On 7/20/2018 2:33 PM, Duane wrote:

snip

Not to mention that blinding the idiot heading straight for you may not be
the best plan...

Proper lights don't blind people. They make vehicles more conspicuous.

A light and a ding-bell are both useful on bike paths where there are
distracted pedestrians that are oblivious to other path users. "Idiot"
is unhelpful. "Oblivious" is better, unless they are looking at their
phone and not at their surroundings.

On the paths around here, there are usually only very limited parts of
the path that have many people with strollers or kids on tricycles, once
you're a half mile away from easy access points there is little problem.
Runners are not a problem. Some of these paths have a lot access points
from surrounding neighborhoods and commercial areas, and at each
neighborhood access point there will be a short distance where you get
the strollers, tricycles etc..

The path I use the most, the Stevens Creek Trail, somehow forgot to put
in the required parking lots at each end, that are apparently a
necessary component of every bicycle path in some other parts of the
country, though in neighborhoods there is usually some street parking
available.

Where the Stevens Creek Trail ends, where the creek ends and empties
into the bay, you can continue to the right or left on other trails,
one of which goes through Shoreline Park and on to Palo Alto. There is a
big parking lot in Shoreline Park. There is a parking lot at the Palo
Alto Baylands, though that's not the end of the trail either. All the
parking lots were in existence long before the path, there were not
added to serve path users.