Commuting through unsavory areas?

[shootingstar]

For about 2 years, I cycled by a crowd of folks on my way home from work...usually 15-20 that hung outside a community centre...these were people who were drug addicts, poor.....I didn't worry about them...alot of them are not in the condition to do a fast chase. The community centre specialized in services for these people.

And would you worry if a homeless-looking person came cycling towards you on a bike? Or if there were 2-3 cycling slowly along with their belongings? Or maybe you've never experienced this regularily...

As a cyclist on the road at the same time, I worried the least about these folks because wrongly or rightly, I honestly believe they can cycle out their frustrations on bike, and usually they tried to be more self-sufficient, at least mobility wise, to pick up discarded pop cans for some coin at the recycling depot, etc. and get around town on their own.

In many large North American cities, methinks in suburban areas are truly not accustomed to seeing regular cycling commuters in their area, the roads are usually "less" congested of cars, people. So any deviation for a local resident driver in a hurry, seeing a cyclist in front of makes some people impatient and wrongly angry at the wrong thing (cyclist).

It makes me wonder how many new neighbourhoods are being built without sidewalks. Those neighbourhoods actually scare me at night/in bad weather. I worked out in the suburbs for 3 yrs. and had to walk to the bus stop in an industrial area for 15 min. Over half of the walk had no sidewalks...just dangerous.

Don't buy property in residential areas that don't have a sidewalk. It's not helpful to anyone living there nor to drivers