Cycling on Road and/or Shared footpaths??

[willocrew]

Would be interesting to hear what everybody has got to say... please share.

Personally, the only time i cycle on the road 100% of the ride is during a group ride at 5am in the morning. Any other time, quite frankly i do not feel comfortable. Call me P()55y or what, but I think that a rider unconfident on the road alone is better off on the footpaths.. rather than being all gungho and ending up on the evening news.

 

[Bro Deal]

Mutli-use paths scare the hell out of me. You never know what a roller blader, child, or an oblivious imbecile with an iPod is going to do.

 

[Darkhorse85]

if there are two routes to work, one being a crushed stone multi-use path, and the other being the road that i would take to drive to work....i would DEFINATELY take the path.

people generally (not all) know to stay on the right side of the path, and if not, i just yell ON YOUR LEFT! If im in the mood, i wont say anything and just scare the **** out of em as i fly by.

if they hit me as i pass, theyll get hurt more than i will. I wont be knocked down.

 

[willocrew]

Come on now people... don't be shy, click and vote. I know your name will appear but thats a good thing!

 

[redorbea]

I now do 90% of my riding on shared paths, except for my Saturday morning bunch ride, on very quiet roads.

Went back to sydney a couple of weeks ago, I have now become soft, Scared to ride in sydney, Perth rocks for safe riding.

 

[jcjordan]

Would be interesting to hear what everybody has got to say... please share.

Personally, the only time i cycle on the road 100% of the ride is during a group ride at 5am in the morning. Any other time, quite frankly i do not feel comfortable. Call me P()55y or what, but I think that a rider unconfident on the road alone is better off on the footpaths.. rather than being all gungho and ending up on the evening news.

There are alot of shared paths around Canberra, you just need to remember when using them that you cant go at the same pace as you would out on the road. As long as you remember this and to be polite and let people no you are coming they can be a great way to travel

 

[Scotttri]

I now do 90% of my riding on shared paths, except for my Saturday morning bunch ride, on very quiet roads.

Went back to sydney a couple of weeks ago, I have now become soft, Scared to ride in sydney, Perth rocks for safe riding.

You gotta remember that we are extremely luck in Aus with bike roads, and especially Perth and Canberra, haveing lived in both, Canberra used to be the king of bike paths but now Perth is takeing over, I mean in perth now you can ride for well over 100km without even crossing an intersection. I much prefer bike paths ( except for those little f#*K whits who decided tie a thin length of wire at head height across a Perth bike path 6 months ago) !!

 

[fauxpas]

There's a nice esplanade shared pede/cycle path near work. When I ride to work, I often ride past it to this esplanade and ride it before coming back to work.

Even though its posted 10kph max, there's hardly a soul on it early in the morning... The esplanade follows the harbour around... nice...

 

[cycling_jedi]

I dont ride on sidewalks in residential areas, but there are a lot of parks in my area that have wide paths for all kinds of recreation. Most of my rides, I am on the road though. I stick mostly to side roads and the parks so I can avoid heavy traffic, but sometimes you just have to share the road... damn cars think they own the road....

I do have a real nice area that I ride through alot... It is a park/community center with a nice wide path that winds through the property and creates a great ride... one day though I was coming up to a section that had another part of the path merging into it. An older couple walked out onto the main path as I was approaching.... the lady paused and waited for her husband to catch up and when she did turned toward me and looked at me dead on, but when her husband caught up they walked side by side blocking the whole path! I had to pass them in the grass.

Does anyone else experience walkers kind of getting attitude with bikers on shared paths?

 

[willocrew]

Does anyone else experience walkers kind of getting attitude with bikers on shared paths?

I say RAM THEM DOWN.. hahah just joking. But yea i do get the odd bugger in my way, more due to their lack of awareness rather than devil may care attitude. Most notably, mothers with those dual sized prams walking side by side, taking up the entire two lanes, while their 4 year old kid tottles alongside the grassy area, effectively cutting me off... but unfortunately little can be done ... no choice ... its a shared path

Unless of course you invest in a nice air-horn...