Dual use paths, or get out of the fucking way, idiot!

Here in Lovely Alameda, we have a couple bike/ped paths, one of which goes along the beach with a great view of San Francisco. Needless to say, this 2.5 mile stretch is quite popular, and the road next to it one of the busiest in town.

I like to ride here, as I am entitled to, for the same reasons all these turd fondler pedestrians do. But it would be nice if said turd fondlers used a little common sense, like moving out of the way when I yell to signal my approach, or better yet, not walk in the CENTER of the bloody path- which it would be if I didn’t veer into the parking lane or up onto the dunes, or slam on my brakes while cussing at you and your daft progeny. What’s really great are the whole families of nimrods, with strollers to boot, which (who?) take up the entire width, can’t decide which way to move, and only do so at the last possible moment- especially when they’re coming at you, therefore leading one to believe that they might notice a screaming 6’9" person more than a yard away. Sometimes I feel guilty in a Darwinian sense for not removing these fart knockers and their feeble spawn from the population. Not operating a motor vehicle (even if it is that slick '84 Monte Carlo with the DIY window tint) doesn’t absolve Johnny Spunknugget and crew of slowwits from being responsible for their own safety. Jesus H. baldheaded Christ! I’m not asking for a single file line on the extreme edge, but a modicum of forethought when using the path. I realize they are probably using most of their puny brain to compare the relative strengths of the Rock vs Triple H, or perhaps whether they should use paper or plastic bags the next time they try auto-asphyxiation while jerking off, but c’mon, it isn’t exactly a mind stretching idea. Like, for instance, bathing with soap, or the fact that sex makes babies.

Once people start making fuck trophies, all bets are off.

BTW, if I wuz 6’9", I think I’d be a bully. Yeah!

I feel your pain, GD.

Mr. Pug and I are over here in the south bay area, Morgan Hill to be exact, and we use the Coyote Creek bike trail. Just this last Wednesday morning, we rode up behind a roller blader who had head phones on. Of course, this meant she couldn’t hear our signals. We both have loud bells on our bikes, and in addition we shout “passing on your left!” I guess the music she was listening to was trance-inducing, because she was swooping back and forth on both sides of the trail, kind of waving her arms like a conductor on thorazine, and forced us up onto the unpaved shoulder in order to pass her. Jerk!

And don’t get me started about people who park their bikes cross-wise on the bike path so they can chat!

Yeah, right. You’re totally sick, dude!
Zette

last time I checked one sign of intellegence was the ability to COMUNICATE ideas in ways that others could understand…you know like Hawkings unbelievably popular book on physics who title I cannot for the life of me remember atm.
oh yeah and he spelled characterised wrong.

uh dont ask me how that last post got in this thread…I had to go looking ot find it and I never even opened this thread, at least I dont think I did.

Rollerbladers on bike paths = morons.

The swing across both lanes, they are out of control due to the lack of any brakes, and half of them where headphones so they cannot even here you.

A pox on the rollerbladers says I. :smiley:

The lakefront path in chicago is especially bad for this.

-me

Critical1? It’s a little petty to pick on people’s grammar, spelling and punctuation except when they themselves are grammar, spelling or punctuation Nazis. So; you misspelt intelligence, communicate and several others which can be put down to typos.

You rarely capitalised in the correct place and you missed the apostrophe in Hawkings’ name. Otherwise, I understood where you were going with it. :smiley:

A Brief History of Time is probably the book whose name you forgot.

There is one thing worse than rollerbladers on a bike path, and that is…the Frankinstein rollerbladers. You know the ones who have never even been rollerblading before, wearing large black fruitboots, they got their arms outstretched, wobbling back and forth, scaring little children. And you know that horrible creation is going to collapse as you pass it. RUN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!

Sadly, idiots come upon all sorts of conveyances, be they legs, wheels or little itty-bitty wheels on boots.

As a hiker, I find myself on a lot of mixed use trails. I’m amazed at hikers who seem oblivious to bikes, bikers who think they own the trail and should be able to ride as fast as they want, and people who don’t understand that a horse is a living thing that gets frightened and can seriously fuck you up if it really wants to. People in general need a healthy dose of common courtesy.

I see a lot of these creatures on the paths:

RollerBladus Oblivious WHy is it that Rollerbladers think they can get away with wearing heaedphones? Cyclists don’t bceasue of the speed and alertness, joggers can get away with because of their low speed and predicatbility. But 90% of rollerbladers have the headphones cranked. and are powersweeping through most of the lane. (Solution: I pass on the left and yell “ON YOUR LEFT” for the third tiem where they can’t avoid hearing it. My anger might just make them turn down the volume. THe nasty look helps.)

Rollerbladus Binarus Two joggers = 1/2 trail, Two bicyclsts = 1/2 trail. 2 Rollerbladers = 7/8 of trail.

Waddler Strollerus Can’t people push their strollers in a straight line?

Packus Cylochild This is the group of small children on bikes that are much to big for them. They travel in groups of 4-8, block the paths when they stop. Their eyes are never on the path ahead of them, but rather the center of mass of the pack. Their behavior is often atrocious. Once I was following a packlet of hes kids and was preparing to pass when they decided that groping at jogger as the flew by was a fun thing to do. That jogger go the pleasure of seeing me apply some vigilante justice as I hammered them over with stiff arms and couple of kicks. I think I got three all told. No pity for the as their poor skills would have had them running up against me as I passed.

When biking or blading I’ve taken to not giving any warning so that the people I am passing do not have a chance to do anything unexpected.

Long retractable dog leashes are the second worst. Shout “TRACK” and inevitably the dog will go to one side and the person to the other, with the leash strung out like a trip-wire.

The worst, though, is cars. London, Ontario, has an extensive trail network (I used to commute cross-town on it when I lived there), but one of the nicest sections, where the trail is wide enough to let you really rip without worrying about other trail users, also permits cars. I kid you not. They putt-putt along so as to not disturb the pedestrians, blocking your way, or they try to rush through and get on your ass for being in their way. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I see no one has mentioned my favorites. To borrow Mr. Miskatonic’s naming scheme:

Strollerus Binarus The bane of every trail - those five feet wide double-strollers that create an instant traffic jam. I run on the Stevens Creek Trail near my office in Mtn View, and they’re all over the place. The trail simply isn’t wide enough for them, yet they don’t care. Get a “triple” out there, and you may as well queue up behind them.

Dawdilus Avianicus. Slow walking birdwatchers that come to a complete stop at the presence of any waterfowl, and raise the binoculars. Most effective when they stop directly on the other side of a blind corner.

Cyclists Turbonicus Leading candidates for competitive couple of the year, racing each other down the trail at 20 MPH on their high speed fancy-pants racing bikes. Congratulations on your perfect lives, now slow the fuck down!!!

I’m so glad that there are other people out there who are as annoyed by multi-use path idiots as I am. I had to commute (walking) to downtown Calgary on some lovely paths that were marred by the jackasses using them. My pet peeves were the “pass me so close and so fast that my clothes were blown away from me” bikers, the “come up from nowhere and pass me so close I jump out of my skin” rollerbladers, and other walkers who passed me so closely my swinging hand would touch them. Okay, so I need a lot of personal space - it’s still not very safe to get so close to other users while passing on these paths. Especially since very few of them used warnings of any kind.

(One of my fondest memories of these paths was one morning when I saw a biker getting a speeding ticket from a bike cop. Wheeee!)

Every day on my ride to work I encounter much the same thing Great Dave describes. Except that I ride on a bike path, not a dual use path. There is a pedestrian path running parallel to it, and about 15 feet away. But, for some unfathomable reason, most of the idiot pedestrians use the bike path instead. Joggers I could understand, as the pedestrian path is often concrete, while the bike path is asphalt, which I understand is better to run on. There’s no excuse for the goddam dog-walkers and the packs of high schoolers walking together, though. I just can’t understand it.

Luckily, I’m never riding through when the inline skaters are out in force(I ride through between 8:30 and 9:00 AM and again usually sometime after 9:00 PM, and perhaps as late as 2:00 AM).

The examples stated above is the reason that I have a 110 decible bike horn, works wonders. :smiley:

Yep, another cycle commuter with a headache checking in.

What I really hate is that if you say anything, or even hintthat someone is being a track hogging arsehole, one usually receive an earful of bad language.

My trick is to ensure that I have really seriously noisy brakes which I suddenly and pointedly jam on just before I would otherwise slam into some track hog wally. I make sure my face is absolutely blank, and I say nothing.

This makes my point surprisingly well.

I’ll never forget the roller blader from hell I came across one night. Wearing all black, from head to foot, on a very dark path, no lights, and headphones turned up so loud I could hear. Not only that he’s swinging right down the middle of the path totally blocking both lanes. So I go off onto the grass to go around him, and say nothing, because I know that people like that, it’s just not worth it.

But then a bit after that I slowed down to let my wife catch up to me, and this blader catches me up and boy does he have a guilty conscience and a chip on his shoulder, because apropos of nothing, he says, “You got a problem with me , mate?” in a very aggressive tone.

So I just say, “Why do you think I would?” which stumps him and he mutters “Fuckwit” under his breath and wanders off. Jerk.

My favourite is the huge family group which spreads itself all over the trail, toddlers wobbling and dribbling, with the alpha bitch den mother who shrieks, “Slow down!” at the cyclist who is just barelycreeping through, steering carefully through the morass of idiot flesh. I really think these people would only be happy if the cyclists got off their bikes and walked them, it’s the only way the guy could have gone any slower. Right at the top of a beautiful hill, too. I felt so much sympathetic pique I almost punted one of the drooling rugrats of the trail. But then I’d lose my “Good Person” membership card. Same kind of brats who run up to my dog and stick their dirty little fingers in his eyes and nose, though, so I was sorely tempted.
It seems as if some people at the Redwood area up here think that bikers are evil, but everything they bitch about is easily solved by just being aware. It makes me wish for a lively mountain lion population to thin out these blithering idiots. It’s an utterly domesticated, heavily traveled multi-use trail, not a treadmill at the gym. Pay attention to where you are, where your dog is, where other people are–it’s not that hard. I walk my dog there and have never had a problem, but still people complain. Up here you can get a heavy fine if you pass without warning someone or with “excessive speed.” But the real hooligans are the jerks who don’t pick up after their dogs. Damn, that’s disgusting–especially if your own dog is a fecal eater with a fondness for giving kisses.

Another one:

Avianus Pathus Feedus Why, oh why can’t some people be bothered to feed the geese down by the riverbank? This was mostly a problem in Philly on West River Drive. Folk would get out of their car, walk 6 feet to the path and start feeding the geese. Never mind that they would atttract a horde of geese on a multi use trail. Not to mention the birdshit left behind. Next time walk 10 feet and feed 'em on the grass!