Dan wrote:

Scott en Aztlán wrote:

My wife and I went for a walk this afternoon. The sidewalk was very
narrow - only wide enough for my wife and I to walk side by side. As
we walked, our son (who is away at college) called, so she took the
call and was talking to him, not really paying attention to what was
ahead. Presently, an older gentleman riding a bicycle approached from
ahead of us. When he saw that my wife wasn't paying attention (and
thus was not going to step aside to let him ride past) he came to a
stop, then stood there glaring at us. As we passed by, he very
petulantly began to ring his little thumb-bell repeatedly, as if to
express his outrage that we didn't get out of his way. I turned to him
and said "use the bike lane, ****head." Then we walked on, shaking our
heads in disbelief.

Why do supposedly mature adults think it's OK to ride their bikes on
the sidewalk? Here's another couple we saw today on our walk:

http://tinypic.com/539poy

There's a perfectly good bike lane (or shoulder, as Brent likes to
call them) not five feet from these lard-asses, yet they feel the need
to endanger pedestrians on the sidewalk. Why?!?!?!?

People like these give good, courteous, law-abiding pedalcyclists a
bad name.


Granted, bicycles should not ride on the sidewalk. Having said that, I
frequently ride on a trail system made up of 2 sections, a city portion
officially designated a "Bike Path" and a metro park portion designated
a "Multi-use trail", uses including bikes. In an average trip on this ~
10 mile route, I will encounter no fewer than 4 pedestrians alone or in
groups who are totally oblivious to their surroundings and other traffic
on the path, sauntering along with the same awareness they must exhibit
when stumbling from bed to toilet at 3:30 in the morning... except my
guess is on THAT trip they are not listening to headphones turned up
full blast. There is no attempt to stay to the right, runners using the
path typically run right in the middle, and if a bike approaches from
the rear & they DO notice its presence, the reaction as often as not is
to step INTO it's path! In addition to that, on the city BIKE PATH
portion which is not adequately policed, it's not unusual to encounter
walkers who are accomanied by un-leashed dogs (ohhh, Patches wouldn't
hurt anyone... CHOMP... ). While we're upbraiding bikers for
inconsideration, let's not leave out the often self-absorbed pedestrians
as well. They walk like they drive; which makes me even LESS likely to
venture into the street with them. At least bike on walker I have a
chance, bike on SUV and it's no contest.

Dan

I often encounter pedestrians on bike paths, not unusual here since we
share them. However, these pedestrians insist on walking towards the
oncoming bike/pedestrian traffic in whatever lane they happen to be in.
I figure their logic is they want to see what is coming and would rather
not be approached from the rear by a fast moving bike. When the path is
not busy this is no big deal, but it can create quite the obstacle
course when the path is busy.

Even worse, sometimes these pedestrians meet someone they know and stop
for an extended chat in one or both lanes of the path effectively
creating an obstacle... rather than moving off to the side. Then there
are those mixed standing-still groups of pedestrians and cyclists having
a chat on the path.

Are these the same folks who stop in the middle of the freeway at night
with no lights on in their vehicles?