EDITOR'S TABLE. 



557 



jected to in the street, and because the 

 wheeling is nicer. They run swiftly, 

 and when under high motion can not 

 be quickly stopped. That their move- 

 ments are disagreeable to pedestrians 

 is inevitable. They are sources of con- 

 stant anxiety and apprehension to them. 

 Accidents have occurred with them, and 

 they are continually liable to occur. The 

 sidewalk belongs to the community, and 

 is indispensable to the daily uses and ne- 

 cessities of all classes of people. Every- 

 body has the right to walk there with- 

 out molestation or the apprehension of 

 molestation. Nothing should be per- 

 mitted there which will awaken the 

 dread of danger and compel the pedes- 

 trian to be constantly on the lookout 

 to protect himself. Our correspondent 

 says that they can be easily avoided, but 

 how can a bicycle coming noiselessly 

 from behind be avoided? They have 

 India-rubber tires, and people have no 

 eyes in the backs of their heads. But it 

 is by no means a question what people 

 with their senses about them can do if 

 they give all their attention to personal 

 security. The instinct of self-preser- 

 vation does, of course, save the mass of 

 people from being run down by bicyc- 

 les when exposed to them. But is it 

 right to introduce an extra exposure of 

 this kind on a public sidewalk that will 

 keep the sense of personal solicitude 

 against danger constantly uppermost 

 in consciousness ? Besides, all people 

 are not vigilant in such matters ; many 

 are heedless and stupid, and others ab- 

 stracted or absent-minded. Then, again, 

 there are the children, the aged and 

 infirm, the invalids, the deaf, the crip- 

 ples, the blind, and the half-blind, and 

 these constitute a very large proportion 

 of those who use the sidewalks, and 

 have a right to use them without an- 

 noyance. To all these people the large 

 bicycles ridden by sporting boys are a 

 constant source of fear and dread, a pest 

 of the pathway, and an undoubted nui- 

 sance. 



We are here speaking of the rights 



of pedestrians on a common-sense 

 view of the case. But our correspond- 

 ent says, "It will be admitted that 

 bicyclists, like other domestic animals, 

 have some rights, which, once defined, 

 are as much entitled to protection as 

 the wider liberty allowed pedestrians." 

 Admitted, of course, the only question 

 being on the definition. We have con- 

 tended negatively that the riders of 

 large bicycles have no right upon the 

 sidewalks, any more than equestrians, 

 but this is not a denial of all rights. 

 What, then, do the bicyclists themselves 

 maintain ? They assert that the bi- 

 cycle is a wheeled carriage, and its 

 rights simply the common rights of 

 carriages upon the street. The repre- 

 sentatives of the bicycle associations in 

 New York claim that their right is to 

 the use of the highway, and they ex- 

 plicitly disclaim any right to the use of 

 the sidewalk. 



W. R. Pitman, captain of the Ixion 

 Bicycle Club, on being asked his opin- 

 ion as to the propriety of bicycles being 

 ridden on the sidewalks of small vil- 

 lages, said emphatically that " bicycles 

 had no business on sidewalks anywhere ; 

 that the sidewalks were meant for foot- 

 passengers and not for carriages, which 

 the bicyclers claim their machines to 

 be." 



Dr. N. M. Beckwith, captain of the 

 Citizens' Bicycle Club, said that in his 

 opinion bicyclers had no right to side- 

 walks at all, and remarked that the bi- 

 cyclers wished to have their machines 

 regarded as carriages, and claimed all 

 the rights and privileges given to car- 

 riages, and in so doing they certainly 

 could not also wish to be looked upon 

 as foot-passengers. 



Charles A. Reed, captain of the Co- 

 lumbia College Bicycle Club, said that 

 he thought bicycles had no right on 

 sidewalks or foot-paths except when 

 the road was utterly impassable to 

 them, and that a bicycle could certainly 

 be ridden wherever a light buggy could 

 be driven. 



