I'm researching the topic of "vehicular bicycling which is usually counterposed to "Pedestrian Cycling". An alternative to vehicular cycling is pedestrian bicycling, or bicycling according to the pedestrian rules of the road. Pedestrian bicycling often means riding on sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, and other pedestrian facilities.This topic is discussed in some stimulative detail in Robert Hurst's book --The Art of Urban Cycling.
I think the kickbike lends itself to pedestrian bicycling such that the term has to be redefined and dragged out of the shadows. The way it's pitched, vehicular cycling is located as an aggressive form of bicycling assertion that pitches the bike as bona fide vehicles.
But the kickbike has such an easy time of it moving from pavement to road that I think it should not be constrained by the attitude,protocols and what seems to be the rigid biases associated with the vehicular cycling attitude. It also doesn't have the capacity to match traffic flow all the time so it is a bit beyond us kickbikers to be pitched on par with a family sedan.
So there's an ideological issue here that has tantalizing ramifications in the era of the bike path and the local mall.
The question isn't so much how much can cars and bikes share the road but how well bikes can get on with pedestrians.
The scooter or kickbike's advantage is that it is an easy mount /easy dismount journey with a limited and, I guess, easily altered momentum. It's not a constant journey with a steady momentum.
Because we are closer to the ground where the pedestrian foot falls --and we push off the ground as walkers do -- we can mix it with our pedestrian kin more easily than a mounted bicyclist....
I travel on and off the road all the time as my routes comprise the road AND the pavement. But I live in a city in which it is legal to ride the footpaths. Nonetheless I have excellent control even among a crowd of walkers and will simply join them if the foot traffic becomes too heavy.
I had thought about this a lot and today very few bicylclists embrace the message in this image
as kosher travel mode. But that's how I shop on my scooter when I'm loaded up with groceries.
So my kickbike is also my pram.
And when I mix it with the four wheelers I do so when it suits my journey but that journey can include using elevators, portage up stairs, gutter jumping, walking beside my kickbike,holding onto my kickbike in a train carriage while seated, kicking along major road, using a bike path (while navigating around sunbaking snakes), sharing a pavement with schoolkids...
So it's a melange of means to get from 'a' to 'b' and I don't endorse the rigid concepts embraced by the "vehicular bicycling" adherents. In fact I think our cities should be designed for bikes rather than simply forcing bicyclists to share the roads...if they dare.
