insulinpower wrote:
At the risk of sounding like one myself, you may already be approaching the mark by being intentionally and unnecessarily antagonistic toward other trail users.
"Multi-use trail" means exactly that - that the trail is there for the use of multiple users. That includes dog walkers, rollerbladers, senior citizens with walkers, families pushing baby carriages, toddlers on push bikes, skateboarders, e-scooter users, bird watchers, muscle flexers, drunk hobos, recumbents, squirrels, seagulls, lost cats,and so much more.
So, cyclists, being a "vehical," and typically the fastest moving object on the path, own the responsibility of ensuring that *they* avoid slower obstacles. And if they find that too frustrating, then they should really find somewhere else to ride, rather than risking causing injury to others and spewing rage because "idiots" are interfering with their right to get their heart rate up.
I live this scenario multiple times a day. I live on the waterfront, where some days it seems half the city is out using it and COVID has only creating more intensification and experience first hand the aggression "fitness users," and cyclists in particular, throw at other users.
I also have had the experience this year of going from being one of those obese, hobbling, slow walkers, to cycling and running again. So, not only have I received my fill of abuse, and handlebar hits, and near high-speed misses from "my tribe," I've also had to re-evaluate my own trail usage with returning to training and now only cycle on the road and run on the grass if the pavement is too crowded.
As an aside - I don't normally crow about my achievements or rub other people's noses in it, but one day I was so pissed-off with a tri cyclist on the trail that I let him have it. I had just started riding again after injury and was on my upright hybrid on a particularly busy day. A tri guy on full aero bike and aero helmet (but was carrying more than a few extra pounds and wearing a charity ride jersey...) had approached from behind and was increasingly verbal at not being able to pass. At a light he pulled alongside, and yelled "Why don't you get the f*k off the trail and make room for the REAL cyclists???!!!" So, I pointed to my IM tattoo and yelled back, "Hey a-hole, when you've got one of these, I'll consider YOU a real cyclist...!"
Apologies for the long winded, lecturing pomposity but I've had it up to here with finess entitlement. Calm youself in traffic or find another route.
Most trail rules state staying to your right half of the trail to allow other users to safely pass while following the rules and speed limits themselves. If someone has to announce to the point of exhaustion or an angry exasperation, it may very well be the case that YOU are the one violating the rules.
Also, "real cyclist" might have been some kind of weird flex for that guy. Sure. But it sounds like something was going on there for the ugly to come out. If you were on the right half with whoever you were with per the rules, maybe he was super impatient having to wait for a gap to pass. Or, if he had the gaps......that means some dimwit wasn't holding their lane on the trail.
Since selfish people like to string out all over trails like that, I don't use them except to run during very off-peak times. No more bike on the MUP for me. I would toss the dog into the bike basket for a slow cruise on the trail at our house if these people weren't walking 10-wide like teenagers in a shopping mall. I just don't feel like slowing from 8mph to 2mph to toddle around folks in the dirt because they can't obey the rules and stay right.
We have a greenway on the other side of the creek to our backyard. We see people all the time when we're home.
Honestly, a lot of the "angry elite cyclist or runner" stuff propagated in this topic simply is NOT what I've actually observed in the 5 years of living on such a trail. Not just living near one...........living ON it. It is the minority situation everybody remembers. Just like the only reviews online are often angry folks showing up to vent.
The top angry encounters I've seen from our backyard:
-Some trash dirt bike kid riding on the MUP and cussing at people. He genuinely almost hit and really upset a group of ladies walking together..........I saw it, then listened to the motor and casually rode my bike past the kid's house without stopping to collect the address for the cops when I called......never saw that little fuck on a dirtbike again on the MUP.
-There's a brainless woman who treats the trail as her 10 dog-pack off leash dog park. Fuck that woman. I've had numerous issues with her and have heard other trail users get in arguments with her from my back yard while I'm doing lawn work. It's bad if I can hear more than one argument behind the house about the same person. When I run while my kids ride with me, they've almost crashed because one of her furballs almost hit one of them.
-99.9% of the time........the Strava KOM asshole that passes through is alone and it is low-volume.
The IM tattoo thing is a weird flex yourself. I'm not sure what makes a real cyclist. Sure, an IM athlete could make a good TT rider. Could. It takes a lot of assumptions to make your "flex" work. A significant amount of IM folks are "finishing time" participants. That doesn't make for a good road racer or TT racer or cyclocross racer at all. I like doing TT's. Doesn't mean I could do an IM though.