Sacramento is a foolish, stubborn place. The city spends millions on separated bicycle lanes that many cyclists hate. Yet the city won’t spend a dime on signs telling riders to keep off sidewalks when pedestrians are around.
I gave up long ago expecting innovation from City Hall. Even when I worked for Mayor Kevin Johnson, our best ideas came from elsewhere. For Kevin, elsewhere meant Mike Bloomberg of New York and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.
Kevin liked to think big. He loved the concept of “world class.” He borrowed ideas to improve public schools, solve homelessness, and fund arts and culture. Most of his ideas fizzled out by the time he left office in 2016. But at least he tried.
Far as I can remember, his office did nothing to make sidewalks safer. I’m here to play catchup.
Sidewalks became a big deal for me last winter. I was walking along Q Street with my friend and his wife. We were nearly run down by a guy on a bicycle.
I say along Q Street because we weren’t in the street. We were on the sidewalk. So was the guy on the bike.
Had the cyclist been in the street where he belonged, he would have been riding against traffic. Wrong-way cyclist. Wrong place. Wrong everything. He didn’t care. He knew we’d move out of the way.
But my friend didn’t move. He said, “Hey, this is a sidewalk.” He forced the guy to swerve. Gusty move. More courageous than anything I’ve seen from City Hall.
Wandering around various cities this summer, I kill time and study streetscapes. I prowl sidewalks. I don’t play matador to cyclists.
Other cities solve the problem that seems insurmountable for Sacramento. Other cities post signs telling cyclists to stay off the sidewalk.
I start in San Francisco. The Embarcadero is plastered with signs telling bike riders to slow and yield to pedestrians. In Palo Alto, street signs get forceful. No bike riding on downtown sidewalks, period.
Coronado signs allow bikes, but only if riders dismount and walk. El Segundo signs threaten cyclists and skateboarders with a big red “NO.”
Curious if no-bike warning signs are a weird California thing, I visit Charleston, South Carolina. I meet an animal-rights group trying to ban horse-drawn tourist wagons. The battle over bikes on sidewalks is ancient history in Charleston. Signs prove bikes and skateboards lost.
I mention all this to spur City Hall into action. There’s no shame in borrowing ideas from other cities, especially when the ideas prevent injuries and spring from righteous, fact-based indignation.
The city charter spells out how the city manager can stop people from riding bikes on sidewalks. All she needs to do is post signs, spread the word and slap a few tickets on idiots who can’t read or don’t pay attention. Engineer. Educate. Enforce.
I’m not saying San Francisco, Palo Alto, Coronado, El Segundo and Charleston are better than Sacramento. Just smarter.
R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
