Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
Slowing down is preparatory to coming to a complete stop if necessary. No, you aren't going to hit anyone if you're paying attention, and riding at a safe speed for the conditions and your skills. Yes, it's a PITA having to ride at 10 mph for most of the path and 2 mph when you're approaching pedestrians who don't acknowledge you. It must be a HUGE PITA when a long stretch of path is your only way to get out of town and onto roads that you can actually ride. (BTDT and glad I don't have to now. But the short stretch of path I do sometimes ride, I think of as an interval workout. You can accelerate pretty hard from 2 mph back up to 10-15. )

Even though the rider who hit that woman in the other thread wasn't cited, it was still their fault. The rider/driver/even runner overtaking always has the responsibility to avoid whatever is in front of them. Would you want the rule to be any different if you were the one being rear-ended?

Remember that while many collisions are not the "fault" of the bicyclist, there are few that the bicyclist couldn't have avoided or prevented. (Rear-end collisions aren't completely excepted, either, since lane positioning, visibility, and appropriate choice of road can eliminate many of these.) As soon as you start thinking that collisions are inevitable, you stop trying to prevent them.


(And no, I don't believe it's that quiet in the west, but people's responses seem to indicate that drivers and pedestrians mostly behave appropriately w/r/t bicyclists... and I did say mostly, being fully aware of some recent road rage incidents)
This.

I always ride with the expectation that the pedestrian (or other cyclist for that matter) on the MUT is going to jump out in front of me and stop cold. If the path is too crowded for quick dodge maneuvers (and frequently it is) then I'm riding slow enough, with enough of a gap, to come to a complete stop.

Crashes aren't inevitable, but riding such that they are avoidable is frequently boring and annoying and requires full focus and awareness. IMO that's just something one has to deal with, even if that means the only safe way to get through an area of the path is to ride 2mph or get off and walk.