jppe

I think I need to be more concerned about me getting distracted instead of distracted drivers!!!

Earlier this week I was riding my bike over to the start of a group ride about 15 miles from my house. At about 20 seconds into the video you can see where I leave a bike lane in the road and turn onto a local paved greenway.

At that point for some reason I started looking down at my bike computer for way too long. At the 30 second mark fortunately I look up in time to see a bollard or post directly in front of me on the greenway. It's obviously placed there to deter motorized vehicles from getting on the greenway.

While my reflexes aren't as good as they were in my 20's I’m lucky they are still pretty darn good......

freeranger

Good to see you missed it! Mrs.Freeranger wasn't so lucky a couple of weeks ago. Don't know for sure why she hit it, but she hit a steel beam placed in the middle of a nearby MUP. Could have been because of the worst placement of a post I've seen. It is right in the middle of a narrow, 90 degree corner! After she hit it, we rode a short distance to a kiosk to check her and the bike out. Several riders came over to see if she was OK. And guess what--3 of them had hit that same post at some time! Some of the posts have been removed since that MUP was first opened, hoping the post she hit will be the next!

John E

We have the same problem in San Diego County with various cities' fascination with "protected" bike lanes, which are demarked by posts, and sometimes curbs, as well. In addition to replacing perfectly good Class II bike lanes, these have caused a number of bicycle crashes. Protests fall on deaf ears, because we are arguing against some sort of religion.

JanMM

Yikes! Good last-second reflexes!

rsbob 

Wow, impressive miss. Glad you were unscathed

canklecat

Bollards are a menace. I'm not sure they're worth the daily risk to cyclist for the potential risk of a driver joyriding on the trails.

alo

I heard, but not from an official news source: There are electricity poles on the footpath/sidewalk along one road in Australia. Somebody ran into one of them and killed themself.

Artmo 

That was close, jppe!
Glad you are OK.

scottfsmith

I find as I age I can sometimes space out and so I always triple-check at intersections to make sure I am not missing any cars. Recently I overdid it, I was so focused on cars I didn't notice that the curb jutted out a fair amount around a corner and I ran into it and mashed myself up. At least I avoided the cars..

rm -rf

Most of the mid path bollards were removed from the Little Miami Trail in Ohio. Much safer.

The Laurenceburg Indiana trail has two side by side bollards, splitting the path into narrow thirds.

And who decided to make bollards about 3 feet tall? They are too short to be very visible if another cyclist is in front. Do trail designers actually ride?

(I looked up from my Garmin while cruising through a small town, and a parked pickup truck was just ahead. I just missed it, and still hit the foldable side mirror. Whew.

BobbyG

Yikes!

Helderberg

Nice reaction. Glad you were not hurt. We have a couple of them here but thankfully I have been able to avoid them so far. Be safe.

Steve B.

On what is otherwise a really badly designed local path, a buddy ran into one of these. It's painted the same yellow as the lane indicators and was hard to see in morning sunlight. He was really banged up and pissed off.

Outrider1

Cat like refelxes!

canklecat

In my local experience, no. Most people involved in planning, building and maintaining the Trinity Trails MUP are not cyclists. They're joggers, at most.

Some aren't physically active at all. The MUP is just another box to check off on the checklist of bait to lure major corporations to build the local economy and tax base. When my hometown was courting Amazon and other employers, they engaged in the busy-work of creating an illusion of cycling infrastructure, which mostly consists of painted lines on existing poorly designed streets. My favorites are the door zone bike lanes along the routes with the heaviest traffic and most curbside parking.

And I know from attending advisory board meetings for the trails, none of the people involved were cyclists. They were joggers. One in particular wanted to ban cyclists from the gravel/chat trail, thinking that no cyclist would even want to ride on anything other than the sidewalk.

They also wanted to recruit volunteer hall monitors, those busybody kids in elementary school who played Eric Cartman between classes. Given the current tensions, it's hard to imagine anyone thinks it's a good idea to confront strangers over using skateboards, hover boards, inline skates, etc., on the trails. Heck, you can't even get cyclists to agree that they should defer other slower users -- cyclists tend to expect slower pedestrians to get out of their way, same as motor vehicle drivers regard us cycling on "their" roads.

It never seems to sink in that if shared infrastructure is designed properly to begin with, it naturally appeals to folks who want to pursue (your preferred activity here). When was the last time you saw a criterium in a skate park? Or skaters on gravel roads? Or BMX bikes trying to use the climbing walls park?

Yet in my area, most of what passes for cycling infrastructure on the MUP is a standard city 4 foot wide sidewalk in segmented squares of concrete, that increasingly runs adjacent to massive multi-family condos, apartments and housing developments, attracting mostly pedestrians, joggers, families with kids and dogs. And then we wonder why there are so many problems and complaints.

freeranger

I had reported it to the park in which this happened. I have rec'd a response that it would be looked into. If I hear more, I will report. Hopefully, the post will be removed. With it's placement, it's only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt.

rm -rf

Oh, it's one of those foldable metal bollards in the video. Terrible.
I've been on paths where they were folded down to allow a maintenance vehicle through. It's still a 2-3 inch tall metal hinge with the bollard laid down too. That's not good at all.

And it's metal, with fairly sharp square edges, and what looks like a padlock tab sticking out. Owww.

horatio 

Great reflexes!

curbtender

Galvanized pole with a paved background? They need to spend some money on yellow paint.