an unfortunate incident

[gnat23]

...I've approached walkers or in-line skaters and announce (in as nice a non-startling tone as possible) "on your left" the people actually move to their left...right in front of me.

I changed my phrase to "CYCLIST on your left" and that seems to help a bit.

I've been really annoyed with dog owners on the path who just let the little buggers run around without ANY control. I've yelled at some "Training or a leash, I don't care which, but USE ONE."

-- gnat! (There is the one guy whose dog is so well trained that he can tell it to sit from hundreds of yards away, and the pooch goes off the path and plops his butt down perfectly until I've gone by... this guy and dog gets my respect)

[beccaB]

I'm probably preaching to the Choir here, but ever since I saw a dog come after me and get hit by a car, I tell people who are in their yard when their dog chases me, how dangerous it is and what happened to me. I'm actually amazed that I've only seen it happen once, as much as people don't control their dogs.

[Thorn]

Gee, how spoiled am I? The MUP I use a lot has a mix of fast and slow cyclists, runners, joggers, walkers, skaters and dogs. All of the dog owners are amazing. Some have very obedient dogs that are right next to them on the grass, others pull their dogs over and practice "sit" and, like gnat's, one or two have the right tone of whistle. One whistle and plop that doggie sits--very cool to watch.

Of course, this trail also has well-behaved bikes, too. Rarely do you get a pair that won't single file when passed or when there is oncoming traffic. Parents actually teach their kids to ride to the right.

I won't, however, get started on ipods with the volume cranked.....

[shootingstar]

-- gnat! (There is the one guy whose dog is so well trained that he can tell it to sit from hundreds of yards away, and the pooch goes off the path and plops his butt down perfectly until I've gone by... this guy and dog gets my respect)

To match your example of a positively well-trained dog, I was cycling to get onto a multi-use path from road. At the corner, a walking dog-owner yelled at her dog (on leash): "BIKE".

And the dog stopped and moved over aside to let me through.

Something so rare as that, deserves a videotaping for the record!