"Blackblade" wrote in message ...

Edward Dolan wrote:

A good complaint is a good complaint. Most users do not
complain no matter what is transpiring. Percentages don’t
matter.

Nonsense. If a thousand people use a trail and only one
complains about what is transpiring then, however good the complaint, that
suggests that it's a minority view.

Not so ... BECAUSE most folks will never complain -
period.

So, go and ASK them ... be active. But my fundamental point remains ... you cannot discern the sentiment of the gamut of trail users from the missives of a tiny, unreasonable minority.

There is nothing tiny nor unreasonable about the complaints that are coming into governmental boards and park managers. It takes time and effort to register a complaint. Most folks will not bother. Like me, they are lazy.

The information that I do have about the hiking community which,
by the way, I also belong to is that the vast majority have no issue with
sharing trails in most circumstances. The surveys that have been conducted
support that view. If you want to disprove it then provide me with some
data ... tell me what is going on in the hiking community ... but with real
figures not just your 'thousands' which has been rather discredited.
Otherwise, it's just hearsay from you and, as I'm sure you're aware, hearsay
isn't admissible in evidence .. for good reason.

The only figures I am interested in are real life complaints
from hikers and equestrians ... of which there are plenty.

Well, you seem to be producing a lot of complaints yourself ... but that hardly makes your point :-).

Mr. Vandeman is constantly posting via his newsletters not only the dangers of mountain biking on hiking trails from reports in the media, but also the particular complaints from the hiking and equestrian communities against bikers on trails to specific park boards and specific park superintendents. Unless you are up on these newsletters, you simply don’t know what you are blathering about.

Mountain bikes have wheels. Wheels are for roads.

Trails are for walking. What’s the matter? Can’t walk?

Ed Dolan the Great
aka
Saint Edward the Great