The Dumb Cyclists and Pedestrians thread...

[bychosis]

Morning commute. Exercise group on the path, caution advised.. didn't expect the gear placed carefully at the chicane leading back onto the road.

Edit: squeal oise was maladjusted brakes, and the bell doesn't come through the gopro well with the brake cable tapping on the case.

I think you are supposed to be sharing the path - according to popular wisdom here. I've seen this too - I don't bother complaining about it anymore, it achieves nothing and other cyclists seem to encourage this kind of behaviour by pedestrians, either through being devils advocate or deliberate trolling.

You look to be going too fast through there. I'd have been slowing by the time you went over that bump and being prepared to get off the bike and walk past them. Pretty poor form on the part of the pedestrians. It's already narrow enough there, but they've left their things on the path taking up even more room.

So I got excited by having my GoPro working and uploading to YouTube... I dont believe I was going too fast and certainly rang the bell enough, although it doesn't come out in the video. I wasn't expecting a parting of the Red Sea as I come through either. By the sheer number of peds there I expected I might have to stop, and could have done so safely.

I guess it's just one of my pet hates to see things placed in an obvious through path, the bag sticking out from the corner being the worst offender

[Summernight]

So I got excited by having my GoPro working and uploading to YouTube... I dont believe I was going too fast and certainly rang the bell enough, although it doesn't come out in the video. I wasn't expecting a parting of the Red Sea as I come through either. By the sheer number of peds there I expected I might have to stop, and could have done so safely.

I guess it's just one of my pet hates to see things placed in an obvious through path, the bag sticking out from the corner being the worst offender

As someone said above - the GoPro can distort the speed it looks like you're going and make it look faster than what it really was. I noticed you had your hands on your brakes well before then and had clearly seen the issue and made preparations for it.

I'd also hate to have bags sticking out everywhere on the shared path.

[trailgumby]

A thought: why not just run over the bag? So long as you have your bike straight under you (ie, not leaning) and lift the front wheel over, the risk of an off is negligible.

Did it once with some schoolkids at Manly Dam - bags everywhere all over the paths. Good skills practice, and the kids and coaches got the message emphatically with nary a word from me

[Lukeyboy]

GoPros are weird when it comes to that. Doing 70-80kph down a hill looks very similar to 25kph when going past objects that are closer.

[trailgumby]

Dumb cyclist was me this morning. Turning left out of the Bradley's Head national park entrance onto the road that runs down to the Zoo wharf, there was a female pedestrian dressed all in black on the road shoulder dead in front of me.

It just did not occur to me that a ped would be there, I was more concerned with cars coming down the hill from my right, but for anyone power walking or jogging up from the bottom, it's really the only safe place to be as there is no shoulder on the corner apex. I was more careful on the next repeat.

I got on the brakes in plenty of time but locked the rear in the wet and gave her a good fright. After reaching the bottom and returning back up the hill I hoped to offer my apology, but she'd disappeared... must have been a ninja

Video will follow sometime tonight. What surprised me was how slow it all seemed to happen, and it seemed to take her an absolute age to react. Maybe my reflexes aren't so bad after all?

[bychosis]

A thought: why did not just run over the bag? So long as you have your bike straight under you (ie, not leaning) and lift the front wheel over, the risk of an off is negligible.

Did it once with some schoolkids at Manly Dam - bags everywhere all over the paths. Good skills practice, and the kids and coaches got the message emphatically with nary a word from me

Lots of fun on a dually, not so much fun on 700x23 tyres when in close proximity to solid kerb.

[find_bruce]

A thought: why not just run over the bag? So long as you have your bike straight under you (ie, not leaning) and lift the front wheel over, the risk of an off is negligible.

Did it once with some schoolkids at Manly Dam - bags everywhere all over the paths. Good skills practice, and the kids and coaches got the message emphatically with nary a word from me

+1 - cyclists are obliged to give way to pedestrians not bags

[jasonc]

A thought: why not just run over the bag? So long as you have your bike straight under you (ie, not leaning) and lift the front wheel over, the risk of an off is negligible.

Did it once with some schoolkids at Manly Dam - bags everywhere all over the paths. Good skills practice, and the kids and coaches got the message emphatically with nary a word from me

+1 - cyclists are obliged to give way to pedestrians not bags

you didn't need that water in your drink bottle did you?

[g-boaf]

A thought: why did not just run over the bag? So long as you have your bike straight under you (ie, not leaning) and lift the front wheel over, the risk of an off is negligible.

Did it once with some schoolkids at Manly Dam - bags everywhere all over the paths. Good skills practice, and the kids and coaches got the message emphatically with nary a word from me

Lots of fun on a dually, not so much fun on 700x23 tyres when in close proximity to solid kerb.

Agreed on that! It's just stupid to put bags there in a location that is already narrow enough as it is.

[Aushiker]

He was fine, but really cranky. In most situations I'd let up, because I was more in the wrong... but the lecture I gave him has been brewing for weeks - about not wearing a helmet, about the legalities of a bell, about the stupidity of going too quickly on a path full of animals and kids... and in the end he left thoroughly unsatisfied when he asked for my name, and I replied that I would first like his name - because my error today was just that, an error. His repeated errors in riding too fast around kids without a helmet are not an error - they're a conscious decision to ignore the law, and the police are going to be much less interested in me than in him.

If Queensland follows the other states and cyclists have to give way to pedestrians then he may well have been in the wrong and not you. Assuming of course it was not a deliberate act of obstruction and from what you have said it does not sound like it.

Cyclists need to chill out on paths around pedestrians, children and dogs.

Andrew

[herzog]

Wow. Just wow.

[DavidS]

I daily ride up Head St in Brighton and the section between the beach and StKilda St is a right pain. Apart from the parked cars (no standing zone) next to the park there are often pedestrians walking or running along the road. There is a park on one side and a footpath on the other but they insist on walking up the road. Today's example was slowly jogging up the road, not looking and had inner ear speakers attached to his inner ear. I ding my bell, no reaction and almost run him over as he changes his line. I just don't understand - there's a footpath, there's a park, why would anyone in their right mind want to walk down a road?

DS

[Aushiker]

Haven't had silly cyclist in awhile then two in a week. This is number 2.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4TXJVGS150&hd=1[/youtube]

This "incident" occurred at bottom of the southern decent into Scarborough Beach on the Recreational Shared Path (RSP). It is a quick decent and I was on the brakes as sometimes there are pedestrians and/or pedestrians with dogs and/or sand on the path.

What I was not expecting was a cyclist pulling a passing move on the blind corner.

I managed to squeeze pass without getting on to the grass, but it was close.

Not sure if the guy was racing the other riders or going full out for the hill, either way pretty stupid for this recreational shared path and more so for this area.

Andrew

[g-boaf]

Hipster on a white fixie this morning around 8:05am on Elizabeth Street Sydney running three red lights in a row, all the way up to Goulburn Street Sydney. And then later running another red light too...

Time for hipsters and their bikes to be registered?

[Howzat]

Nah - just the hipsters.

[jasonc]

Nah - just the hipsters.

+1

[biker jk]

Haven't had silly cyclist in awhile then two in a week. This is number 2.


This "incident" occurred at bottom of the southern decent into Scarborough Beach on the Recreational Shared Path (RSP). It is a quick decent and I was on the brakes as sometimes there are pedestrians and/or pedestrians with dogs and/or sand on the path.

What I was not expecting was a cyclist pulling a passing move on the blind corner.

I managed to squeeze pass without getting on to the grass, but it was close.

Not sure if the guy was racing the other riders or going full out for the hill, either way pretty stupid for this recreational shared path and more so for this area.

Andrew

You have to watch out for those dangerous non-lycra louts.

[Mulger bill]

Hipster on a white fixie this morning around 8:05am on Elizabeth Street Sydney running three red lights in a row, all the way up to Goulburn Street Sydney. And then later running another red light too...

Time for hipsters and their bikes to be registered?

Just wonderin'...

How'd you manage to stay with him enough to witness all four acts of dillery that should theoretically have him well in front? I can understand one or two...

[Mulger bill]

Regarding Andrews last vid:
Does anybody think that road style line marking of paths (ie, solid doubles on blind turns or other areas deemed dangerous to overtake) have made any difference?

[Boognoss]

Regarding Andrews last vid:
Does anybody think that road style line marking of paths (ie, solid doubles on blind turns or other areas deemed dangerous to overtake) have made any difference?

Not an iota on paths I use for my commute and elsewhere in Sydney. You get runners in bike-only sections and plenty of idiots of all cycling persuasions overtaking when clearly (but not to them) stupid and risky to do so.

[g-boaf]

Hipster on a white fixie this morning around 8:05am on Elizabeth Street Sydney running three red lights in a row, all the way up to Goulburn Street Sydney. And then later running another red light too...

Time for hipsters and their bikes to be registered?

Just wonderin'...

How'd you manage to stay with him enough to witness all four acts of dillery that should theoretically have him well in front? I can understand one or two...

Traffic was surprisingly reasonable! He can only go so fast up hills, and his acceleration is slow. Unfortunately a bit later on, the line of leap-frogging buses ruined everything. Next week I'm
no longer in the damn traffic, thank heavens.

You have to watch out for those dangerous non-lycra louts.

ROTFLMAO!

The better one this morning was the crazy guy on a flat-bar bike with standard commuter gear and usual extras coming out of the Uni grounds at Broadway, going across the road in front of the Apple shop (NextByte I think it is). The traffic to go into the city had a green to go and he just went flying across the front of them all. I thought he was going to get collected.

[tubby74]

Regarding Andrews last vid:
Does anybody think that road style line marking of paths (ie, solid doubles on blind turns or other areas deemed dangerous to overtake) have made any difference?

its certainly not solved the issue but it has helped

[citywomble]

Mulger Bill wrote:
Regarding Andrews last vid:
Does anybody think that road style line marking of paths (ie, solid doubles on blind turns or other areas deemed dangerous to overtake) have made any difference?

Simplistic answer: NO.

However, correcting attitudes and practices is a longer process which, with the right degree of 'public information' through media and TV, primarily by state and federal governments, then this would all contribute.

The other issue, where there is already a difference, is that the lines would give much legal protection for the blameless rider (in this case Andrew). In the event that he received, or caused a serious injury, the fact that he complied with the regulatory 'road' markings and the other rider did not, would be very significant. Thats without considering the road authority (or in this case local government) that would also be protected against claims arising from such stupidity by identifying, warning and attempting to mitigate the risk.

Complex answer: Yes but can do better.

[g-boaf]

Regarding Andrews last vid:
Does anybody think that road style line marking of paths (ie, solid doubles on blind turns or other areas deemed dangerous to overtake) have made any difference?

Not an iota on paths I use for my commute and elsewhere in Sydney. You get runners in bike-only sections and plenty of idiots of all cycling persuasions overtaking when clearly (but not to them) stupid and risky to do so.

I think the cyclists on the paths in my area pay attention, but in my area, the paths aren't all linked together and there are some places where the shared path just disappears completely and isn't linked to ones that are maybe about 1km away - so to be honest, there aren't that many people using the shared paths, certainly not like what I've seen in the videos of say Boognoss with what looked like a lot of cyclists in a small area or maybe what you see in the city. I live in an area that is still relatively unfriendly to cycling, most people prefer to use their cars to get around and we don't have the kind of end-to-end seemless off-road cycling options that some other parts of the city have. It's a good start, but there is more than could be done.

But the lines on the path and arrows are a good thing to have, it encourages people to do the right thing and gives perhaps some enforcement ability to make people stick to their side of the path, etc. That's an important thing and makes it safer for everyone. The next bit is the harder one, that's making the paths themselves safer. Near Granville/Parramatta, underneath the Granville to Merrylands railway bridge, that tiny narrow path beside Woodville Road is apparently a shared path. But it's only wide enough for one bike, and is very close to the fast moving traffic nearby. The real danger is one cyclist going one direction, then another one coming the other way has to stop at the other end, or both have to dismount and one has to walk on the road because it is so narrow.

There has to be a better way than this to link between the shared path alongside the railway line and the one headed to Homebush and Parramatta.

[find_bruce]

Regarding Andrews last vid:
Does anybody think that road style line marking of paths (ie, solid doubles on blind turns or other areas deemed dangerous to overtake) have made any difference?

Depends on whether cyclists overtake on blind corners because (a) they don't realise it is dangerous or (b) they don't care. I had a front wheel pretzelled by a woman who fell into the first category and it is at least possible that a line of paint might alleviate that ignorance, but I suspect that for the most part it is a lack of care & a white stripe is not going to make a scrap of difference.

I could make some suggestions on what would make a difference, but these are likely to be frowned upon in a civilised society