Digger Goreman

Sometimes it's not the number of wheels you're on, but simply remembering our compassion: Op-Ed: A letter to the cyclist who rode by the Atwater bridge on the L.A. River (yahoo.com)

DG

shelbyfv

Sounds as if the writer has a bunch of grievances and vented on some poor guy just trying to ride his bike. Doesn't seem to be any good reason they were obstructing the path.

indyfabz

billridesbikes

Yes, have some empathy for the less fortunate and homeless, but immediately makes a snap judgement about a ‘Spandex-clad’ cyclist he has never met and knows nothing about. Somehow, because of his advocacy work, he feels entitled to judge others as less caring than his noble sacrificing self.

How about don’t stand and chit-chat while blocking the bike path? One hopes Mr. Polansky isn’t dim enough to stand in the middle of the highway for his little tête-à-têtes.

Troul 

OR being dim enough to follow through with such activity might benefit many others?

canklecat

The author needs a tissue and massage for that wrenched shoulder from patting himself on the back.

70sSanO

It has been a long time since I rode the LA River. But it is, as well as other other river trails in SoCal, basically a MUP which has varying degrees of people. As such you are always going to have to negotiate your way around.

On the Santa Ana River trail some parts are wide open and others have encampments. Like any other MUP, you ride accordingly. The cyclist should have just moved over and continued on.

There really isn’t a short term solution for the California homeless situation. While I appreciate advocates for the homeless, there are no advocates for those working multiple low paying jobs/side gigs just to survive in an extremely expensive area. They are the most disadvantaged since they may not have the luxury of extra hours to learn a skill.

None of this even addresses the addiction and mental health issues with many of those who are homeless.

Unfortunately everything is just a bandaid for most of the people already there. There needs to be a viable non-college avenue to a skill/trade before they get there. Even more-so for those who are willing to bust their tail trying to keep their head above water.

John

Lazyass

I have empathy for the cyclist, and not because his bike path is now blocked by another homeless camp. But the social justice lectures belong in the political section.

downhillmaster

The author and whatever advocacy group he purports to work for are quite obviously doing a terrible job.
Why is it that the people that seem to care the most are usually the ones least suited for the task?

livedarklions

Uh, this is a MUP?! Having to shift lanes to pass pedestrians is normal, if they were only taking up one lane, it doesn't matter if they're conversing or walking, the cyclist was full of crap complaining about it.

livedarklions

It's one lane of a multi use path. "Blocking" one of the lanes in this manner is normal, and certainly can't be described as inhumane. It certainly isn't dangerous, and "rude" is really stretching it. I go around conversing people on MUPs all the time, and only say enough so they know I'm there and don't back up in front of me.

indyfabz

Maybe he was angry over having to change his lanes way too often. See what I did there?

downhillmaster

You only have one obviously biased side of the story.
There are plenty of irrational cyclists out there but I wonder in this case. If one lane was wide open why would the cyclist have gotten upset?
Three people can easily spill into the second lane and the fact that the author felt the need to reference them huddling against the barrier could be pretty telling.
Methinks the author is not presenting all the facts.

livedarklions

I figured American MUP etiquette isn't something you'd be familiar with, hence the misunderstanding. I'd probably just say "hi" in this situation, which comes up pretty much any time I ride on a MUP.

The real issue is what you do when the conversation is taking up both lanes, and they don't move when you announce. That will get me yelling.

livedarklions

Methinks you just moved the goalposts, and what youthinks is a blatant exhibit of cognitive dissonance.

livedarklions

I've never seen a non-homeless person scolded for standing on one lane of a MUP. This isn't a highway, the comparison is a total lie.

tkamd73 

We only have one lane on our MUP, and now I know why, I prefer to ride alone!
Tim

mstateglfr 

3 days ago on Friday I loudly said 'MOVE' to a group of 3 women in athleisure who were standing on the right side of a MUP. I loathe MUPs and use them very sparingly, but this was with one of my kids and the MUP is the only realistic way for us to ride from where we started to halfway thru the ride. It is busy with runners, cyclists, walkers, families, etc. We had to come to a complete stop behind them due to cyclists coming the other way.
It was a very minor incident in the grand scheme of things and I didnt even think about it again until just now, but at the same time it was completely absurd and indefensible. You dont just stand on a MUP. That isnt a thing. Step off to the side. Even our kids know to get off the path if they have to come to a stop.

I frightened the women because they all jumped. Its what happens when a guy my height loudly says something. Sucks that I frightened some women, but oh well. They quickly saw it was me and my daughter and that they had stopped not only us, but another group behind us(who i think felt obligated to stop since we had) and they moved over.

CAT7RDR

Glad the op-ed is not a red herring like failed social policies, but instead focuses on alleged lack of empathy by a passer by.
Lord knows Californians are not already hammered by high taxes to take care of these type of societal problems.
Perhaps the opinion writer should take a hard look at his bosses like in the LA City and LA County governments.

ofajen

I ride a lot on MUPs so I pretty much accept that there will be times when I need to slow or stop for people. Yesterday I had to stop at a couple of bridges because there were families on the bridges posing for photos and the bridges are a common backdrop. They all apologized and moved. I don’t really mind; it’s one more opportunity to stand and accelerate from a stop on my SS, which is good core training.

The one thing that does frustrate me is when vehicles get parked blocking a marked bikeway. One of our feeder trails goes through a parking lot at a park where the trail then transitions off the parking lot to a gravel path. There are events at the nearby shelter, and the ice cone vending trucks are bad about parking directly in the full path of the bike/ pedestrian lanes, so that both directions of bike travel (of which there is a lot) have to dive off into rough grass or maybe mud to get through.

Otto

mstateglfr 

This Yahoo article is hopefully the dumbest thing I read all week.


- Huddled against the metal barrier, obstructing one of the two lanes of bike path, we listened while he told us the events leading to C.’s death.
- These were the circumstances when you, spandex-clad and biking south along the river, yelled at the three of us to get out of the path, to which I responded with a predictable vulgarity.
- I was surprised when you returned to insist that I apologize for my foul language and for forcing you to shift lanes.
- Believe it or not, I too am the sort of person who might yell at someone for obstructing a bike lane, or for littering, or for any of a hundred other acts which degrade our civic cohesion and worsen our shared neighborhoods.
- People shouldn't block bicycle lanes or ride motor scooters on sidewalks.
- I took your behavior as evidence that you, like many of my neighbors, view unhoused people exclusively as nuisances, similar to bad traffic on the 5 or our most recent oat milk shortage. Maybe this was unfair. Maybe you didn’t see that my partner and I were helping a member of the unhoused community, though we wore shirts identifying ourselves as outreach volunteers. Maybe your comment was, as you insisted, entirely civil. If I was wrong, then you're owed an apology and you have it.


The author says they were standing in a place that blocks the flow of others using the path. The author says they might yell at people who block the path. The author says people shouldnt block the path. Then the author assumes they know why the person yelled and it isnt because the path was blocked, but because the cyclist views homeless people as a nuisance.

Thats a heck of a conclusion to assume, especially since the author readily admits they shouldnt block the path and they may yell at others for blocking the path.

I wasted 5min on that.

Mr. 66

The author is a Social Justice Warrior, and the cyclist is an enemy combatant for using public space for its intended purpose. The author should have gotten their case to move from potential harm to a safer spot for everyone instead of escalating anger.

Silly me for thinking.

BobbyG

How would the situation be different if the "unhoused" person were an injured cyclist and the outreach worker were an Emergency Medical Tech. We can't know if the cyclist would have behaved differently, but would you treat the two different scenarios differently as a passing cyclist?

While everyone on an MUP shares an obligation for the safety and welfare of others, a greater responsibility and obligation is carried by those who carry greater velocity.

Instead of labeling them "Mixed Use Paths", they should be renamed "Shared Pathways" to remind people that we all share the path, just as cyclists often ask motorized traffic to "share the road."

indyfabz

That jumped out at me and I closed the window.

bargo68 

"Unhoused". Makes me cringe, that one.
I work in downtown Berkeley and am literally surrounded by the HOMELESS problem for 9 waking hours every workday. It is grim. These people are suffering and many have problems that are not ever going to be fixed.
That said, calling them "houseless" is an insult to their condition. Some of these people have been victimized since before they could walk or talk.
They are indeed HOMELESS in many ways.