Interesting link posted to the Bristol Cycling Campaign mailing list
today. Let's just ignore the second sentence:
<URL:http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/health/bikepaths/>
With spring here, it's time to get out your bike and take a ride. But
make sure you wear your helmet. You' ve all heard stories cyclists and
Motorists fighting to rule the road. But what about battling for space
with pedestrians, joggers, and dog-walkers?
Every day, hundreds of people cycle over the shared path on the Burrard
Bridge, one of Vancouver's busiest. Jane Lister was one of them, until
her commute home from work one day.
Halfway across the bridge, she swerved to avoid some pedestrians.
"My first memory is the sensation of a tube being pulled from my throat.
I broke all the ribs on my left side, and had punctured and collapsed
lungs. I fell into a mini van, and my head kind of got trapped between
the car and the curb.
It may sound like just another accident between a cyclist and a car, but
- in this case - neither was to blame. Instead, the problem was
cyclists, pedestrians, dog-walkers and runners forced to share the same
narrow path.
<SNIP>
There is startling research on shared bike paths. Cyclists who use these
routes are almost three times more likely to get injured than if they'
re riding on the road.
"There were two pedestrians walking to my right and the pedestrian next
to me stepped into me, and I ended up on the roadway," Jane Lister
remembers. "It would not have happened if there had been adequate room."
<SNIP>
--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine