tales from the MUP

[Ryan Cousineau]

This one has it all: a helmet, a multi-use path, and well, an awful
ending.

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2007/06/21/4277604-sun.html

"Helmet doesn't save cyclist from head injury."
By ROBYN STUBBS, 24 HOURS

[I'm copying in the rest because it's short and because this paper isn't
good with link volatility]

A North Vancouver cyclist is in hospital with serious head injuries
after an unlikely collision with a rollerblader on a park trail Tuesday.
The accident occurred at the nine-kilometre mark of the Seymour
Demonstration Forest's paved trail.

The investigation so far has revealed a 24-year-old North Vancouver
woman was rollerblading on the wrong side of the path when a cyclist
travelling at a high speed came around a blind corner and collided with
her.

The 42-year-old cyclist was wearing a helmet, but police said he was
going so fast that the helmet didn't prevent serious head injury.
With warmer weather and triathlon-training season in full swing, police
are warning trail-users to be careful, especially on mixed-use trails.

[end story]

The cyclist was the friend of a friend. The friend was riding with him
at the time. The tragic punchline is that the injured rider has now died.

This was on a multi-use path. It's a 10 km pavement to nowhere that I
described here not long ago. And indeedy, the riders were riding
quickly. I wouldn't care to guess at the speed.

Tragic fuel for the usual fires here. Try not to read too much into an
anecdote, though, either way, except to never assume that MUPs are
purely the province of low-speed accidents.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[Dennis P. Harris]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:55:20 GMT in rec.bicycles.misc, Ryan
Cousineau <[email protected]> wrote:

> never assume that MUPs are
> purely the province of low-speed accidents.

in most cases i assume that they are useless for those of us that
like to ride at a real riding speed. it's really annoying that
the public and the public works heirarchy think of them as "bike
paths" and want to ghettoize us there, instead of building roads
to accomodate all types of vehicles.

 

[Luigi de Guzman]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 03:52:44 -0800, Dennis P. Harris wrote:

> On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:55:20 GMT in rec.bicycles.misc, Ryan
> Cousineau <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> never assume that MUPs are
>> purely the province of low-speed accidents.
>
> in most cases i assume that they are useless for those of us that
> like to ride at a real riding speed. it's really annoying that
> the public and the public works heirarchy think of them as "bike
> paths" and want to ghettoize us there, instead of building roads
> to accomodate all types of vehicles.

There are some that rise above this kind of uselessness. The W&OD Trail
(northern Virginia) is a major commuting route. Even if it's technically
a "Park" (and thus a "recreational" feature), it's an old rail-trail.
Consequently, it's one of the better east/west routes into Washington, DC.
Trail traffic is a nonmotorized mirror of regular traffic; there are fast
stretches and then local traffic bottlenecks.

-Luigi

--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com

 

[Just A User]

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> This one has it all: a helmet, a multi-use path, and well, an awful
> ending.
>
> http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2007/06/21/4277604-sun.html
>
> "Helmet doesn't save cyclist from head injury."
> By ROBYN STUBBS, 24 HOURS
>
> [I'm copying in the rest because it's short and because this paper isn't
> good with link volatility]
>
> A North Vancouver cyclist is in hospital with serious head injuries
> after an unlikely collision with a rollerblader on a park trail Tuesday.
> The accident occurred at the nine-kilometre mark of the Seymour
> Demonstration Forest's paved trail.
>
> The investigation so far has revealed a 24-year-old North Vancouver
> woman was rollerblading on the wrong side of the path when a cyclist
> travelling at a high speed came around a blind corner and collided with
> her.
>
> The 42-year-old cyclist was wearing a helmet, but police said he was
> going so fast that the helmet didn't prevent serious head injury.
> With warmer weather and triathlon-training season in full swing, police
> are warning trail-users to be careful, especially on mixed-use trails.
>
> [end story]
>
> The cyclist was the friend of a friend. The friend was riding with him
> at the time. The tragic punchline is that the injured rider has now died.
>
> This was on a multi-use path. It's a 10 km pavement to nowhere that I
> described here not long ago. And indeedy, the riders were riding
> quickly. I wouldn't care to guess at the speed.
>
> Tragic fuel for the usual fires here. Try not to read too much into an
> anecdote, though, either way, except to never assume that MUPs are
> purely the province of low-speed accidents.
>

MUPs' are okay at certain times, other times they are overcrowded and
cyclists really need to keep their speed way down. There is a short one
here in town that is part of one of my rides and certain times of
certain days I find that I really need to keep my speed under 14mph and
always be on the lookout for other slower moving traffic, cyclists,
rollerbladers, walkers, runners etc. etc. etc.

Ken

 

[Michael Warner]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:55:20 GMT, Ryan Cousineau wrote:

> The 42-year-old cyclist was wearing a helmet, but police said he was
> going so fast that the helmet didn't prevent serious head injury.
> With warmer weather and triathlon-training season in full swing, police
> are warning trail-users to be careful, especially on mixed-use trails.

What sort of idiot trains for triathlons (or any sort of racing) on a path
of any kind?

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw

 

[Diablo Scott]

Ryan Cousineau wrote:

>
> The investigation so far has revealed a 24-year-old North Vancouver
> woman was rollerblading on the wrong side of the path when a cyclist
> travelling at a high speed came around a blind corner and collided with
> her.

It would be beneficial in these articles, if the author would explain
that pedestrians, rollerbladers, and all users should consider the
trail/path as a roadway; staying to the right, looking behind before
changing lanes, etc.

 

[catzz66]

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> This one has it all: a helmet, a multi-use path, and well, an awful
> ending.
>

We have a nice, straight and reasonably wide MUP where I live. It runs
from about 3 miles from my house for about 5 miles to downtown. When it
is pretty vacant, it feels like a freeway, but with unpredictable
walkers, runners, dogs, rollerbladers using it, it's another story. I
feel much safer on the streets.

 

[David L. Johnson]

Dennis P. Harris wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:55:20 GMT in rec.bicycles.misc, Ryan
> Cousineau <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> never assume that MUPs are
>> purely the province of low-speed accidents.
>
> in most cases i assume that they are useless for those of us that
> like to ride at a real riding speed. it's really annoying that
> the public and the public works heirarchy think of them as "bike
> paths" and want to ghettoize us there, instead of building roads
> to accomodate all types of vehicles.
>
Next time someone yells at you to get off the road, and tells you about
the millions of dollars spent on "bike paths", tell them that if they
want to avoid sharing the road with cyclists and pedestrians they can go
drive on the interstates, for which we all paid billions of dollars.

--

David L. Johnson

Accept risk. Accept responsibility. Put a lawyer out of business.

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
Diablo Scott <[email protected]> wrote:

> Ryan Cousineau wrote:
>
> >
> > The investigation so far has revealed a 24-year-old North Vancouver
> > woman was rollerblading on the wrong side of the path when a cyclist
> > travelling at a high speed came around a blind corner and collided with
> > her.
>
> It would be beneficial in these articles, if the author would explain
> that pedestrians, rollerbladers, and all users should consider the
> trail/path as a roadway; staying to the right, looking behind before
> changing lanes, etc.

It's worse than that. This is a remarkably well-marked path. It's around
10 feet wide (my guess; it's very wide by MUP standards) and it has a
solid-white line dividing the path in two, with directional arrows in
the lanes. It's been a while since I rode it, but I recall it also
having warning marks painted on the pavement near the blind corners and
rises.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
Michael Warner <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:55:20 GMT, Ryan Cousineau wrote:
>
> > The 42-year-old cyclist was wearing a helmet, but police said he was
> > going so fast that the helmet didn't prevent serious head injury.
> > With warmer weather and triathlon-training season in full swing, police
> > are warning trail-users to be careful, especially on mixed-use trails.
>
> What sort of idiot trains for triathlons (or any sort of racing) on a path
> of any kind?

Well, this rider wasn't a triathlete, as far as I know. Given his riding
partner, I strongly suspect he was just riding a road bike, no tri-bars
at all.

This is an unusual path. Paved, but purely recreational. It is 10 km
long, and dead-ends at a lake, that, owing to its role as a primary
water reservoir for the region, is entirely off-limits to the public.
Thus a single trip out and back is 20 km, and in general the traffic is
almost entirely cyclists and a handful of hardcore skaters after the
first km or two (there's a few attractive picnic areas in that first km
or so, which is where the walkers go).

This accident happened near the busy end of the path, I think.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[me]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:55:20 +0000, Ryan Cousineau wrote:

> This one has it all: a helmet, a multi-use path, and well, an awful
> ending.
>
> http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2007/06/21/4277604-sun.html
>
> "Helmet doesn't save cyclist from head injury."
> By ROBYN STUBBS, 24 HOURS
>
> [I'm copying in the rest because it's short and because this paper isn't
> good with link volatility]
>
> A North Vancouver cyclist is in hospital with serious head injuries
> after an unlikely collision with a rollerblader on a park trail Tuesday.
> The accident occurred at the nine-kilometre mark of the Seymour
> Demonstration Forest's paved trail.
>
> The investigation so far has revealed a 24-year-old North Vancouver
> woman was rollerblading on the wrong side of the path when a cyclist
> travelling at a high speed came around a blind corner and collided with
> her.
>
> The 42-year-old cyclist was wearing a helmet, but police said he was
> going so fast that the helmet didn't prevent serious head injury.
> With warmer weather and triathlon-training season in full swing, police
> are warning trail-users to be careful, especially on mixed-use trails.
>
> [end story]
>
> The cyclist was the friend of a friend. The friend was riding with him
> at the time. The tragic punchline is that the injured rider has now died.
>
> This was on a multi-use path. It's a 10 km pavement to nowhere that I
> described here not long ago. And indeedy, the riders were riding
> quickly. I wouldn't care to guess at the speed.
>
> Tragic fuel for the usual fires here. Try not to read too much into an
> anecdote, though, either way, except to never assume that MUPs are
> purely the province of low-speed accidents.
>

My 0.02

They are both at fault here, From descriptions given, the path is wide
enough the skater should have been on her side of the path. The cyclist
should not have ridden at speed around a blind corner. What happened to
not going faster than you can safely stop in the space visible?

There is a nice little downhill on a MUP I ride that sweeps around a blind
corner at the bottom. You better believe I use the bell, give up a lot of
that lovely momentum *and* cover the brakes.

I would like to see the report on this, and find out what they mean by
"high speed"

Sad.

 

[catzz66]

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
>
> Well, this rider wasn't a triathlete, as far as I know. Given his riding
> partner, I strongly suspect he was just riding a road bike, no tri-bars
> at all.
>
> This is an unusual path. Paved, but purely recreational. It is 10 km
> long, and dead-ends at a lake, that, owing to its role as a primary
> water reservoir for the region, is entirely off-limits to the public.
> Thus a single trip out and back is 20 km, and in general the traffic is
> almost entirely cyclists and a handful of hardcore skaters after the
> first km or two (there's a few attractive picnic areas in that first km
> or so, which is where the walkers go).
>
> This accident happened near the busy end of the path, I think.
>

I have had so many close calls that I try to anticipate them as much as
I can. Joggers and walkers make unexpected u-turns because they are not
aware of what's behind them. So many of them are listening to music or
whatever on ear bud speakers. People walking dogs carelessly let them
wander all over the pathway. I find that the cyclists have much better
road manners than the other users. I feel sorry for the victim and his
family. Whether or not he was not at fault at all, I can see how
something like this could easily happen.