"catzz66" wrote in message
...
Peter Cole wrote:


I've never understood the appeal of RR ROW trails, they're so boring.

Well, to me the obvious answer is that it is the only land available. It
lends itself to multiple use paths since there are already overpasses
built, etc. Because it is a MUP, ours is cluttered with ambling walkers,
people walking pets and generally not respecting an open lane for faster
traffic. Even though I can go 7 miles to downtown with two stops on a
MUP, if the weather's nice it is more hazardous than the streets because
of all the slower traffic.

Wondering about your "respecting an open lane for faster traffic" there....
the MUP I rode on yesterday wasn't terribly wide; it's the kind of path
where you could pretty much comfortably have 2 bikes riding side-by-side one
way pass ONE bike riding the other way - that about maxes the "bandwidth" of
the trail which was probably no more than 6-7 feet wide most of its length.

Do you feel that there should always be an "open lane" for you to pass peds,
joggers, slower bikers?

The signage I saw (and common sense agrees) said "yield to slower traffic on
path" - makes sense to me. On roads, cars are required to yield to us on
bikes when we're properly riding and have ROW.

I'd think that the idea that people "not respecting an open lane for faster
traffic" is a repetition of the idea frustrated drivers have about us when
we take the lane or "force" them into having to go around us to pass. Since
we're probably in agreement that this is something cars should and need to
deal with, why wouldn't we hold the same courtesy toward slower users on
MUPs?

Maybe I've got your take on this wrong, help me out here. I'm not excusing
people who block the entire width of a MUP of course, though that seems
pretty infrequent. Usually it's more that one has to slow a bit to wait for
a break to pass the slower traffic, just like cars do with us on roads.

brink