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Old September 21st 14, 11:21 PM posted to rec.bicycles.soc
EdwardDolan
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Default Mountain bikers are a scourge wherever they are found

"Blackblade" wrote in message ...
[...]

Edward Dolan wrote:

The near universal acknowledgment of the dangers of mountain
biking on hiking trails will mean the end of it.


What 'near universal' acknowledgement of the dangers ? References ?? Data to backup this proposition ??


I think you lie ... again.


This is how dumb you can get when you don’t follow what is being reported in the media. Ignorance is bliss, apparently.

Once the lawsuits began it will
happen fast.


More than twenty years ... and still growing ... methinks you hope rather than have any rational basis for this supposition.


We will have to wait to see how this will play out.

Mr. Vandeman has much better arguments than I do for its demise,
but his arguments presuppose other intelligent beings who can be persuaded. I,
on the other hand, am convinced that only the ever increasing deaths of bikers
on trails will result in its banishment.


In which case, if that's the basis on which you are pinning your hopes, I would abandon hope now. The real statistics suggest that it's a relatively safe activity with a net benefit in terms of health. As such, I would suggest it is much more likely that it will continue to grow for some considerable time to come.


It can happen rather suddenly if and when the outrage reaches a certain point.

Read below for what can cause the outrage, although this happens to apply to urban cycling:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/20/ny...3A8%22%7D&_r=0

After Woman Is Struck, Debate on Cycling in City Is Revived

By BENJAMIN MUELLER and KIA GREGORYSEPT. 19, 2014

Police officers on Friday handed out safety fliers on West Drive,

where a pedestrian was hit. Credit Michael Nagle for The New York Times

The long-simmering conflict between bicyclists and pedestrians in

New York City flared again after a 58-year-old woman was struck by
a bicyclist and critically injured in Central Park on Thursday afternoon.

The woman, Jill Tarlov of Fairfield, Conn., was walking across

West Drive near West 63rd Street in the park around 4:25 p.m. when
the bicyclist, a 31-year-old man, came along the road.

He swerved to avoid one group of pedestrians but struck Ms.

Tarlov, causing her to hit her head. She was listed in critical
condition at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical
Center, the police said.

No charges have been filed against the bicyclist, whom the police

declined to identify. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital after
the accident with injuries to his shoulder and hand.

On Friday afternoon, the police were trying to alert bicyclists

to safety requirements in Central Park.

At the same crosswalk where Ms. Tarlov was struck, four officers

instructed groups of cyclists to stop at red lights and yield to pedestrians.

The officers also handed out fliers advising riders on how to

avoid accidents.

Earlier in the day, zooming cyclists shared the road with

horse-drawn carriages and women pushing jogging strollers.

Some pedestrians crossed against the light, and joggers ran in a

bicycle lane, prompting one cyclist to yell, "What are you doing?"

Shahjahan Talukder, a food-cart vendor on West Drive, said that

just before the accident he heard someone yell, "Move!" When he
looked up, he saw a woman lying in the street.

"Who's right, who's wrong," he said, "I don't know."

He added that he had seen accidents on the road before and

worried for pedestrians.

"The bikes are crazy," he said. "They should close bikes here."

Accidents are not uncommon on the busy park roadways, frequented

by bicyclists, tourists, joggers, pedicabs, skateboarders and
in-line skaters. In August, a 75-year-old man was fatally struck by
a teenage bicyclist trying to avoid a pedicab driver in the park.

Some say the danger from bicyclists in the city has never been

greater. Commuters on Citi Bikes run red lights on the same roads
where cyclists ride against the flow of traffic and race, they say.

"I'm turning to the right, I'm turning to the left, I don't know

where they're going to come at me," said Bunny Abraham of the Upper
West Side, who has called for new rules that would require riders
to have licenses. "They feel as if they own the city," she said.
"They feel as if they own the roads. And you cannot touch them."

The city has recently sought to clamp down on reckless cycling.

So far this year, the authorities have issued 468 moving summonses
for bicycle violations in Central Park, more than triple the 151
summonses issued in the same period last year, the police said.
Half of the summonses issued this year penalized riders who failed
to yield to pedestrians.

And a two-week Police Department initiative in August, Operation

Safe Cycle, conducted as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero
traffic safety campaign, led to 4,300 moving violations for
cyclists across the city.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story

Eileen Kurtis, 61, who walks three or four times a week along the

stretch of the park where Ms. Tarlov was hurt, said she had had
some close calls.

"When there is a herd of bikes," Ms. Kurtis said, "I wait, I dodge."

With more bicycles on the road, she said, "I feel it could happen

to anyone."

Michele Bodner, who lives on the Upper West Side and was walking

her terrier, as she does every morning, said she often saw bicycles
crossing into the pedestrian and car lanes "to go as fast as they can."

She expressed outrage about the accident, saying she and others

were organizing a petition that would call for the city to
establish a speed limit for bicycles and for the police to enforce summonses.

"Every single person who uses this park every single day, many

times over, has been threatened by these groups," she said.
"There's no other way to put it."

Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation

Alternatives, a cycling and pedestrian advocacy group, said in a
statement that the group's thoughts were with Ms. Tarlov.

"Because we're serious about reaching Vision Zero," he said, "we

need to speak out in response to every preventable tragedy and
condemn all acts of reckless behavior in traffic."

The statement added: "As the most vulnerable users of our

streets, pedestrians must be safe from reckless cycling, just as
they need to be protected from reckless driving. This is
particularly true in our parks."


Mountain bikers are barbarians and have no right to be on any trail used by hikers – unless they want to get off their god damn ****ing bikes and walk like everyone else. When they crash and injure themselves, I rejoice! If and when they manage to kill themselves, I say good riddance to bad rubbish! Death to mountain biking!

“Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.”
~ Christina Rossetti (Psalm 24),
from "A Later Life: A Double Sonnet of Sonnets"

Mountain bikes have wheels. Wheels are for roads.

Trails are for walking. What’s the matter? Can’t walk?

Ed Dolan the Great
aka
Saint Edward the Great


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