the stop sign ?
 
So i was just driving down Speed Trap road covering my brake and notice the car in front of me has a blue plate.

And then we get to and intersection... and a cyclist runs the stop sign ?
For those of us who don’t live wherever you are, what’s the significance of a blue license plate? I assume police?
 
For those of us who don’t live wherever you are, what’s the significance of a blue license plate? I assume police?
I think you can have them on other public service vehicles? but yeah, it's basically the midground between unmarked and blatant with the lights and everything ones.
 
Someone please explain to me why this idiot was in the middle of the road:

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Or why this is considered safe and acceptable among cyclists:
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In the first pic that is actually proper etiquette if he’s making a left turn.
 
He went straight for some reason.


Is the right lane right turn only?

If yes, that is the correct lane for him to be in.
 
Is the right lane right turn only?

If yes, that is the correct lane for him to be in.

Um, where would that lane right turn into? The solid wall of buildings?

Also, it does not appear to be signed or marked for right turns.
 
I did not go back to look at the pic, just relied on my memory of it. My bad.
 
I’m guessing he didn’t want to be in the right lane where people may cut across him without signaling or checking their mirrors, which is a fair reason because that’s exactly what some people would do.

The other pictures are typical of roads here, you almost always have to go on the wrong side of the road to overtake a cyclist in Europe. Not a great place for him to be but what are the other options?
 
you all seem to think bicycles are a problem?
i think they're the solution!
everytime you see someone on a bicycle, it's one less loser in a car!
and the less losers in cars, the more fluid the traffic will be!

same with old people on bicycles...i stop, i give way, i even wave if they want!
if they're getting afraid, or don't feel safe on their bicycle, they'll get back into their car, and we all want to prevent that!
 
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