Bike Paths are for Bikes, too

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

I commute from between Alewife/Davis on the bike path. It's only 8 minutes, but almost everyday I find myself incredibly frustrated after the ride.

-If biker says "ON YOUR LEFT," it means that you should move to the right, s/he is not asking you to move to the left.
-Stay on the right side of the path. This particular section of the path does not have a line down the middle, but the rule still applies.
-LEASH YOUR DOGS. Today a German shepard, no leash, charged a small dog on a leash and I almost ran over them both. I said, "Please put your dog on a leash," and a pedestrian had the nerve to say "actually, it was the one ON the leash that got in your way." That is not the point. The German shepard should not be able to scare the small dog from so far away.
-If wearing headphones, either play the music at the level so that you can hear biker's warnings when passing, or make sure you stay to the right of the path at all times. It's very dangerous to be in the middle of a bike path when you can't hear any warnings. This goes for other bikers/rollerblade-rs, etc.
-Please don't walk side-by-side, blocking the entire path. Share.

And for bikers:
-Wear a helmet. You look dorkier without.
-Bike on the right side of the path! A biker should know better!
-Use lights if biking at night
-Please, please, please use hand signals

I would love to encourage others to commute by bike. It is better for your health, better for our environment, and should be more enjoyable than being stuck on a bus or train. But without cooperation from all bike path users, commuting by bike becomes a pain in the neck. It's really a shame. (and then there's biking in traffic--which is another realm, I won't get into that now..)

In light of the recent post re: one way street, I wish there is a way to tag the folks that do not follow bike path rules. :\

Please share the path!!
http://www.minutemanbikeway.org/Pages/guidelines.html

Comments

[entrochan.livejournal.com]

A personal favorite: Dogs *on* leashes. Dog on one side of the path, person holding leash on the other.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

Rollerblade-rs with dogs on leashes taking up the whole path: deathtraps, as far as I'm concerned.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

And between Davis and Cedar, dogs are technically not allowed, making those sorts of people that much more annoying...

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

my sympathy--your commute sounds as frustrating as many people who have to drive to work. boston is just too crowded (with too many unmindful people).

[alphacygni]

To be fair to us pedestrians, bikers often fail to shout their intentions until they're right on your tail, and sometimes a bellow of "LEFT!" is enough to make me freeze in startled confusion for a second until I figure out what it means, by which time I've been run down or yelled at.

I've also often wondered what hearing-impaired pedestrians are supposed to do. It seems like a highly imperfect system. Ideally, there would be room for both modes. But there hardly ever is.

[jadelennox]

I feel like sticking to the right side of the line is usually good enough; the cyclists can pass except on the crowdedest of sunny days.

[alphacygni]

True. My experience with that problem has mostly been on sidewalks in Cambridge, actually, not on the bike path.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

And really, the bikes shouldn't be on the sidewalks.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely correct; bikes should NOT be on a sidewalk. Especially busier sections of town(Davis/Central/Harvard, etc), it is illegal for bikers to be on the sidewalk. Other areas (with less foot traffic), bikes are allowed on the sidewalk, but they are NOT to pass pedestrians -- they must ride at walking speed.

On the bike path, a good cyclist will always pass on your left, because the rule is for all traffic to stay on the right and pass on left. This is why it becomes confusing and dangerous if people walk on both sides of the path.

So if you are on a sidewalk and find that bikers are racing past you and catching you off guard (and there's no reason for anyone to be rude to you), feel free to tell the biker to "GET OFF THE SIDEWALK!" They're the ones breaking the law! :)

[penguin42.livejournal.com]

My experience on the bike path was about 1 biker slowing down and warning me he was going to pass for every 20-30 bikers who zipped right past me, scaring the shit out of me, sometimes dodging between several people.

Bikes doing what they're supposed to do is so rare that I can see why pedestrians don't bother following the "rules" either.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound like a smart-assed question but it's not -- it's a matter of genuine curiosity -- why are you scared when people pass you at high speeds? Is it purely a matter of the speed? Is it that you don't know they were coming? Is it that people are also passing you extremely close, or moving very fast when the path is crowded? Are you always scared when people pass you quickly, or are you only scared when their speed seems too fast for safety given the crowdedness of the path?

I ask because I've never found it frightening to be passed on the bike path. I've sometimes been angry at people that I think are acting imprudently, but I don't find it scary and I don't understand why other people find it scary.

(I've spent a fair amount of time on the Minuteman as both pedestrian and cyclist, so I've seen both sides of this story.)

[jaubertmoniker.livejournal.com]

I know you weren't asking me, but I have to say that cyclists passing me at high speeds tends to be a pretty freaky thing. Because even without headphones, without outside noise, cyclists are pretty quiet. Something traveling at speeds upwards of 10-15 mph mere inches from my person can be kinda unnerving.

Keep in mind, of course, that I am not talking about all cyclists. I am talking about the cyclists who zoom on their way without warning. But as a poster above has noted, often those who do "warn" only do so with a cursory shout that is frightening and unexpected in and of itself.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Are you unnerved by cyclists passing quickly, say, a foot or two away? Are you unnerved by cyclists that you do hear in advance? (The hearing thing is part of what puzzles me, because bikes are quiet but they're not silent, and I've *never* been surprised to be passed -- I always have a fair estimate of speed and closing time before bikes pass me, based on what I hear. I don't think I have unusually good hearing, either. So I find it very odd that other people seem to be surprised when they are passed.)

[stariel25]

I'm especially unnerved when I'm walking, on the sidewalk, on the right side and a biker HITS me trying to squeeze between me and the wall of a building while I walk around a telephone pole. For that reason (I've been hit by bikers a couple of times) it's quite unnerving to have bikers pass a foot away while riding fast, especially when they don't give warning.

I've also found that a lot of bikers either don't warn at all, or bellow "LEFT!" 3 seconds before they whiz past.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I file this under the above -- "bikers shouldn't be on the sidewalk" (unless we're talking little kids who are slow-moving anyway). Feel free to maim these people.

Regarding passing

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

-Bikers absolutely should not be on the sidewalk in busy section of the town, and should not pass on sidewalks, ever, because they must ride at walking speed
-when passing on left (on a bikepath), they should go into the on-coming traveling lane, leaving enough space between you and the bike (about 4-6 ft) so it dosen't surprise you. If there is traffic in the on-coming lane, they should slow down enough until they can pass slowly/safely.
-when on a bike, 3 seconds before passing is about 30-50 ft. My experience is that most people never hear me until I'm 5 ft behind them, I usually end up having to holler at the top of my lungs, multiple times. This may sound like bellowing, or even frantic screaming, in my case. :)
-Re: post about getting a bell--WONDERFUL idea.

I understand that most bikers are just as bad as pedestrians, and there are pedestrians that do follow bike path rules. My goal is to talk about the rules enough so that more people learn them and practice them more often. I could easily have said "well, fuck it, no other biker is doing this." but breaking the law just becase the majority is...doesn't help the situation.
Again -- leashing pets and keeping eyes on children (thanks for the remdiner, ukelele) is especially important. Because a bike can cause very serious injuries (even death) to those smaller beings! Nobody wants that to happen.

Dogs also a problem for pedestrians

[cybermonk.livejournal.com]

I've had similar problems with dogs on the bikepath, and I just walk a short portion of the bikepath from my neighborhood to the Davis square T. There's one particular old guy who owns a rottweiler that I've never seen on a leash. I don't think he even carries one. I've seen it charge other dogs, several cats that live in my neighborhood, and even charged at me once. When I commented "that dog should be on a leash" to him after the dog charged at me, the guy replied "oh, well, he don't like being on a leash." I'm sorry. I don't give a fuck what your dog likes! It's common fucking sense to leash your dog, and it's the *law*. Train your dog to be on a leash. You're supposed to be the one in control. The only saving grace of that one dog is that the stupid thing is fat and old. If it serously tried to attack me or many other dogs, it'd probably either have a heart attack or get its ass kicked.

Not to mention that many people don't bother picking up their dog's shit...

Personally, I love dogs. Seeing people who endanger their dog's health and the safety of everyone else around them just aggravates me.

Most bikers on the path don't give any sort of warning that they are passing me, but then, I'm usually keeping far to the right, and check behind me before I cross the path to get to the path to my street, so I'm not overly upset by that.

I've found that on the outlying stretches of the bike path (Arlington and Lexington), where I tend to ride my bike recreationally, the worst problems tend to come from Lance Armstrong wannabes who refuse under all circumstances to slow down when coming to congestion on the path. More than once I've nearly been run off the path when one (or a pack of them) of them decides to pass someone on a bike who is passing a group of walkers/joggers/rollerbladers this playing chicken with me who is riding in the opposite direction. Double passing is a really stupid thing to do. I'm sorry if you have to break cadence, but that's life. Use your brakes... that's what they're on your bike for.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

You should join bostoncycling and post this there, too.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I love you.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Oh, and let me add --

WATCH YOUR CHILDREN, TOO.

Thanks. I really don't want to run over anyone's toddler. You'd think parents love their children and wish to protect them, and yet!

(As for biking in traffic, I tend to find it safer and more congenial than biking on the path, now that I've gotten to be an adequate biker. Alas. But at least all the drivers theoretically know the rules.)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

all the drivers theoretically know the rules

*confused* Are you still talking about Boston?

:)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I didn't say they followed them...

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

I agree! my previous commute to work from Belmont was mostly in traffic, and it was much more peaceful. Most cars don't stop in the middle of the road and stay there, expecting others to go around them; they stay on the correct side of the road, they turn their lights on at night, the basic stuff. On the bike path, I've seen both pedestrians and bikers stop in the middle of the path, checking on their vehicles/kids/pets/just talking.
To be fair--Belmont to West Cambridge biking is much easier than being on the road in Boston, but my experience is that if you pretend to be a car and *follow driving laws*, then riding is not so bad.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

i would like to add that in addition to bicyclists saying "on your left" at the last minute, (which is understandable since they shouldn't have to yell), that it would be extremely helpful if they just used/had a bell. if they're coming into an area where there are a lot of pedestrians on the path, then ringing their bell would be a great early warning that they're approaching.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I never really understood the bell thing. It seems to me that I can communicate much more information (eg the side I am going to be passing on) with my voice. And, if pedestrians are paying little enough attention that I *need* to warn them to avoid a collision, I often find they don't know the rules of the road and thus *also* need to be told which way to go.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

used together, it's very effective. ring your bell, i know you're approaching; announce your intentions "on the left" or whatever, and pass me.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

Sing on.

I'd also like to suggest that you not ride/roller blade and talk on a cellphone at the same time while swerving back and forth across the entire path. or roller blade three abreast.

There are signs with basic rules. Follow them. Common courtesy, please.