Before the city put in bike lanes on Adeline, I was riding to work in West Oakland. Using the full right lane for safety. A sedan to my rear passes me on the left and a black woman yells from the passenger window: “Get on the sidewalk! That’s what it’s there for!”
Yeah. There’s a law against that. O.M.C. 10.16.150. But what I wasn’t following was custom. Riding against traffic and yielding to cars. Weaving from street to sidewalk and back over driveways and curb cuts.
Now there’s no need. The bike lanes ensure no motorist be stuck behind a bicyclist, and no bicyclist cut off a pedestrian. A regulation of the right-of-way that upsets its established use.
Because lanes make riding safer. Opening up the streets to those uninitiate in the mores. Who can conceive accessing a district like West Oakland once sure they’re protected in legally doing so.
Hipsters. Last mile commuters. Weekend distance riders. Outsiders. Of diverse professions and disparate wealth. Distributed among locals who don’t have cars for want of money or license. Following custom and riding toward them.
By different rules we share the road.