Sir: In answer to Frank Doyle’s letter in the July 30 edition of The Chatham Voice, how great to have freedom of speech and the press in this great country. So I’m sorry, Frank Doyle, if letters to the editor seem like there’s a war on the streets. Right on. There is.
It’s not that simple when you say, “If something is bigger than you, and moves faster and comes at you, move out of the way.”
I have nearly been knocked down three times. One of these times I did jump out of the way. Two cyclists were on a sidewalk, two abreast. I thought they were going on the grass shoulder. Being over 80, I should not be expected to jump out of their way.
The other time, I was coming off a bus outside St. Andrew’s Retirement. A bike was speeding along Park Street that nearly hit me. Another time, I was just going to get off a bus at St. Clair Street and Grand Avenue going north when a bike was zooming down the sidewalk on St. Clair. If the bus driver had not called, “Watch the bike,” and I had moved off that bus at that moment, there sure would have been the cyclist or me hurt – or both.
I have this to say: It’s against the law for adults to ride on the sidewalk, so it seems to me that laws are being broken. Walking from Charteris Street to Park Street, I counted eight bikes on a sidewalk. No wonder there’s war on the streets.
Ruth Draper
Chatham
