Bikes on the Square

Is anyone else holding his breath and just waiting for the new signs to be erected around the Square, announcing No Bike-Riding or Skateboarding on Sidewalks? How bad will the sign pollution be (how many signs?) and how large will the signs have to be, in order to warn adequately all those who might dare to ride or skateboard on those sidewalks?

And what will the cost to the City of Woodstock be to purchase the signs and install them?

Early this morning I watched a mom out for her run around the Square with her Boston terrier on a leash and her young daughter on her bicycle with the training wheels. Off they went around the Square, with the daughter enjoying her ride down the pedestrian-free sidewalk in front of Cobblestone's and around to Harris Bank and down past the bakeries.

Just imagine the traumatic experience for the youngster, if a Woodstock police officer had stopped them to warn them about the new ordinance. I can just imagine the mother's thoughts and words about such a "stop."

Now, don't get me wrong. The officer would have been doing his duty - enforcing the law. And he probably would go home at the end of his shift and begin searching the internet for a new job with a town that doesn't have senseless ordinances like this one.

After all, if the police will not keep sidewalks in neighborhoods clear of cars parked across them, why should they enforce this new ordinance? What's worse? A car parked on a sidewalk or a kid on a bicycle or a skateboard on a sidewalk?