Philly Pedestrian Chorus

From this week's CityPaper (one of the Philadelphia alt-weeklies):

I love walking — especially outside my front door. Those first steps from my entrance onto my immediate pavement swell my heart with the puffed-up Tennessee Tuxedo pride of ownership. That is until I have to dodge bicyclists who not only ride unusually fast, but with zero regard to anyone or anything on the pavement — me, my wife walking our dog, other people walking dogs, children, laundry bags, parapets. I live on a block with elderly people who can't sidestep pavement-biking pricks with the matador's grace I can.

These bikers are speed-racing zombies who neither stop nor slow, staring blankly ahead — risking their lives and mine. I say "their lives" because I do fear I will one day be forced to kick one from the seat of their bike.

Why are bikers allowed to barrel down sidewalks that rightly belong to pedestrians?

I actually know the author (A.D. Amorosi) slightly, but don't think he was among the teeming millions who read my earlier rant on bikes. If he did, he learned the proper lessons: make it clear that you don't drive, and give cyclists their proper space on the moral hierarchy above motorists. Question the latter, and you earn the undying enmity of the spandex set.