sewupnut

In the time I've been riding, racing, commuting by bike since I had a paper route in the late 1950's, I've never heard the acronym "MUP". So... what does it mean?

phillman5

I am in the same position. I don't live in a major metropolitan city. What's a MUP? I've seen it used for the first time today, in three different threads. I even asked my Dallas resident millianial son thinking this was a new term, he didn't know what a MUP was either.

oldbear63

It is human nature for groups to behave in manners that individuals would not (actually, this is a vertebrate tendency as other animals do it too).

This is called Mob Behavior, where the size of the group exaggerates individual impulses and the mob protects the rude individuals.

My club once fractured apart because riders were ignoring traffic rules and gave the finger to the bike shop owner who's name was on their jerseys.

The ideal size of a ride (or any human endeavor) is probably pretty small.

Gunga Dan

I'm guessing it means "Multi Use Path", but I've never heard it before either. I've biked on many trails in the Seattle/Puget Sound area, used to ride the Sammamish River Trail that ran from Bothel down to Redmond very frequently. Very pretty. Lots of decent users of all types, but there was a particular group of young mothers who would often block the entire trail with their baby carriages while the "chatted", forcing the many bikers (and everyone else) to go around them on the grass. Cynical as I am, it never ceases to amaze me what selfish schmucks people can be.

Joe Bikerider

MUP - Muti use path. As in bikes walkers and everything else you can think of. Here in the city there are not many horses but further out there is a crossing light with two levels of request buttons. Pedestrian and ( higher up ) horse riders. I always push both just for fun.

stephr1

Holy sh*t, I know this one very well. A few years back I was doing a ride into an area called "Shoreline Park" (this is in the SF Bay Area). Most of the paths are paved and are easily 3-4 people wide. I came across 3 (varyingly) recent mothers each with a kid in a stroller. They were chatting without being aware, of course. About 10-15 ft. behind I yelled out bike (did not say left or right since all 3 were wide enough for the 3 of them to fill the path None of them moved so I slowed down and came up on the left and yelled out "bike on your left". One of them, without turning around, told me that since I was on a bike I could go on the grass. Talk about discourteous and disrespectful! All sorts of things to say entered my mind. Most were angry and a few were derogatory wrt their weight. Instead, I just said "Share the path!!" and as I rode on, the one reminded me (again!) that I can ride on the grass

In that same park, different place, different time I came up behind 3 runners (2 guys, 1 girl). They were meandering back and forth across the trail and as I caught up with them, 1 guy was on the left (in the "on coming side") and the other 2 were on the right (as expected). I wove my way between them and the single guy (in the wrong lane) got on my case for not stating which side I was passing on. We exchanged some angry words and I rode on. Thinking better about it I turned and went back to make some peace. The guy who ran on the right side said he appreciated me coming back to talk with them. The idiot in the wrong lane, well, let's just say he spoke his IQ.

And the ultimate was in the same area and happened multiple times. There's a group called "Friend of the Stevens Creek Trail" - FOSCT (the trail comes from Cupertino....yes, the home of Apple all the way to the SF Bay and ends in Shoreline Park). This group holds a supposed fund raising 5K and 10K once a year (sometime around Sept./Oct.). They start about a mile outside the Park, circle in and thru it and back to the finish line.

I used to do rides into Shoreline on weekends (now do them midweek to avoid this kind of crap), and that turns out to be when they hold their run. There were 2 things that really pissed me off. First is that the trail, tho paved, is only ~2-1/2 people wide and, when the race goes, there are mobs of runners that take up the trail width. Problem with this is that the trail is on top of a kind of levee (ponds on 1 side, the actual Stevens Creek on the other). So the trail drops of precipitously on either side. No way to go around on bike or on foot without serious injury Most people are pretty good when you yell "bike on left" but it's still a slog to get thru the hordes of people. The worst part is a number of them are listening to music (or some such) and don't hear you until you're right up next to them and practically yell in their ear. More than couple of times someone was apparently surprised at my presence and they nearly turned into me as they turned around to see what was going on. Keep in mind that part of the trail has a painted center line, but is apparently only a suggestion of an idea

The other near disastrous part is that, as the trail enters the park, one part goes straight (towards the bay) and the other splits left (to go around a ponding area). This is where the FOSCT established a split point between the 5K (to the left) and 10K (straight on) runners. In, and of, itself, this isn't a problem. However, on my first ride that I encountered incompetence (and a severely disrespectful attitude) I had gone into the park and circled back around and was coming in the opposite direction of the 5K split on my way out. I was cruising along enjoying the ride, weather and scenery, and I looked up at these runners coming right at me (as in, I'm in the right lane and the runners were in that same lane coming from the opposite direction). I held my place and all the runners had to go into the dirt to avoid getting taken out by my bike (of course, someone at a water table not far away saw this and yelled "Hey, buddy!!" as if I had no right to be where I was).

I wanted to figure out what had happened so, when that group of runners had passed, I got off my bike and couldn't believe what I saw: Some dunce head had put down tape arrows to show the runners which way was 10K and which was 5K.arrows. What that person had done, tho, was to direct the runners for the 5K into the left side of the trail as it split, leaving the right side completely open. And the reason the runners came right at me was becuz the same idiot had put up cones to keep the lanes divided, which gave the runners (and me) no where to go.

What made it even worse, and caused me to lose all respect for this group, is that I tracked down the race director (who wasn't far away from this disaster point) and tried to tell him the accidents waiting to happen and he should take a look at what was set up. All he had to say? He didn't have time, he had a race to run and if I had any issues I could take it up with the city. The following year, I stopped at this point to see if any of my input had been considered. Same thing. Found the race director again adn ntold him and got the same condescending and disrespectful response I had gotten the year before.

This went on for the 3 years I rode there on the weekend and it was always the same. I contacted the city a number of times and all they did was forward my concerns to the exec. director who wouldn't even acknowledge he'd look into it, and that they couldn't change anything any way because they might lose their US Track and Field sanction of their races. All I could think was that this group didn't give 1 damn about anything else, even if their race created a hazard for both their runners and other users of the trail.

Haven't been there on their race day for a number of years (5+?) so I have no idea if they fixed it, but I also no longer care if they did. But I will never forget that self-centered, self-absorbed, arrogant and discourteous and stupid race director. I hope he screwed things up so bad for the group that they stopped using him to manage the races.

Apologies...went on longer than I really expected. Thanks for letting me get this out

Cheers.....

KraneXL

I was taught never use an abbreviation unless its well understood. I'm referring to abbreviation such USA or FBI, which 98% of the population would immediately understand, don't need to be spelled out.

Nevertheless, others such as MD can have multiple meanings (am I referring to a medical doctor or the State of Maryland?) and may depend on context to understand them. If I determine an abbreviation may be otherwise ambiguous, I'll spell it out initially then abbreviate after that. But its really up to the author.

In this case, I'd say MUP is common enough to be understood, at least by the majority of the cycling community here, even though there may always be a few new to cycling that may not immediately know what it is.That's not common sense at all.

dkatz1

I hate to sound like a dork: but I read through a lot of this thread, and I STILL don't know what MUP is.

Turner2

Well you know what they say about common sense. It's really not that common. And you just proved that.

Dirt Farmer

This for the win!

I only ride MUP's if it is positively, absolutely the last viable option to get from point A to point B, even if there are points C, D, and F involved.

NeilBurt

If I knew what a MUP was, I'd avoid it, or them too.

livedarklions

If it's a divided path, I expect the group to keep to its lane, as that is the actual rule they are supposed to follow. But your bit of nastiness to the op is completely inappropriate. It has nothing to do with what he posted. The group wasn't even riding, they were just standing around on the path. No one is supposed to block the path like that--that's just common sense.

livedarklions

My Unicorn Pedro.

Massive Umbrella Pants.

Mistress Ursula, Please!

Makeup party!

Miserable Ungrateful Peasants

Maritime Union Pension

GlennR

This is a "family" site, but Google it if you dare.

caloso

Multi-use path.

dkatz1

I've been riding for 20 years, and I've either never heard that term, or never heard it enough for it to sneak in. And I mostly avoid such places.

UniChris

Many Uncouth Personages

Actually I've found the opposite - lots of great people. Though that makes the infrequent exceptions memorably exceptional.

SpeedyBlueBiker

Some?? I'd say a a lot of cyclists make us look bad, both mtn bikers and road cyclists.

OBoile

Yeah. You're right. It is really a lot.

MikeyMK

Does anyone know why the latest mountain bikes all have like 3ft wide handlebars..? Seriously no need.

livedarklions

Doubles as a clothesline.

sanchan

What the hell is a “MUP” ?

livedarklions

Somehow, I think this is what a panel discussion sounds like at the Excessive Ear Wax Sufferers' convention.

2manybikes

What ??

Daniel4

And I get criticized for sounding like a broken record.