jppe

Geez.........Wouldn't have ever crossed my mind.

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a2718...orado-springs/

frogbiscuit

I read that. Special place in hell for that jackass.

BobbyG

You can see that bridge in my video at :25 seconds and again at 1:33.

Jim from Boston

Booby Trapped Bike Trail

Hi @jppe,

Thank you for that post…one more rare thing to be aware of with or without malice aforethought.

A few of years ago I was riding through a Metro Park in Michigan (Metro Beach) in the early morning and I exited the Park through the toll booth lane. A rope or chain had been stretched across, without a warning flag tied on and I went down suddenly and without warning.

Fortunately I was OK but the force of my fall cracked my carbon fiber handlebar. I post not for sympathy but to reinforce your notification.

Revoltingest

I'll be thinking of it now.

GeneO 

brings to mind "muckers" in the 1969 "Stand On Zanzibar" SF novel.

Really sucks.

Moe Zhoost

As will I. Perhaps I should mount a machete blade on the front of my bike in order to sever strung cords.

Hondo Gravel

I guess I’m lucky I have a great place to ride no one cares about me riding a bike I’m the only one but some people walk and that is cool. But this is just messed up and criminal and uncivilized! I’m out of words.

zowie

Someone did this a few years back in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and hurt someone.

kq2dc7

The walking and bike trail around Smithville lake(it is a suburb of Kansas city) has been littered with thorns from a locust tree repeatedly the last 3 weeks. Its always on the same turn and there are not any locust trees close enough for it to be natural. 3 flats later I've figured it out.

Kabuki12

That is unfortunate. Now we have to be constantly on the lookout? Ever since I heard of someone throwing something off a freeway overpass , I cringe when I drive under them. Now , I have to be aware of something else. Even though these instances are rare , we should be aware . Joe

Carbonfiberboy 

There's a town on the Seattle-to-Portland event route which used to put out tacks every year. One year they were put out on an Army post through which we rode. Soldiers were out on the road trying to police them up.

jppe

Someone dropped a huge water balloon off an overpass and it hit our windshield. My daughter was sitting in the front passenger seat. I was furious. I pulled over and called the police. There weren’t any ramps off the interstate up to the road. That’s probably a good thing based on how angry I was.

Not long after that a lady was killed in Charlotte when someone dropped a rock off an overpass.

zowie

WTF is wrong with people.

canklecat

Same. I always look up and check overpasses carefully as I'm riding. If I see anyone loitering up there I prepare to change lanes just as I pass out of sight, in case they're planning some mischief. So far, so good, nobody has thrown anything. But in my area a few drivers have been injured or killed by malicious teenagers throwing cinder blocks and debris off overpasses.

And I always keep my eyes on stalks approaching bridges and anyplace where a trip line could be rigged on the MUP. So far it hasn't happened here. But there have been a few instances of harassment and assaults along the Trinity Trails, and even a horrific machete or axe murder of a jogger in Dallas a few years ago by a mentally ill homeless man. Those are very rare. Most mentally ill homeless folks I've met aren't violent and usually try to avoid any confrontations.

I worry more about teenagers and young adults hyped up on testosterone and stupidity, daring each other in groups. There's an odd group dynamic that too often results in young men egging each other on to do stupid stuff. I saw a bit of that Friday night on a long ride on the trails. A small group of maybe half a dozen young men and women were standing near the bike/jogging path, just outside a popular brew pub. No big deal but one of the young men stood in the middle of the path and wouldn't move. I just slowed down to about 5 mph and went around him, but he was showing off for the girls, trying to make a big deal of forcing a cyclist to go around him. Just annoying, not dangerous. But an example of the sort of group dynamic that can quickly escalate when one guy misbehaves and his peers don't rein him in.

Myosmith

Grandpa always told me, "There will always be more horse's asses than horses".

IronM

I grew up north, in snow country. As I kid, I remember hearing how somebody put fishing line across a snowmobile trail and it decapitated someone. Seriously, why anyone would do this is just plain SICK.