Tailgated by other cyclist!!

[SouthernBelle]

I assume you are just kidding about this.
You can't spray people with pepper spray because they verbally harass or taunt you or purposely block your path....good way to get shot, arrested, or sued!

No $#@^. I've practicing law for 27 years and didn't know that.

[bikerz]

Great posts by onimty and Lisa S.H.

There is a wonderful 20+ mile MUT here that runs along the edge of the San Francisco Bay - I love it and I ride it frequently. It is one of the few places around here where you can ride 20 or 30 miles of completely flat terrain. And when it heats up in the summer, the Bay Trail is always pleasant and cool.

On weekend afternoons, parts of it can be congested and tricky to navigate, and with one of the most popular dog parks in the area right off the trail, it can take a great deal of attention, communication and balance to safely navigate dogs, kids, and grownups, of the both the annoyingly clueless and politely attentive varieties.

I've ranted plenty of times about MUT irritations - nothing wrong with that (and thank goodness I've never had an experience like the one Jenn described - scary!), but I find that changing my attitude has calmed me down quite a bit. I agree with onmity that on bike trails like the Bay Trail, bikes should yield to others, and when I go out with that as my default mode, I enjoy myself a lot more. When I ride the Bay trail, I try to get in that "Bay Trail zone" - with a lot of smiling, waving, and "thank-yous", often riding slower than I would like, and occasionally having to unclip suddenly because other people aren't paying enough attention to me. But if I'm on the Bay Trail on a weekend afternoon, I know that's what I've signed up for, in exchange for the great views, cool breeze, and the lack of cars and intersections.

And, on cold, foggy, windy days (like most of our summer ), or super-early on a Sunday morning, you can practically have the whole trail to yourself, which is real treat!

[Geonz]

I do tha tmental gear shift on our paths, too... and it reminds me that this is how so many people perceive cycling, which is why they have difficulty comprehending why we "aren't satisfied" with "perfectly good bike paths." (One fellow on our bicycling/pedestrian commission wanted to know why we wanted the speed limit not to be raised on one stretch because he couldn't understand why cyclists should have "the right to make cars slow down, so they could go as fast as they wanted." I explained that that's what complete streets were about - making roads work for *all* users, not just automobile drivers.) It's fun ... but it's not particularly efficient and at times, not safe.
Then there are some of our paths that are just a mess, but that's another story...