Originally Posted by
2old
OP, my wife and I were riding merrily along at 35 mph on our MTB's today on a trail with more "traffic" than seems to be on yours. Guess we're in a class that should be on the highway dodging cars too.
Did I ever say someone should ride on the highway? The answer is NO If you are going at higher speeds you should be on the road but generally in the U.S. at least mopeds and bicycles are not allowed on highways and even if allowed you probably shouldn't ride on them anyway unless an emergency. But yeah the MUP is not designed for going at high speeds. You have become the big honkin' SUV in this situation blasting past you creeping ever closer in your lane not giving a "F" about you on a bike. If you don't feel safe on the road then you have to afford the right for others to feel safe on the path. If it is a pure cycle path and not for pedestrians at all then going a little faster probably wouldn't be such an issue.
If you are actually on MTB trails going at speeds like that (non-downhill but on downhill trails you wouldn't really need to use the motor at the point) then you are the reason a lot of people hate e-bikes and are trying to keep them off of MTB trails hurting those who are trying to ride and enjoy them. We have an uphill battle trying to keep access to MTB trails in general and intentionally destroying them or causing issues on them is not helping.
I get it past presidents have normalized the selfish mentality as being OK but that doesn't mean we have to accept it or follow it. We can respect other spaces and other people and still enjoy life. I was on a MUP recently and didn't feel the need to go crazy fast and had a really excellent time and going really fast wouldn't have enhanced that in any major way. We can all have fun together or we can just be big ole' SUVs driven by someone on their cellphone who believes that the road is 100% theirs and theirs alone and give everyone else a big fat middle finger.