The BIKE path is for people on BIKES. That is why it is called the BIKE path!

The BBQ Pit
1

Oh, very well, I acknowledge it’s confusing. Yes, people wearing inline skates, on recumbent bikes, those little scooter thingies, etc., are also allowed on bike paths.

YOU, however, are NOT. That is because you are PEDESTRIANS. People on foot are NOT allowed on bike paths. That is what makes them BIKE paths: they are NOT FOR PEDESTRIANS. Just like pedestrian sidewalks are not for bikes, which is why I’m on the BIKE PATH.

Yes, you, asshole, you’re on foot. I realize you’re walking your bike. That’s the whole problem. If you’re not riding your bike, get off the path. Some of us are RIDING OUR BIKES. That means we’re going FAST. MOVE YOUR ASS.

Yes, you, you great gaggle of galoots. Get on the sidewalk that is RIGHT FUCKING THERE. You do NOT need to be in the BIKE path, which is for BIKES. You ESPECIALLY do not need to be taking up the WHOLE bike path, blocking my view and damn near getting me into a head-on collision because you’ve got your HEAD UP YOUR ASS.

Hey, you moseying twerps: we’re in a PARK. YES, you may walk on the TWENTY-METRE WIDE STRETCH OF GRASS. NO, you may not walk on the BIKE path. It is for BIKES.

Having said that bike paths are for people on wheels, here are two sets of people on wheels who should not be on the bike path:

  1. The people in motorized wheelchairs who were riding two abreast. Sure, you can be on the bike path but NOT TWO ABREAST; that’s the PASSING LANE, you twits, and I don’t want to swerve into traffic so as not to head-on collide with you. That would be a ROAD next to us (at this point.) With cars. Cars coming the opposite direction are not healthy for cyclists and other living things. Neither are cyclists coming in YOUR direction, who cannot pass you because you’re TAKING UP THE WHOLE FUCKING PATH. GO IN SINGLE FILE.

  2. those idiots who were TAKING FUCKING PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THEIR BIKES. I’m an amateur photographer too, and I sometimes go on photography expeditions on my bike, and I, believe it or not, dismount the bike and get off the path! Christ, do you have instructions on your toilet paper too?!

The thing that blows my mind is that half the time, the people walking on the bike paths are going in the direction of the lane; they’ve assimilated the rules enough to follow one that WOULD apply to them if they were on the PROPER FUCKING PATH. So if you can tell the lane that goes this way from the lane that goes that way, what’s so damn hard about realizing that this is the draws breath GODDAMN, FRAGGLE-RAPING BIKE PATH?!

This has been Friendly Tips from Matt on Distinguishing Bike Paths with Pedestrian Areas. Next week, the difference between that fleshy thing you sit on and shit from, and the knobby things on your arm just below the end of your monogrammed polo shirt sleeves. SNEAK PREVIEW: ONE IS YOUR ASS, THE OTHER’S YOUR ELBOW.

2

I’ve been going nuts lately. People walk their dogs on bike paths, and let their kids sit and play on them. And the kicker is that the part of the path I use most often HAS A SIDEWALK on the other side of the street, not 15 feet away!

3

I’m sure it’s very annoying. Just as annoying as cyclists who ride on normal footpaths, causing mayhem among the pedestrians.

4

Yes, that would be why I said:

5

matt… I am confused. Who are bike paths for?
~escapes~

6

This is the exact same rant I was going to write last night, only much more colorful.

Can we add one bit, though?

Although the BIKE PATH is primarily for BIKES, we will expand the definition to allow for rollerbladers, as long as they are traveling more or less at BIKE speed.

However, this does not mean that BIKE PATH etiquette allows for rollerbladers to skate five abreast, thereby preventing anyone from passing in either direction. Nor, on one of the most crowded summer weekends (during Taste of Chicago with major music acts headlining), does that mean even BIKERS should ride five abreast or at 50 mph.

Also, if your small child is not too steady on two wheels and hasn’t grasped the concept of signalling before turning, this is probably not a good weekend to introduce him/her to the mysteries of the BIKE PATH. Then again, what could we expect from a parent who also hadn’t grasped the concept of signalling before turning across oncoming traffic. No friggin’ helmet on mom or kid, either. (And this on a path where a pedestrian died of severe head injuries a couple of years ago because he didn’t pay attention before walking across the BIKE PATH.)

7

Ah, I recall this sort of thing from a few years ago. I used to ride Boston’s Southwest Corridor Park’s bike path to work every day. Now, there is a pedestrian path that at a couple points might be more than 20 feet (~6.5 metres for the foreigners) away. Yet, everyone walked on the bike path. I’ll accept that runners and joggers might want to be on the asphalt (tarmac or macadam for the foreigners) of the bike path in the areas where the pedestrian path is concrete. But if you’re a huge gaggle of people filling up the entire width of the path and moving at under three mph (~five kph for the foreigners), you belong on the pedestrian path. And, for fuck’s sake, if you’re walking your dog, isn’t it really fucking stupid to stand where your leash extends across a marked bike path? Isn’t that just very obviously stupid?

The worst thing is that that’s about the best biking the city of Boston offers.

8

Bike paths are NOT FOR CARS!

I am not joking. It mostly happens late at night on drunken weekends.

Also, may I suggest a small air horn for warning people with? It does wonders.

9

I whole-heartedly agree with the OP. Dedicated bike paths are rare enough to find in many places that it makes it that much more infuriating when they aren’t used properly.

Also, I think “FRAGGLE-RAPING” is a mental image that I may never be able to repress. goes off to scrub brain

10

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been told to “get fucked” when I’ve politely pointed out to people walking on the bike path that it’s a bike path I’d… well… have about 6 or 7 dollars.

I have a bike with brakes that squeal, which really annoys me, but they have one benefit: the best tactic with pedestrians doing the wrong thing on the bike path is to fly up behind them at full speed, then comparatively at the last second slam on the brakes and produce a godawful squeal. They usually jump about 6 feet up and sideways. Don’t say anything, don’t swear, don’t even scowl. Just keep your face neutral and cycle off. It tends to make the point.

11

Hey! Leave the poor innocent Fraggles out of this!

…grumble grumble…innocent little Fraggles who wouldn’t dream of causing so many problems on a BIKE PATH…

12

I swear, one day I will have a truck horn on my bicycle and a train horn on my motorcycle…

13

I hate to disagree with you, but in Mentor, OH, the bike paths are for both pedestrians and bicyclists (NOT bikers). I can’t find the brochure online, but their flyer on the bikeway system even says that bicycles are required to yield to pedestrians. I dunno, maybe the rules are different elsewhere.

14

True here in the Netherlands (where bike paths are everywhere), but only when a sidewalk is not available (which they just about always are). Skaters here still officially belong on sidewalks though, which is a bit odd - especially when I overtake cyclists all the time when skating. But the advantage is that I can legally race the sidewalks with them, which I can’t do with a bike. :smiley:

15

Here’s a start.

16

We have the same sort of a thing here in northern michigan. The “bike path” is for anything nonmotored, except horses. That would be messy.

Having a straight bike/rollerblade/skateboard/scooter/whatever path does sound dreamy though.

17

This thread illustrates why I no longer use bike trails, especially since where I am they are ‘multi-use’ trails. People blocking the whole thing, little kids on bikes, rollerbladers doing super kick-outs.

Worse was the lazy Geese feeders who refused to walk 20 feet from their car to toss bread crumbs to the Canadian Geese population. Nope, better to lean against their cars and toss the food right onto the bike path. Even if nobody comes alongwhen the geese are massed on the path, they’ll be sure to leave lots of slippery goose shit.

18

Are the paths defined as bikeways, bike paths, or multi-use trails?

There is a difference between the three.

19

Right now I have a special level of hate and rage for the planners of Mawson Lakes who decided to put only three parking bays outside the school that the bike path runs past, and for the retarded fuck monkeys who think little Dakoda and Justynnn are too special to catch the bus to school or walk the 100 metres it’d take them to get to the other parking lots near the shopping centre, and who feel the need to park right in the fucking bike lane.

Mawson Lakes Boulevard is a busy road. People go fast along it. A bike lane is wide enough for a bike. A car is substantially wider than a bike. A car in the bike lane means the biker has to swing out and around them into the traffic. The traffic that is going very fast. And god forbid they look before they open their goddamned doors. I nearly got wiped out again today because some smacktard decided to swing open their door as I tried to get around their car. Yet I’m the one who’d get in trouble if I rode on the footpath that their precious little dumplings are walking on.

Rarrr! Hate!

20

Around here I’ve only seen bike paths and bike lanes. The local definition is a bike lane is a five foot extension on both sides of a road, reserved for bikes only; no joggers, roller bladers, etc. A bike path is a ten foot wide paved path separate from the road. Typically there’s a dashed yellow line down the middle.

The bike network through Mentor is referred to as the Bikeway System, but bikeway isn’t defined anywhere. Oddly, sidewalks that connect bike paths are considered part of the bikeway system. Since Ohio is apparently an old indian word meaning “never walks” I will ride on the sidewalk and dismount if I see a pedestrian if I feel the road is unsafe. I am aware that this violates the rules of the road.