If Adults on bikes could be as simple as kids on bikes

Yesterday my husband and I were walking the multi-use path in Brookdale
Park. This is the path where I was knocked over by a cyclist couple
who shouted "ON THE LEFT" because I had no idea which way to move.
Adding to that, he came up behind me on one side and his wife or GF
came up from behind on the other side. Adding to all that confusion, I
of course, moved the wrong way.

Since then, I try to walk on the track instead of the path but the
husband likes the path better. More scenery.

Well yesterday we were walking and talking when we hear a small childs
voice yell in a very loud booming voice from a far distance. "BICYCLE
COMING THROUGH. BICYCLE COMING THROUGH". My husband and I had time to
turn around and both of us moved to let him go between us...and as he
went through he said..."TWO MORE BICYCLES COMING THROUGH"...the next
kid yelled..."ONE MORE BICYCLE COMING THROUGH"....and then when they
all past us...they yelled "THANK YOU". It was the cutest thing. They
must have been about 8 or 9 years old, wearing helmets, and very police
riders.
I guess children know what to shout when riding their bikes more than
the adults in the park who scream...ON YOU LEFT...or ON YOUR
RIGHT....I've watched more confusion happen when cyclists yell that.
If cyclists decide to ride on a path where people are walking, talking,
walking dogs, running, and strolling....I think they should think like
those children. AND JUST YELL IT LIKE IT IS.

Just shout....."BICYCLE COMING THROUGH"...with plenty of time for
walkers, strollers, etc to move. I love kids. They are damn smart.
Maggie.

Maggie wrote:
Yesterday my husband and I were walking the multi-use path in Brookdale
Park. This is the path where I was knocked over by a cyclist couple
who shouted "ON THE LEFT" because I had no idea which way to move.
Adding to that, he came up behind me on one side and his wife or GF
came up from behind on the other side. Adding to all that confusion, I
of course, moved the wrong way.

Since then, I try to walk on the track instead of the path but the
husband likes the path better. More scenery.

Well yesterday we were walking and talking when we hear a small childs
voice yell in a very loud booming voice from a far distance. "BICYCLE
COMING THROUGH. BICYCLE COMING THROUGH". My husband and I had time to
turn around and both of us moved to let him go between us...and as he
went through he said..."TWO MORE BICYCLES COMING THROUGH"...the next
kid yelled..."ONE MORE BICYCLE COMING THROUGH"....and then when they
all past us...they yelled "THANK YOU". It was the cutest thing. They
must have been about 8 or 9 years old, wearing helmets, and very police
riders.
I guess children know what to shout when riding their bikes more than
the adults in the park who scream...ON YOU LEFT...or ON YOUR
RIGHT....I've watched more confusion happen when cyclists yell that.
If cyclists decide to ride on a path where people are walking, talking,
walking dogs, running, and strolling....I think they should think like
those children. AND JUST YELL IT LIKE IT IS.

Just shout....."BICYCLE COMING THROUGH"...with plenty of time for
walkers, strollers, etc to move. I love kids. They are damn smart.
Maggie.


If everyone follows the standard rules there is no need for confusion.
In other words if everyone follows the standard rules of traffic flow we
all know they will be passing on the left and that the pedestrians have
left enough room for this to take place.

The problem happens when folks on the pathways, cyclists or pedestrians,
don't follow these very basic rules... such as pedestrians taking up
the whole width of the path walking side-by-each... such as pedestrians
walking on the wrong side... such as cyclists passing on the wrong
side... such as cyclists riding side-by-side and consuming more than
their fair share of the path... pedestrians stopping to have a
conversation in the middle of the path... etc, etc.

I don't understand why this seems to be rocket science for some, as the
rules are very simple. Yet, almost everytime I'm out on the bike I come
across folks not following them. When it isn't busy there usually isn't
a problem, however when the pathways are busy (such as on a weekend
afternoon) it can be chaotic.

In article ,
Joe Canuck wrote:

If everyone follows the standard rules there is no need for confusion.

The problem with this is, the people most in need of understanding this
are the least likely to realize the need for it.

In other words if everyone follows the standard rules of traffic flow we
all know they will be passing on the left and that the pedestrians have
left enough room for this to take place.

Yep. Simple enough to write it on your hands if you can't memorize it:
-Stay to your right
UNLESS:
-you're passing somebody going the same direction as you, then pass on
your left.
-you're walking a dog, then if the dog wants to go to the left side go
with it so the leash doesn't cross the path.

For the truly thick, it might also need an explanation that if two
people going in opposite directions both stay to their right, they'll
be on the other's left, and both will be happy, and also an explanation
that if you see somebody with a dog on the "wrong" side you should go
around on the side that's clear, because it's easier than explaining
the simple right-side rule to the dog.



[re-ordered slightly]
The problem happens when folks on the pathways, cyclists or pedestrians,
don't follow these very basic rules... such as pedestrians taking up
the whole width of the path walking side-by-each...
such as cyclists riding side-by-side and consuming more than
their fair share of the path... pedestrians stopping to have a
conversation in the middle of the path... etc, etc.

In practice, these are only problems when you're meeting somebody; wide
groups are perfectly OK if they're paying attention to what's going
on around them and go single-file to make room for people to pass.
An additional guideline makes this easier to work with:

-The bell on a bike means "I'm coming up behind you, don't panic".
It DOES NOT mean "Get out of my way, you idiot".

(Even if the person I'm passing is positioned appropriately, I'll
still ring the bell so they know I'm there, though they usually get a
shorter/quieter ring than people or groups whose appropriate response
involves actually doing something.)


such as pedestrians
walking on the wrong side... such as cyclists passing on the wrong
side...

One thing I've noticed a lot (and that always confuses me) is that most
pedestrians who walk on the wrong side will move over as soon as they
see somebody coming in the opposite direction, so they *know* the rules
for meeting other path traffic, they just don't apply them until they
actually meet somebody else.

Of course, there's always the ones who think that rules like that are
for Other People...


I don't understand why this seems to be rocket science for some, as the
rules are very simple. Yet, almost everytime I'm out on the bike I come
across folks not following them. When it isn't busy there usually isn't
a problem, however when the pathways are busy (such as on a weekend
afternoon) it can be chaotic.

The problem is compounded by the fact that most people are so used to
sharing the path with people who just make it up as they go along that
they have no idea how to respond to somebody who actually follows a
consistent set of rules.

I've taken up the habit of being completely anal about passing on the
correct side. More than once I've had people move over to the left
when I'm approaching and had to go off the path to get around them; I'm
still entertaining the (probably hopelessly mistaken) hope that sooner
or later people will realize that being predictable makes everybody's
life a lot easier.


dave
(gah, another people-are-stupid rant... you'd think I'd've gotten it
out of my system by now.)

--
Dave Vandervies
[P]enguins are from Antarctica, which is beyond mere coolness; it's actually
*cold* down there. --Anthony de Boer in the scary devil
Now watch those other guys adopt liquid helium as their mascot. \monastery

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 18:18:47 +0000 (UTC),
(Dave Vandervies) wrote:

Yep. Simple enough to write it on your hands if you can't memorize it:
-Stay to your right

You have GOT to be kidding. All joggers -must- run against "vehicular
traffic". (uh, even though, on a trail, there's no "vehicles"). ;-D

UNLESS:
-you're passing somebody going the same direction as you, then pass on
your left.
-you're walking a dog, then if the dog wants to go to the left side go
with it so the leash doesn't cross the path.

Far too complex for peds to deal, lol.

jj

In article ,
jj wrote:
On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 18:18:47 +0000 (UTC),
(Dave Vandervies) wrote:

Yep. Simple enough to write it on your hands if you can't memorize it:
-Stay to your right

You have GOT to be kidding. All joggers -must- run against "vehicular
traffic". (uh, even though, on a trail, there's no "vehicles"). ;-D

This was on a trail that we were talking about. In that situation,
everybody IS traffic, and it makes as much sense to walk/run/ride "against
traffic" as it makes to drive your car against traffic on the road.


UNLESS:
-you're passing somebody going the same direction as you, then pass on
your left.
-you're walking a dog, then if the dog wants to go to the left side go
with it so the leash doesn't cross the path.

Far too complex for peds to deal, lol.

Most of them don't seem to have a problem with it. Of the ones that
can't seem to deal with it, I see about as many on bikes as on foot.


dave

--
Dave Vandervies
[i]t was basically "my compiler's UB is better than your compiler's
UB" -- a statement I agree with, but you can't base a discussion in
c.l.c on UB effects. --Arthur J. O'Dwyer in comp.lang.c

(Dave Vandervies) writes:

Yep. Simple enough to write it on your hands if you can't memorize it:
-Stay to your right
UNLESS:
-you're passing somebody going the same direction as you, then pass on
your left.
-you're walking a dog, then if the dog wants to go to the left side go
with it so the leash doesn't cross the path.

Of course, really pedestrians should stick to the _left_ side of the
path, because that way one's right arm is to oncomers, but that's a
battle lost quite a long time ago:-)

--
Robert Uhl http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl
Variability is one of the virtues of a woman. It avoids the crude
requirement of polygamy. So long as you have one good wife you are sure
to have a spiritual harem. --G.K. Chesterton

In article ,
Robert Uhl wrote:
(Dave Vandervies) writes:

Yep. Simple enough to write it on your hands if you can't memorize it:
-Stay to your right
UNLESS:
-you're passing somebody going the same direction as you, then pass on
your left.
-you're walking a dog, then if the dog wants to go to the left side go
with it so the leash doesn't cross the path.

Of course, really pedestrians should stick to the _left_ side of the
path, because that way one's right arm is to oncomers,

I seem to be missing the significance of this.

but that's a
battle lost quite a long time ago:-)

Well, if you don't like the way it's done on this continent, you could
always move to the UK.


dave

--
Dave Vandervies
Well, it's rather far from rocket science, mixing it up....
Actually, I hear it's a primary ingredient in the space shuttle's solid rocket
boosters. --Ingvar the Grey and Phillip Jones in the Scary Devil Monastery

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 19:50:24 +0000 (UTC),
(Dave Vandervies) wrote:
In article ,
Robert Uhl wrote:
(Dave Vandervies) writes:

Yep. Simple enough to write it on your hands if you can't memorize it:
-Stay to your right
UNLESS:
-you're passing somebody going the same direction as you, then pass on
your left.
-you're walking a dog, then if the dog wants to go to the left side go
with it so the leash doesn't cross the path.

Of course, really pedestrians should stick to the _left_ side of the
path, because that way one's right arm is to oncomers,

I seem to be missing the significance of this.

That's your sword arm. Well, unless you're a pinko lefty.


Jasper

"Maggie" wrote in message
ups.com...
Yesterday my husband and I were walking the multi-use path in Brookdale
Park. This is the path where I was knocked over by a cyclist couple
who shouted "ON THE LEFT" because I had no idea which way to move.

You're not supposed to move, then, are you? "ON YOUR LEFT" is a warning to
let slower traffic know you're there. Just hold your line and the faster
cyclist will pass you. Am I wrong?

:
: "Maggie" wrote in message
:: Yesterday my husband and I were walking the multi-use path in Brookdale
: Park. This is the path where I was knocked over by a cyclist couple
: who shouted "ON THE LEFT" because I had no idea which way to move.


: You're not supposed to move, then, are you? "ON YOUR LEFT" is a warning to
: let slower traffic know you're there. Just hold your line and the faster
: cyclist will pass you. Am I wrong?
:
:
It's all about blame, doncha know. She is still trying to blame someone
else.