Oneder

The pedestrians pretty much, especially now with covid 19 and having some sweaty guy breathing like a dying mule all over the trail and many more people on the path. Before that there was barely anyone now it's more of a problem. I can't see why these people even want to go on the path, just do laps around your track for exercise. I would do that myself but then there are even more peds especially this one idiot who always yells at me to get a horn every single time, and blocks the whole sidewalk with him and his dog and won't move over. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

I use the trail for safety mainly but if it's going to be a constant struggle to pass people without getting clobbered from the other direction then it may not be worth it any more.

Oneder

I hardly ever see any cyclist being dangerous but when I do they are going more like 30 mph. I don't think you need to be hard limited to 12 (why not 13 or even 15?) but 30 mph is clearly way too fast for anything but a one way race track. If you want to go that fast you should be out on the street not on a trail.

Daniel4

We're supposed to still be in lock-down but the trails are full of people. The authorities have blocked park the entrances but people are finding alternate places to park and walk in anyways.

I had to go somewhere but with the trails full of people, I can only follow behind at least 6 feet until it's clear to pass. In an opening, I got onto the grass and cycled past crowd. On the way back home, I just took the street.

Notso_fastLane

MUP users, like drivers, are good 95% of the time. It's the 5% that make one want to go postal, though.

Yesterday, that was a family of 5, stopped (with their bikes), spread across the whole MUP One of them saw me coming and moved, but either didn't say anything, or everyone else ignored her. I rang my bell to no effect. After the 3rd ring being ignored, they got the horn. That got them to move. I don't feel bad that I obviously startled a couple of them. They should really be paying a little more attention. And this part's important: IF YOU STOP ON THE MUP, GET OFF TO THE SIDE!!

wphamilton

Too many people ignoring distancing precautions. Here north of Atlanta pedestrians are back to walking in bunches, taking up most of the path. Cyclists will buzz you within a couple of feet even when the way is clear and they've got 8=20 feet of room to pass. Which is normal on the Greenway but you'd think they'd give at least a token respect to the distancing rules. It's hazardous enough for a run, but I haven't taken a bike there in at least a month.

Unca_Sam

Why distance? The lockdown is over in Georgia.

wphamilton

As far as you could tell from watching people anyway. I can't help but wonder if there ever was one, for some people. I wish they'd go bowling or to a massage parlor instead of the greenway though.

rydabent

I have been actually run off the MUP at least 3 times by head down racer boy types that are not watching where they are riding. They were staring at their front wheels, which DF riders say then never do.

Digger Goreman

Airzound for the win!!! Gotta get them outta their (unaware) zone.

Oneder

I don't even see them til they whiz past, considering the bends on the trail it's a miracle they don't crash into anyone. Though there is nothing to say they don't I suppose. I am just thankful not many people ride here due to the weather or it would be a nightmare.

rydabent

I wish I did have one those times.

Stronglight56

This has been a topic of interest to me for decades. I’ve pasted in a reworked opinion piece I wrote a while back. Maybe it’s long for this format, I’m still learning protocol on this forum but it is an important topic. The bottom line for me is that I expect other people to do boneheaded and dangerous things and I prepare for it. I can’t change them but I CAN take steps to keep myself safe – sometimes that means I just don’t ride on the multi-use path. It’s just not that important to me to be right, or assert my right to be there when I have other options. I’d rather live to ride another day.



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This dynamic happens in so many places where we must share space – Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s parking lots for example where you can cut the tension between motorists and pedestrians with a spoon. When I learned to drive, 40 years ago, the instructor told me to drive defensively and plan for the worst because pedestrians and other drivers are clueless. So, when I’m driving, there is the example of kids on the sidewalk who I know might run into the street. They probably won’t but they might. Several times I’ve been glad I was so cautious as they ran out and I had time to stop. Or there is that annoying person who can’t follow the one car after another flow when merging and just has to speed up and squeeze in front of me. Yeah, he’s being an idiot, breaking the rules and endangering others – I’ll not argue that fact. So, I can make a big deal out of it, fight for my right to be ahead of him or back off, let it go and let him have his space ahead of me and go have his accident elsewhere. I watch for people like him, I can see what they’re up to as they come up from behind, I can’t control them but I can control whether I decide to get angry and add to the danger or try and mitigate it.



If my local multi-use path is crowded with pedestrians and people on town bikes, I opt to use the road parallel to it because I know I won’t have as good a workout if I take the path because it’s unsafe to ride fast. It. Is. What. It. Is. I’m not going to put myself in a position where I’m going to feel frustrated and oh, they’ve a right to be there too. There are times when there is barely anyone else on the path and I love riding it then. It didn’t take much effort to suss the best for me to use it. But here’s the thing, If I choose to go on that path, I set my expectations and prepare knowing not everyone is as enlightened or aware as I am (read sarcasm). The chances that I’ll fly around a curve and find a pedestrian or other cyclist in my path are high. On the road, I don’t have that concern as much because it’s straighter, very few pedestrians use it and there are no trees obscuring my view. I’ve learned to understand the behaviors of pedestrians and other users, the different kinds of cyclists and I often think so many of these issues would be resolved if people accepted that other people do stupid things and then changed their expectations and behaviors to account for that. If I know I can’t rely on other people to do the right thing, maybe I should adapt to protect myself:

• If I see people on what look to be rental bikes, who look like tourists – I know they are admiring the scenery, they may have been drinking and are not really paying attention to what’s happening on the path around them. I can think them idiots all day long but they aren’t going to change for me. I expect that they will probably swerve suddenly so I am cautious, slow down and make sure they respond to my call out before I pass them.
• I expect that kids will stop or swerve suddenly. If I see a family or kids, I slow down. I don’t ride past them going 20/25 mph – sorry if this annoys you but if you’re doing that, you are courting disaster and you are a part of the problem. That’s the deal I make when I use a multi-use path, I might have to slow down or acknowledge that it is a multi-use path.
• I know that joggers swerve suddenly – it’s just what they do. Again, if I know this and I’ve made a choice to go on a path where there are joggers, I plan for them to do what joggers do. I don’t ride past them going 25 mph and I pass cautiously unless I can clearly see they’ve responded to my bell or vocal warning that I am going to pass on their left – even then, I am still wary of them.
• When you come on someone at high speed and shout ‘behind you’ or ‘on your left’ without slowing, pedestrians and inexperienced cyclists often panic, confuse their right and left, and will sometimes move in the wrong direction. You must expect that people are going to do the wrong, stupidest, most dangerous thing possible and be prepared for it.
• The other day, a teen girl in a family group - first 100, then 75, then 50 then 30 yards in front of me stayed in my lane. I’d already slowed and I decided to get out of her way and stop because she obviously was clueless, finally, her dad shouted at her and she moved over – she was the one at fault but I had time to respond first and did.
• In that video of the runner making a U-turn, yeah it was a bonehead move on his part. It was also dumb for the cyclist to assume the runner would stay his course and that he chose to pass at high speed without any acknowledgment that the runner knew he was coming up behind him – they were both at fault and that accident was entirely avoidable.

As a runner myself, I experience correlations between paved multi-use paths and multi-use nature parks where mountain bikers bomb down them with little apparent concern for other users. In fact, I’ve ridden those paths with mountain bikers who cop the attitude that people can just be more aware and move out of their way – how dare they interrupt their descent! I’m not kidding, that attitude is there among SOME riders. Someone I know has caused a horse to rear more than once, a horseman punched him after he caused his wife’s horse rear and throw her yet he continues to maintain that he has a right to use that path exactly as he wishes. Riders like him help create and increase the resentment and hatred some people feel toward cyclists and I feel more anger toward these cyclists than I do clueless pedestrians who aren’t paying attention. How can I say that? Because with these riders, they know exactly what they could do to make it safer but choose not to because they don’t want to harsh their killer downhill – https://catsip.berkeley.edu/resource...ike-collisions


I’ll admit, as a trail runner myself, it annoys me because the riders know there are horses and pedestrians on those paths and I’ve been surprised and almost hit many times when they suddenly appear around a bend at high speed without a sound. Last time that happened I had to fight a smirk when I jumped out of the way only to witness the rider’s embarrassment as he got up after overshooting the next bend. But I’m a rider too and I can see the damage it does to the perceptions people have of us. We’ve had heated public meetings in my community with horsemen, hikers, and mountain bikers hurling insults at each other. But again, I’ve learned to control what I can: If I want to listen to music, I run using the speaker on my phone rather than earbuds so I can hear what is going on around me. Whatever I think about mountain bikers when I’m running, I listen and have a plan of escape before I charge around a blind curve because I know that SOME mountain bikers aren’t paying a lot of attention to what is happening around them and a few in my circle have said they don’t care, they’re going to do what they do because people need to pay more attention. As a runner, I’m not going to stand my ground and stubbornly assert my right to run around the middle of the path wearing my earbuds because I think the mountain bikers are wrong. No, I’m going to get over it, accept the dynamic as it is for today so I can do what I can do to keep myself safe.



Being stubbornly indignant and ‘more-right’ than the MTB riders and ‘standing my ground’ just puts me and them in more danger. Likewise, when I’m on a mountain bike, I know what it’s like to be a runner who must jump out of the way into poison oak, I keep in mind that a woman was seriously injured in my region being struck by a bike and I take measures to be considerate and try and change people’s attitudes about us. I’m one of those dorky road bikers who comes to a full stop at intersections, places his foot on the ground and makes eye-contact with the drivers, or pulls over to let cars pass him on a curvy mountain road with no bike lane. I’ve ridden with plenty of guys who Think I’m lame for doing that, they have the attitude ‘I’ve got a right to be here – ‘F’ them, they can wait.’ Yeah, well I get that sentiment to a point but I’ve been edged off the road a few times and hit by a car once over asserting my right to keep my line and it was a long recovery; I don’t ever want to experience that again Just because I have to be right whatever the cost.

Daniel4

Paraphrasing another old saying:" Nobody uses MUPs anymore. They are too crowded."

Digger Goreman

And it's STILL ****-cretinous parking across the MUP! Fired off emails to the cities of Tucker and Stone Mountain today. I will call UCIS (think that's it, written down somewhere) tomorrow. All within a mere 7.5 miles....

Georgia law forbids I ride on interstate highways where posted, no problem... so why do I find forbidden motorists on the frellin' MUP! (rhetorical question)

Oneder

If you 'accidentally' brush them with your pedals then oh well, should not have blocked the path

Digger Goreman

Annnnd the past two days have been absolutely golden, with Richard Cagers everywhere driving like... well... Dicks! For the second time in two years, I've had a 20-30 something male tell me bikes have NO RIGHTS on the road or (today) at crossings, despite it being in the bloody law books....

Of course, earlier at another crossing, DeKalb County Police didn't bother to pay attention and stop either....

Yesterday Comcast parked their bleepin truck, not in the parking lot next to the pole, but on the MUP so that one was forced into traffic to cross a major street.

Gasholes... don't like 'em.

CycleNutz

MUPs are too crowded during the daytime or during good weather.

Climb14er

The established bike routes, also open to pedestrians, are now so jammed and crowded with pedestrians walking dogs with long leashes and with very aggressive riders who think they're the speed merchant Lance Armstrongs on Tour, for the first time in many years, I'm both concerned and a bit fearful of riding here in SE Denver out to Cherry Creek State Park. Folks need to both chill out and be aware.