We used to have a cycling team ride in a local park, buzz by people, block cars from passing and piss them off. Then the drivers would yell at everyone else and buzz by us.

Our club president and representatives from other clubs had a discussion with their team manager. It stopped after that.

When we don a sponsor's jersey, we have an obligation to behave in a way that reflects positively on that sponsor. In past situations like this I've sent a note to the club President, and said that if it happened again the next letter would go to the team sponsor.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
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I would drop a note, my wife fell in a corner when a 'team' rider decided to swoop past with people coming the other way. He didn't stop (this was years ago) but other folks did. I was pulling my son in a Burly trailer we were just out for a nice family ride.

This is on the bike paths outside Sacramento (Natoma) and you have to be very aware of folks trying to PR.

Send a private message as the first salvo. If you can't catch them in person for a little chat.

Public social shaming is like phase 3.

I was hiking on a local trail once when a mountain biker came flying by so fast that I had to jump off the trail. By the time I was done, I saw the guy in the parking lot and confronted him. He apologized and said he was going for that Strava segment (or KOM......I don't use Strava so don't know the correct term). Luckily I'm fast enough that I could get out of the way. If my wife had been with me, or an older couple out hiking, then he would've ran right in to her/them. I told him this and also made it very clear I'd break his arm if I caught him doing this while my wife was with me

I would take it further. In Western Australia most bike paths are intended as shared paths for dogs, little kids on scooters, elderly getting some sun etc and cyclists, but it's not practical or safe to have guys on roadies doing anything more than 15mph. You do get guys flying along, it's crazy dangerous. I have no idea how someone hasn't been seriously injured. We do have other bike paths that are mostly for commuting, running alongside freeways and these are more suitable for faster riding.

If you were a cyclist why would you even be riding on a bike path. Bike paths are for walkers, joggers and people out of a meandering bike ride. Stupid.

Sure, I use them all the time on bike rides because they're often useful for getting to where I go to open the throttle. But when I'm on them I go "meandering pace."

People like that are reprehensible scum bags with no regard for anyone else.

Someone needs to have a “quiet word” with them.

Bike paths are not for bikes? That sounds a bit backwards. Where I grew up, bike paths are bikes and sidewalks are for walkers / runners.

I think he was making the distinction between "serious" cyclists trying to get a workout, and purely recreational cyclists.

Some bike paths are fine for both, e.g. the ones that are separate from sidewalks.

But "mixed use" bike paths are not appropriate for getting any kind of workout.

E.g. here's a mixed-used bike path near me. That is not for going more than about 10MPH.

That's called being a Stravasshole.

Mattr, Don't think you understand bike paths. There are bike paths and there are bike paths. The one I ride is 60 miles long. As soon as I am out of town 6 miles or so I can ride out and back on a weekday morning/afternoon ride and see maybe a rider or less an hour. I often do spadework on the path. Went to Chicago and rode Lakeshore Drive. Between dog walkers with long leashes, stroller moms three abreast, skaters, triathletes on the aerobars, and joggers with headphones it was hard to ride a beach cruiser at any touring speed. Some people don't get it and are arse holes most folks on our paths are pretty mellow. My pet peeve is the guys with train headlights at night blinding every head on user for half a mile upon contact. Come ride with me, the bike trails/paths are way safer than the roads. I am an old roadie from wayback and only manage 10% of my riding on a road anymore.

Much safer than riding the streets.

Everyone is basically speaking from their own bike paths, but for sure they vary.

You would never seriously train on the “bike paths” in nyc. But they connect north to 100+ miles of path that are perfectly well suited to very hard biking. Stretches are denser and close to town, and no one should bomb down those on a nice weekend day, but miles and miles are far less crowded and I’ve never endangered anyone by riding them at speed.

I’ve seen so many assholes and motherfuckers in groups rides. I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They don’t know how to respect people. I’m so sick of them. I always try to be nice to new people and people around me but number of assholes is just overwhelming.

We frequently ride the Silver Comet outside of Atlanta, which is a multi use path. The first 6 miles or so are easy warmup maneuvering around families, jogger, and pet walkers. We chat and are very courteous. Then it gets very empty and we can hammer to Alabama and beyond if we feel like it. Coming back the last 6 miles are cool down.

I used to do an evening ride, which used the Beltline in Atlanta for the first 3/4 of a mile. 12 to 20 of us would slowly cycle through the heavy traffic until we turned off. It was a way to get from the bike shop the ride started at to the main roads. That is one of the reasons it was built, to get to another place.

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"Remember: a bicycle is an elegant and efficient tool designed for seeking out and defeating people who aren't as good as you."

--BikeSnobNYC

Sounds like some of your bike paths are much less congested than our bike paths where I live. If yours are free of pedestrians than I see no reason not to use them for training, safer than being on the road. If they are frequented by walkers/joggers like the OP alluded too, and ours are, I see no good reason to use them for training.

For everyone engaging in the discussion about "bike path/trail" vs "path', simply look at the paths local by-laws. Here in the Greater Toronto Area, they are usually designed to be shared and have maximum speed limit of 20-25 kph. And yes, there are plenty of d-bags going way above the speed limit, 30 kph isn't too bad but going 40 kph is really dangerous. The suspects here aren't local pro/elite athletes, to my knowledge, but usually a bunch of middle aged crisis type on $10,000 road bikes who had just discovered the sport, they would go and sign up for a few races, get their butts kicked and give up on the sport after a couple of seasons.

Crashes/close calls occur of course, and this is always bad publicity for the cycling/triathlon community. I would definitely send an email to their coach/manager.

Almost as bad as the "Mark Cavendish" wannabes on the trails, are some of the running clubs during their organized runs, going 3-4 man wide blocking more than half the trail and forcing cycling traffic behind them to make dangerous passes on the left to overtake 20, often 30 runners at a time.

One thing you can certainly do is flag the cycling segments on your local multi use paths. That often puts an end to some of the fun, team "racer" wannabes or not. No shame in doing that either way.

This has been my experience. People walking with their friends/families and jogging in groups are much more likely to be issues than cyclists. I have no problem buzzing someone if they're 3 wide and taking up 2/3 of a trail. Especially when a walking or jogging group could easily use the grass next to the trail. A little self-awareness goes a long ways.

+1 Silver Comet multi-use path is made for riding like this. You just have to be patient. Now if you do this on the Beltline or Big Creek Greenway in Alpharetta you're just asking to hurt someone or someone's annoying little dog on an extended leash.

Beltline or Big Creek would be suicide. I have used Big Creek as a shortcut to get back to my car, but riding casually.

On the Silver Comet patient the first 6 miles, then pretty much wide open to Alabama state line, or even Anniston Alabama. If I see people near trail heads, we back off and I ring my bell so they know we are coming.

I knew a guy who took a kids helmet to his face when he was not patient on the Silver Comet. I think he expected a 9 year old to hold her line. The girl was okay. He had 100+ stitches to his face and a number of root canals and crowns.

We used to do the Pee on Alabama Ride. Part one was riding to the Alabama state line. Part three was riding back.

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"Remember: a bicycle is an elegant and efficient tool designed for seeking out and defeating people who aren't as good as you."

--BikeSnobNYC

Not always. We had a cyclist kill a walker doing exactly what the OP is describing.

Bike path is probably not the right term for what the OP has in mind. Here we call them "MUPs" for Multi-Use Path and they are much different that a normal path through the woods. They are wider, marked clearly with a centerline, and no sharp turns. You can hammer on those safely.

Here a bike path is in the street/road and no one is supposed to be in it except bicycles. In general you can hammer safely in those as well, but you have to watch for people that step into them without looking. Of course, you have to do the same thing on the side of the road here, so there probably isn't a lot of difference.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"