"Women who ride"... on the sidewalk...

[Geonz]

I'm still occasionally perusing the "women who ride" site... and today's post reminded me how much educating is necessary.
http://womenwhoride.typepad.com/marie/ - Marie finds riding with traffic hard to understand and feels that the sidewalk is safer. Kudos at her for getting "out there" - I *loved* her story about riding with her grandson. But...

I know these are exactly the folks who - okay, let me exaggerate a little here - cringingly eke themselves out to that far right part of the curb, but they are "in the road"... and because they're hugging the side going 8 miles an hour, terrified... cars are passing closer because of their lane position, and of course they're where there is a ton of debris and potholes so they're *having* to weave and wobble... probably get right-hooked a few times...
... and then figure the rest of us out there are just so brave and daring!

Now, I know at some point it just makes sense to figure some people should stick to the paths... but I dunno, is there sometimes a way to get people past their first impressions?

I know yesterday, I was doing serious mental work keeping myself from waxing cowardly in the slush - my brain *knew* that the best thing to do was to keep on plowing (I have a 50 pound bike with studded tires. I wasn't slipping **at all.** It was simply the idea that this Was Not Smooth Pavement that terrified me.) By the end... I was better at it. And a better bike handler for it. How to pass that on...?