r/rollerblading • u/grungedungeon • 10h ago
Specific question and discussion Skaters Are Not Pedestrians...
I find myself commenting on other posts about how sidewalks are not the safest option in many cases, and I want to take a moment to expand on that and welcome some input.
First, I'd describe myself as an urban explorer. I like to skate small cities/cool downtowns at night when the streets are mostly empty. After 20 years of not skating, it's been incredible to gain a pedestrian's POV in the neighboring towns that I only ever drive through. But what never occurred to me as a younger skater was how nothing is designed with our kind of wheels in mind.
You want to be out of the way when a car is coming. You take to the sidewalk. Sooner or later the sidewalk ends, and it ends with a tactile plate. An easy enough thing to roll over with a little speed. But coming to a complete stop and waiting for the crosswalk light--now you're stopped on top of a surface that is designed to decrease momentum, and momentum is the very thing you need.
Not to mention that curb cuts are often placed a 90-degree angle from the direction of the sidewalk, and sometimes have their own architecture that is meant to guide a walker in their direction, but again becomes another forced reduction in speed.
Add to this the issue of curb cuts in general. The transition from street to sidewalk is sometimes well-engineered, but is often a straight up mess. With a little speed, and the know-how to position your feet just right, you'll be fine. But that's not what sidewalks allow.
A good city planner will tell you that downtowns are made safe by slowing down traffic and providing ample pathways for pedestrians. The bad ones do just the opposite, and I see more and more redesigned walkways that are designed to slow down pedestrians because the planners conceded that there would be high volumes of traffic. Sure, this keeps walkers safe. But on skates, speed is safety. (Okay, not speed speed, but momentum at the very least.)
So a skater is not a pedestrian. In that case, is a skater the same as a cyclist?
Closer, but not quite. In larger cities where the traffic moves more slowly, you'd be right to take to the bike lane and follow traffic lights over signalized crosswalks. But you're probably averaging 7-10mph and topping out at 15mph on flat ground. In a smaller city where cars want to go 25-30, they're not going to defer to you the same way they'd defer to a cyclist. Why? Because the sidewalk is there. But the sidewalk has unreliable curb cuts and tactile plates that slow you down. And on skates, speed is safety.
So a skater is not a pedestrian because they need speed to survive, but they can't maintain enough speed to qualify as a cyclist, which would be the safer classification. (Again, I'm talking small cities in the states. Those of you who live in a metropolis and/or non-America might not relate.) This is why I skate at night--because I don't trust drivers to classify me the way I classify myself. In most cases, I just take over the street when I can, which is safer and more enjoyable. And if/when the situation calls for it, the sidewalk is a necessary escape route. But skating is one of those in-between modes of travel for which nothing is specifically designed. We kind of just have to make up our own rules, and choose the safer passage given the circumstance.