Friendly fire on the bike path (Minuteman Bike Path)

[nooneline]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

^^^^ This.

I treat MUPs as what they are: They are not transportation corridors, they are linear parks (with all the activities you'd expect in urban or suburban parks). I'll use the MUP when I want a leisurely cruise, take in the sights, and get some fresh air. But when I have somewhere to go or want to get a good workout, I'll take the roads.

Extremely this.
It may be a car-free way to get to a spirited ride -
but it ain't the place for a spirited ride.
A pox on people pushing hard on the pedals, huffing and puffing, or yelling.
And don't get me started about aerobars

[Climb01742]

Never would I ride the trail. And the stretch in Lexington is, by far, the most dangerous. Even the bit that exits in Concord can be crazy. There’s a spot where the dirt trail crosses Monument Street here in town and riders come bombing out of the dark tree cover and often blindly cross a very busy street. Just yesterday I fortunately slowed down on Monument during my ride as I approached the trail crossing...and a casual rider was flying down the dirt. Sadly for many riders, trails seem to offer false safety. All so sad.

[bward1028]

Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

[NHAero]

We have similar issues on the MUPs here on Martha's Vineyard. It is only going to get worse because of ebikes, and the fact that the riders are almost all visitors renting the ebike for a day. I came close to a head-on with a guy that musta weighed 275 lbs on an ebike - I would have been dead.

[beeatnik]

Originally Posted by nooneline

Extremely this.
It may be a car-free way to get to a spirited ride -
but it ain't the place for a spirited ride.
A pox on people pushing hard on the pedals, huffing and puffing, or yelling.
And don't get me started about aerobars

Individual triathletes and local clubs populate the major bike paths that run from the San Gabriel Valley to Long Beach. The larger groups average 25-30mph and the more competitive triathletes can ride over 30 on the faster stretches. I wonder if the random dog walkers and joggers know they may as well be walking on a freeway shoulder. A few years ago, bike shop owner who leads one of the faster and more aggressive shop rides lost focus in a 25mph paceline and drifted left. He collided with a rider from a paceline traveling in the opposite direction. He survived but was in a coma for a week.

[nooneline]

Originally Posted by beeatnik

Individual triathletes and local clubs populate the major bike paths that run from the San Gabriel Valley to Long Beach. The larger groups average 25-30mph and the more competitive triathletes can ride over 30 on the faster stretches. I wonder if the random dog walkers and joggers know they may as well be walking on a freeway shoulder. A few years ago, bike shop owner who leads one of the faster and more aggressive shop rides lost focus in a 25mph paceline and drifted left. He collided with a rider from a paceline traveling in the opposite direction. He survived but was in a coma for a week.

It's as antisocial to speed down a MUP on a bike as it is to speed down a residential street in a car.

[cderalow]

Originally Posted by benb

The Cape Cod Rail Trail is much the same thing and IIRC they have posted 15mph speed limits there some places.

It may be they need to do the same thing, but nothing is going to stop the bad behavior.

It doesn't attract the safest cyclists, and all the other users have pretty much 0 idea that a trail should be treated with respect the same way the roadway is.

I've ridden the PMC the last three years and the segment on the CCRT is my least favorite.

the risks people take while riding that section in the name of fundraising are stupid. it's like they get on the trail after riding 140+ miles on road and forget all etiquette or decorum when it comes to riding in a group of hundreds.

[Bruce K]

The section through Arlington is no prize either. Especially out in the road crossing Mass. Ave.

BK

[echappist]

Originally Posted by nooneline

A few years ago I was ending a ride on the first nice day of spring with several people, slogging back across a narrow path on bridge into a headwind, tired legs after 100km, maybe going 15mph.

As we reach the other side of the bridge, a lone cyclist comes flying around the bend - tailwind, downhill entry - and I hear a noise and turn around to see that he's hit the last member of my group head-on. Handlebar to handlebar contact.

The snapshot is burned into my brain - he was flying through the air and landed some thirty feet away; the person in my group collapsing over the handlebars on the way to the ground.

The other guy, when he landed, was screaming in pain, and his bike had bounced over the barrier and across two lanes of traffic. We found out later that he broke 2 ribs, cracked a vertebrae, and collapsed or punctured a lung. The member of my party? A broken thumb - but the other guy was riding again before our companion had healed and recovered from surgery.

We also found out later - from his garmin, since our party had recovered his bike and took it home with his contact info after he was loaded into an ambulance - that he had been going 30mph, downhill, tailwind, on the narrow path.

So yes. A huge world of hurt. And I'm still angry about it. And hearing about this story? Well, it makes me sad. And relieved that my experience wasn't worse.

was this Philly or Brooklyn?

what an idiot to post his ride afterwards; if i were the aggrieved party, i'd have lawyered up and sued the daylight out of him. sheer madness...

[Bruce K]

Let’s avoid personal attacks.

That last comment could have been phrased better.

BK

[nooneline]

Originally Posted by echappist

was this Philly or Brooklyn?

what an idiot to post his ride afterwards; if i were the aggrieved party, i'd have lawyered up and sued the daylight out of him. sheer madness...

it was in the midwest, prior to philly, between nyc stints.

and yeah. the aggrieved party definitely considered that. but decided it was more trouble than it was worth.

[eippo1]

Usually avoid the path unless it's in the off season or am just doing a slow warm down. As others have said, there's way too much other crap going on to ride at any speed on the path. It's just too dangerous for anyone.

Also, as someone who was involved with a kid in a collision (blindsided by a kid coming off a side road), a bike on bike collision can really eff you up. Enough to break my patella, seriously bruise both arms, draw blood in about a dozen places and that was just me. I think he got a pretty bad concussion out of it. Kinda wish my wife had gotten a pic of me since I looked like an extra from the Walking Dead. So yeah, i guess just be careful out there and keep your head up.

Sent from my SM-P580 using Tapatalk

[adrien]

When it's nice out, road only.

When unavoidable, MUPs are connectors only, and a chance to slow down, spin, pay attention, be part of a community. Or, plan on intervals, with braking to zero and coming back up to speed.

A danger I've seen in person: deer. In addition to collisions between people, I've seen deer take out a rider on a bike. He needed an ambulance. Not sure how the deer ended up.

It's a park, and everyone is allowed to be there. In the early morning, I will sometimes let the dog off the leash in the local park, because nobody is there. At 1pm on a sunny saturday I'd never do that.

[Climb01742]

When part of the people on a path see it as a sidewalk and part see it as a velodrome, trouble seems inescapable. Mixed use might not be possible, safely.

The craziest example I’ve been part of is, when I lived in NYC, trying to run or ride in Central Park on a nice weekend. A 6.2 mile Mad Max thunderdome.

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by cderalow

I've ridden the PMC the last three years and the segment on the CCRT is my least favorite.

the risks people take while riding that section in the name of fundraising are stupid. it's like they get on the trail after riding 140+ miles on road and forget all etiquette or decorum when it comes to riding in a group of hundreds.

I'm not sure the stupidity is limited to the CCRT. I've seen groups of PMC riders blow through stop signs, red lights, cross the centerline on blind curves.