Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
The "real breakdown" is not closing the path, signs or no signs, it's allowing cars where they aren't normally allowed. Every one of those drivers is now going to think of that bike path - and all bike paths - as a short cut they can take whenever they don't notice any bikes. Enough motor vehicles wind up on the bike paths already - just last week two people on an ATV and the cyclist they hit on the bike path were all life-flighted.

That's the problem, IMO. This isn't like closing Main Street for a parade - it's like having a horse show on the interstate.

I don't agree. I think it's fine to allow cars where they aren't normally allowed (or horses on interstates for that matter) as long as there's plenty of warning to the people who normally use that path about the change. Closing the path for the show would be fine, or just providing warning several days in advance and signage the day of the event to tell cyclists to walk through the area. It's not as if these were just any old drivers allowed to drive on the bike path and park there--these were people who brought in their cars for a charity car show. I don't think people who park in the parking lot at shopping malls think that they can park inside the mall just because there's a display of cars there sometimes.

Interstates are often shut down to allow the the roads to be used for other events. In our area, the main expressway going downtown is shut down once a year to allow bikers, joggers and rollerbladers to use it for the morning. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is also shut down once a year for walkers to go across it. No one thinks that it's o.k. to walk or bike on these roads the rest of the year. I don't think show car owners are any more clueless than bikers and walkers. Not usually, that is.

The failure here was in not properly warning path users about the change. What they did was inconsiderate and potentially dangerous, and clearly someone screwed up (assuming they had a permit--without a permit it's another matter entirely) in not notifying the public about this event.

Sarah