un-shared paths question



T

Tamyka Bell

Guest
Has anyone had any luck getting pedestrians busted for using paths
marked "cyclists only"?

Some middle-aged guy was wandering down the massive downhill near mains
rd on the SE-Fwy bikepath today. This is the kind of hill where, start
at zero at the top and don't bother pedalling, you'll be well over 50
before the halfway mark. So I stop and say "Excuse me Sir" at which
point he pulls out his earphones and I say "This path is meant to be for
cyclists only, and people tend to fly down this hill, so you should be
very careful" at which point he tells me "f%&k off and mind your own
business".

Now given that I was concerned that he might get injured and was only
offering a polite suggestion, I was quite offended and I must
congratulate myself that he didn't promptly receive some repetitive size
40 to the head. What a stupid man. I hope he got hit by a cyclist,
didn't damage the bike, didn't damage the cyclist, and the brain damage
that the pedestrian got made him suddenly have a normal IQ instead of
one so far below average.

Another point to note. I used my bell once only this morning. The woman
jumped about a foot in the air and told me off for scaring her. No such
problem when I called out "passing on your right/left" (yes some
pedestrians choose to keep right...) and in fact most of them said
thanks.

T

PS someone has entered me in Hell's Bells on the 13-14 Nov...
 
Tamyka Bell said:
Has anyone had any luck getting pedestrians busted for using paths
marked "cyclists only"?

....This path is meant to be for cyclists only......

T

...
Brisbane must be very enlightened now to have bike only paths. I don't think Perth has any that are not shared paths. I'm heading to Brisbane to see the family at Christmas, the temptation to take a bike on the plane is getting greater and greater.

SteveA
 
"Tamyka Bell"
> Has anyone had any luck getting pedestrians busted for using paths
> marked "cyclists only"?


Hmm, if only such things existed in Perth (cyclists only paths that is).
I would have thought that walking on a cyclists only path would be like
walking down the middle of a road. Some people have no idea.

(snip)

> Another point to note. I used my bell once only this morning. The woman
> jumped about a foot in the air and told me off for scaring her. No such
> problem when I called out "passing on your right/left" (yes some
> pedestrians choose to keep right...) and in fact most of them said
> thanks.


I was finding the same thing. A bell would often scare the . . . . out of
pedestrians, whereas calling out seemed to get a calmer reaction, and more
to the point would more frequently elicit a reaction Pedestrians would
often just ignore the bell, but when I call out they turn to look and see
what is going on.
Maybe I should try the "passing on . . ." approach, I just call out "Bike".
Yesterday I had to go onto a section of path because I had no choice, the
road had been blocked for bridge works. It was only a short section of
path, and I was going very slowly because it is mostly used by pedestrians,
I called out "bike" to a couple of pedestrians, and one moved over, the
other just commented with a sarcastic "so it is" as I slowly went past. What
more do you want, I thought to myself!?

bjay
 
bjay wrote:
> I would have thought that walking on a cyclists only path would be like
> walking down the middle of a road.



I copped 2 guys walking down the middle of the road last week on my
commute. I rang the bell and they jumped either side so I started to
ride between them. Then at the last minute one of them decided he was
lonely and leapt across to be with his mate right in my path. I'm still
not sure how I avoided that one but there was a fair bit of swearing
involved.

DaveB
 
Tamyka Bell said:
...I used my bell once only this morning. The woman
jumped about a foot in the air and told me off for scaring her. No such
problem when I called out "passing on your right/left" (yes some
pedestrians choose to keep right...) and in fact most of them said
thanks.

i tend to give (usually) two short rings, separated by a few seconds, when on a shared bikepath. this gives me a chance to gauge the reaction of the pedestrian. if they respond to my long-range warning, everything is fine. if they don't, the subtext is telling them i'm serious.

michael.
 
Tamyka Bell said:
Has anyone had any luck getting pedestrians busted for using paths
marked "cyclists only"?

Some middle-aged guy was wandering down the massive downhill near mains
rd on the SE-Fwy bikepath today. This is the kind of hill where, start
at zero at the top and don't bother pedalling, you'll be well over 50
before the halfway mark. So I stop and say "Excuse me Sir" at which
point he pulls out his earphones and I say "This path is meant to be for
cyclists only, and people tend to fly down this hill, so you should be
very careful" at which point he tells me "f%&k off and mind your own
business".

T

...
easy solution - make it legal for bike cops to run over peds walking down middle of bike only paths. Hell, make it legal for anyone on a bike to run over the idiots. (I have my head in the books trying to study so I have not been on a bike for 3 days and I'm grumpy)

SteveA
 
Seems to be happening to frequently these days. People with heads buried in the sand don't like to told anything and would sooner rip your head off than take some friendly advice. They're also the ones who scream that police should be out catching "real" criminals and not wasting their taxes putting drug dealers behind bars. Has something to do with the way we've all become very self absorbed I believe.
 
Seems to be happening to frequently these days. People with heads buried in the sand don't like to told anything and would sooner rip your head off than take some friendly advice. They're also the ones who scream that police should be out catching "real" criminals and not wasting their taxes putting drug dealers behind bars. Has something to do with the way we've all become very self absorbed I believe.
 
Seems to be happening to frequently these days. People with heads buried in the sand don't like to told anything and would sooner rip your head off than take some friendly advice. They're also the ones who scream that police should be out catching "real" criminals and not wasting their taxes putting drug dealers behind bars. Has something to do with the way we've all become very self absorbed I believe.
 
Seems to be happening to frequently these days. People with heads buried in the sand don't like to told anything and would sooner rip your head off than take some friendly advice. They're also the ones who scream that police should be out catching "real" criminals and not wasting their taxes putting drug dealers behind bars. Has something to do with the way we've all become very self absorbed I believe.
 
Paul J said:
Seems to be happening to frequently these days. People with heads buried in the sand don't like to told anything and would sooner rip your head off than take some friendly advice. They're also the ones who scream that police should be out catching "real" criminals and not wasting their taxes putting drug dealers behind bars. Has something to do with the way we've all become very self absorbed I believe.
Ex police sergeant mate (also a cyclist) told me that when people did incredibly stupid things in front of his marked police car and he stopped and reminded them of how dangerous/illegal their actions were (he was not traffic branch and giving traffic infringement notices was more work than it was worth unless the infringement was serious so he exercised his discretion to just give a warning) he often copped a string of obscenities in response to his friendly advice. So they often got booked even though he had no intention of issuing an infringement notice and it was in fact more work for him.

SteveA
 
On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 at 04:34 GMT, SteveA (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> more work than it was worth unless the infringement was serious so he
> exercised his discretion to just give a warning) he often copped a
> string of obscenities in response to his friendly advice. So they
> often got booked even though he had no intention of issuing an
> infringement notice and it was in fact more work for him.


Some people just deserve a LART.

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
 *** System shutdown message from root ***
System going down in 60 seconds
 
No, but good luck with trying it! I think you did very well keeping calm.
There is no point in stooping to their level.
You could try ringing the police but they may not be overly responsive?!?!!

Cheers,

Dennis


"Tamyka Bell" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Has anyone had any luck getting pedestrians busted for using paths
> marked "cyclists only"?
>
> Some middle-aged guy was wandering down the massive downhill near mains
> rd on the SE-Fwy bikepath today. This is the kind of hill where, start
> at zero at the top and don't bother pedalling, you'll be well over 50
> before the halfway mark. So I stop and say "Excuse me Sir" at which
> point he pulls out his earphones and I say "This path is meant to be for
> cyclists only, and people tend to fly down this hill, so you should be
> very careful" at which point he tells me "f%&k off and mind your own
> business".
>
> Now given that I was concerned that he might get injured and was only
> offering a polite suggestion, I was quite offended and I must
> congratulate myself that he didn't promptly receive some repetitive size
> 40 to the head. What a stupid man. I hope he got hit by a cyclist,
> didn't damage the bike, didn't damage the cyclist, and the brain damage
> that the pedestrian got made him suddenly have a normal IQ instead of
> one so far below average.
>
> Another point to note. I used my bell once only this morning. The woman
> jumped about a foot in the air and told me off for scaring her. No such
> problem when I called out "passing on your right/left" (yes some
> pedestrians choose to keep right...) and in fact most of them said
> thanks.
>
> T
>
> PS someone has entered me in Hell's Bells on the 13-14 Nov...