Or the woman today, walking down the center of the trail with her back to me yakking on her phone, not hearing me as I ride up behind her saying "passing on your left" until I'm actually passing on her left and she pivots to the left right in front of me so I had to lock up both wheels and skid off the trail.
I passed the same woman on the trail yesterday. She gave me the stink eye but I noticed she was walking over on the right side and giving riders plenty of room to pass. Good on her.
I noticed a couple questions come up about riders and I'd like to shed some light on those for those who don't ride. The first one was "why don't cyclists ride as far to the right as possible?" The answer is twofold, potholes and debris on the shoulder. Potholes in the driving lane get fixed pretty quick, on the shoulder not so much. Then there's the debris on the road--gravel, nuts, bolts, nails, broken hose clamps, you name it. Debris in the driving lane gets kicked off to the shoulder. If you ride on the white line there's no debris because vehicles keep it clear. But get a few feet off to the right and you've got all kinds of schit that will puncture a bike tire. I've had two flats in the last two weeks.
The second question or comment rather was about bikers on trails riding fast and "pretending they're Lance Armstrong." Personally my top speed is around 23 mph so there are no time trials in my future. But I guess the question is, "why do you have to ride fast?" My answer is, if I give pedestrians the right of way and avoid hitting them (I do) why do you care how fast I ride? Also, the reason I ride is to get a workout. You can't get a workout on a bike unless you push yourself and if you push yourself you'll be moving at a good clip. The thing is, if others using the trail exercise just a modicum of courtesy, riding fast is never a problem. Last, there's these things called "hills." If you're riding downhill two things will happen in short order: 1) You'll get to the bottom of the hill; and 2) you'll start back uphill. I tell ya, it didn't take me long to figure out the faster you're going when you start up a hill the easier it is to get to the top. So yes, when I'm going downhill I take full advantage of the physics.
Last, I'll make a comment about a group of trail users that needs to clean up its act---dog walkers. You're in the middle of a thousand acre park with wide open spaces all around and you not only let your dog schit on a paved trail, but you leave it lay there?
And every single one of 'em drove a vehicle to the park.
