Sunday, August 26 Rides

[jobob]

Uh oh, I think maybe I should've clarified...the joggers & pedestrians who were not moving over were oncoming towards us...we were not coming up behind them. They were facing us. So they were in the lane I need to be riding in, walking towards me, looking right at me. If I come up behind someone, I definitely call out that I'm passing, hang back, thank them when/if they do move over, etc. But when there are 4 people walking abreast on the path coming towards me, they can clearly see me, they are taking up the entire lane, and I literally have no place to go because there is oncoming bike traffic, then I think they should move over. I thought that was how the who-yeilds-to-who thing worked. But if I'm off base here, then I definitely should just stay on the roads! It was just a very frustrating ride. And I'm sure the joggers were very frustrated as well. I am perfectly happy to share the trail with pedestrians, joggers, dogs, rollerbladers, etc. And I do dumb and oblivious things all the time. But I just wish people would pay a little more attention. It's a bummer because I know everyone out there was trying to enjoy a really nice day.

Hey sara - I misunderstood what you were saying, I'm sorry I was lecturing you like that.

I ride on a paved multi-use trail near me (the Alameda Creek Trail) and sometimes I see very impatient, impolite cyclists. They're the ones I should be lecturing!

Sometimes I'll see an older person walking along the trail, holding a walking stick or a length of PVC pipe, carrying it horizontally. I cringe when I see that because I figure that person must have been buzzed too close by a cyclist in the past. I give that person (and everyone else) a wide berth and give him a cheery hello as I pass (after I've also called out well in advance if I'm approaching from behind).

I figure I need to do my best to give cyclists who use the trail some postive PR to counteract the occasional doofus.

Anyhow, I was dumping my frustration on you and that was really unfair of me. Sorry!

Oh, but don't get me wrong, I get really annoyed as well at the people who walk four-abreast across the path heading towards me and not one of them can be bothered to step aside just a leetle bit to let me get by. My smile gets REALLY LARGE as I slooowly approach them. gah.