Head-on bike collision on Denver’s Cherry Creek Trail

[jamesdak]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

MUTs are MULTIPLE USE TRAILS - not training grounds..

I see this all the time on the Springwater Corridor in Portland. Combine kids on bikes with walkers, families, runners, jogging clubs, homeless stumblers, roller-bladers, triathletes, segment seekers, variable path widths and surface irregularities, and cycling teams trying to do rotating pacelines and you've got a recipe for disaster.

I still use the trail, but I'm heads up, and watching for the inevitable at all times.

So true, hence why I ride the road everyday and put up with the motorist yelling at me for not being on the trail. I'm working out not having a fun ride. I'm a hazard if I'm on the trail.

[unterhausen]

yell back they should be on the interstate

I got honked at for being on the road on Saturday. The comically hypocritical part was that this guy had a line of cars behind him long enough that state law required him to pull over, and it would have been easy for him to do so.

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by Bradford

I ride this part of the path in and out of work on my commute and was on it yesterday. It is almost always a crazy mix of cyclists, people cruising on flat bar bikes, scooters, one wheels, and homeless people. You have to be an idiot or selfish jerk to ride this at full speed, which I see most days.

I don't ride faster than 15 MPH on this section and never pass unless there is a clear lane ahead. Unfortunately, it is a rare day that I'm not passed by some bike path Olympian who thinks mid 20's is a safe speed in a crowd. I'm always amazed at how people can't slow down and sit in until there is a clear section for a pass. I ride with my head up and left elbow ready to pop up and put someone down if they are about to ride into to me, and close calls aren't rare. The ride is fine once I clear the park and pass the bridge to REI, but the Cherry Creek Trail is almost always a mess.

I'm not surprised about this, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more. If you ride in Denver, just slow down and be safe when riding in a crowd, there are plenty of places to ride hard and get your work in, just not there.

Quoted and emphasized for the people in the back. Denver is a growing city with its share of crappy car-bike interactions, but we’ve got a ton of places to ride that are amazing, and some pretty good shoulder lane infrastructure to boot. No need to hammer down Cherry Creek, Clear Creek, Platte R, Bear Creek.

[vqdriver]

need to start installing speed dots on mups.

[tctyres]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

You want to train in trail you have to do it like at 5am... 9am is way too late already. I see it here... or go super late at nights.

The problem I see is just common sense from the riders and even walkers.

For example here there's several areas where you can rest and you can read the rules of the trail, for safety they say, the problem is that some riders and walkers follow the rules to the T and that's when bad things happen, because they forgot put the last rule in the list "PLEASE USE COMMON SENSE!"...

Guys trying to ride the bike with the dog

Dog walkers with the dogs at their left hand.

Dog walker at the right side of the trail and dog at the left track of the trail with the leash crossing from one side to another. GENIUSES!

Dads/moms with their kids in a bike but let the kid to next to them but at the left side. U can hit one of those kids if the kid does the wrong move.

Old lady walking that suddenly turns around and cross to the other side because is time to return?? w/o looking before turning around... last week saw two of those...

The guy in the bike or walking listening music, no matter what you scream at them they cant hear jack.

Relatively old dude that wants to show up his skills, or... "im better than you" and those go full gas and with poor riding skills as well... seen a couple of those crashes already.

Idiot that can't handle the bike at all and thinks with his butt... seen those off the road and crashing poles and people more than once already.

2 lady friends that took over both sides of the road while talking about their last love conquest...

This is a pretty good list. Dog walkers frustrate me to no end. I grew up with dogs, I love dogs, but people who own dogs need to control them. That's all there is to it.

Originally Posted by beeatnik

https://www.strava.com/segments/966218

Originally Posted by Jaybee

27mph over 11.4k

That dude is an absolute beast. Phil Gaimon has him on this one, which is one of the local riders' choices: https://www.strava.com/segments/5179574

[tctyres]

Originally Posted by yinzerniner

...

Was at the Upper West Side area of the shared bike/pedestrian path directly next to the Boat Basin Cafe. Group of 4 pedestrians were walking directly in the middle portion of the path which is marked for cyclists, and two much slower cyclists weaved around the pedestrians to try to overpass. I tried to go even further around the cyclists and pedestrians and before I knew it was looking headfirst at two cyclists going in the exact opposite direction. Grabbed ALL the brakes, flipped ass over tea kettle, and my bike flew out so hard that it hit another cyclist in the helmet.

...

In the past few weeks, they moved the route around the Boat Basin Cafe because of this. Some cyclists were complaining about it, but there needs to be some separation between cyclists and peds. I have seen multiple crashes there (maybe yours!). Pedestrians never look, and cyclists can't see enough ahead to judge any obstacles. If it's sunny and warm, that whole area is a clusterf**k from 70th, between the cafes, and up to 95th.

I admit that I've ridden the river path like a bat out of hell. It's not a good idea. On Tuesday, I was riding along, and I just zoned out, not particularly trying to be a jerk or anything, but some guy had just passed me too close. I wound up skidding into a cab at the ferry drop-off near 42nd. I brushed my skewer against the fender, recovered, and kept going. I got lucky.

[Hank Scorpio]

Originally Posted by dbh

I just took my wife and kids on a very slow and leisurely toodle on the cape cod rail trail. I was towing a trailer and my daughter was on her 16 inch kids bike. I couldn't believe the number of kitted pathletes blowing thru on the trail at speed. I was even lectured by a couple of roadies for not pulling over far enough into the brush on the side of the trail when I had to stop to adjust my kids harness. Total assholes. No wonder we cyclyists get such a bad rap.

What part? There is a group ride I do occasionally when I am up there that uses the rail trail on the return leg. They usually tone it down a bit but not enough for my comfort and I usually drop off in Orleans where they pick up the trail and take it all the way back to Dennis.

[dbh]

Originally Posted by Hank Scorpio

What part? There is a group ride I do occasionally when I am up there that uses the rail trail on the return leg. They usually tone it down a bit but not enough for my comfort and I usually drop off in Orleans where they pick up the trail and take it all the way back to Dennis.

We were in Brewster near Long Pond this Monday. I can't possibly imagine a group ride using that trail unless it's in the offseason. Even during a weekday morning, there were plenty of families and older folks out for a toodle along the path, as it should be. I just shook my head at the dudes with aerobars.

[Hank Scorpio]

Originally Posted by dbh

We were in Brewster near Long Pond this Monday. I can't possibly imagine a group ride using that trail unless it's in the offseason. Even during a weekday morning, there were plenty of families and older folks out for a toodle along the path, as it should be. I just shook my head at the dudes with aerobars.

Dang our house is at the east end of long pond. The ride i was talking about is on a sunday and the path is plenty crowded when they hit it. No aerobars allowed on the ride.

[Ralph]

I'm a huge fan of multi use trails....as a public amenity. Especially if they are designed to connect places....like neighborhoods and schools, neighborhoods and shopping, etc. Designed as part of an overall transportation system. Don't think a lot of users understand this general use purpose.

[smontanaro]

Here in Chicago the Lakefront Trail is also an oft-abused mup, even after the trail separation was completed last year (separate bike/pedestrian lanes in most places). We refer to the abusers as Lakefront Lances.

[Gummee]

Not saying the guy that was training on the MUT was right, but this is what you get when you expect people to ride on MUTs and not roads.

My ex- and I have ridden that stretch of path. It's pretty. ...but it's a MUT. We knew it was a MUT and acted accordingly.

I would train on the roads and semi-consistently get yelled at to 'ride the path!' Uhhh yeah. I'm going 20mph + and you want me to ride where?!

M

[zennmotion]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

You want to train in trail you have to do it like at 5am... 9am is way too late already. I see it here... or go super late at nights.

The problem I see is just common sense from the riders and even walkers.

For example here there's several areas where you can rest and you can read the rules of the trail, for safety they say, the problem is that some riders and walkers follow the rules to the T and that's when bad things happen, because they forgot put the last rule in the list "PLEASE USE COMMON SENSE!"...

Guys trying to ride the bike with the dog

Dog walkers with the dogs at their left hand.

Dog walker at the right side of the trail and dog at the left track of the trail with the leash crossing from one side to another. GENIUSES!

Dads/moms with their kids in a bike but let the kid to next to them but at the left side. U can hit one of those kids if the kid does the wrong move.

Old lady walking that suddenly turns around and cross to the other side because is time to return?? w/o looking before turning around... last week saw two of those...

The guy in the bike or walking listening music, no matter what you scream at them they cant hear jack.

Relatively old dude that wants to show up his skills, or... "im better than you" and those go full gas and with poor riding skills as well... seen a couple of those crashes already.

Idiot that can't handle the bike at all and thinks with his butt... seen those off the road and crashing poles and people more than once already.

2 lady friends that took over both sides of the road while talking about their last love conquest... once stayed behind two like for 30 minutes, they noticed I was there because i had to sneeze. THe story was pretty good.

So what happened in this case? who knows, chick was not paying attention? who knows, people just does dumb S...T all the time and looks like this chick f... it up. She got lucky the man is not dead, happy for that to be honest. I bet she was listening music or at the phone and did not pay attention. Cant blame the guy that was going faster, specially if he was at his side of the road. Good somebody with cpr training was there....

I ride and commute all the same trails and the people the bother me the most in all honesty are the reckless and entitled pathletes in lycra on their bikes "training". The others--hey it's a MUP, kids are kids, dogs do their thing, walkers are often families and social groups and the paths are public resources that make suburban/urban living suck a little less, and we, dear cyclists, are at the top of the food chain speed-wise. "Common sense" means assuming that nobody else on the trail is totally predictable. Nothing you can do really, getting upset doesn't change the reality. Slowing down to smell the flowers (well except that section near the water treatment plant in August), have a sense of humor (dogs are cool, kids are cooler, people are generally funny when they think nobody is watching), investing in a clear bell (yep $50 Spurcycle FTW and worth it!) and riding fixed gear (with brakes) for a different-than-road experience makes for some very pleasant MUP commuting and joyrides even mixing with the stoopidhoomins . Need for speed? Hit the road...

[cderalow]

Originally Posted by dbh

I just took my wife and kids on a very slow and leisurely toodle on the cape cod rail trail. I was towing a trailer and my daughter was on her 16 inch kids bike. I couldn't believe the number of kitted pathletes blowing thru on the trail at speed. I was even lectured by a couple of roadies for not pulling over far enough into the brush on the side of the trail when I had to stop to adjust my kids harness. Total assholes. No wonder we cyclyists get such a bad rap.

Originally Posted by seanile

if this was this past weekend, you were graced by the MS Ride: Cape Cod Getaway.

Originally Posted by dbh

We were in Brewster near Long Pond this Monday. I can't possibly imagine a group ride using that trail unless it's in the offseason. Even during a weekday morning, there were plenty of families and older folks out for a toodle along the path, as it should be. I just shook my head at the dudes with aerobars.

Just wait until August 4th. That is the only segment of the PMC I wish they did differently every year. Inevitably it is beyond crowded to begin with, then you add in an extra couple thousand users for a few hours and it becomes and absolute ****show.


I ride our local MUP for about 6 miles to work when I commute during the summers. Fortunately I hit it at around 5-6am which allows me to blast down above its speed limit (it is for the most part, vacant at that time in the morning spare a few fellow early am commuters by bike and the odd runner).

I use it on the ride home for a slightly longer distance in the evening, normally between 4-5pm. I can't speed through any segment of it then. Heavily crowded at both ends, mostly empty in the middle part.

My morning pace tends to be around 20mph, afternoon is closer to 12mph if I'm lucky.

[BobO]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

You want to train in trail you have to do it like at 5am... 9am is way too late already. I see it here... or go super late at nights.

I go there in the afternoon when it's too hot for normal people.