Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More - View Single Post - Multiuse trail rules: Left or Right side walking?

10-05-2003, 03:41 PM

kab wrote:
> This, coupled with the convention of walking to the left on roads with
> automobiles to face traffic, seems to make it sensible to adopt the
> rule of walking left on multiuse trails.

I'll buy all your reasons except this one. You don't seriously mean that it
makes any difference on what side you walk on to face oncoming traffic on a
trail do you. I think it would work nicely if pedestrians stayed on either
side and let faster moving vehicles like bikes and inline skaters etc
through in the middle. Reality shows us it isn't so though and unfortunately
I don't think legislation is going to change this until we have grown into
these rather newish phenomena.

I'll give you an example from here in Sweden where we of course have
legislation that deals with this in detail. OK so on every multiuse path we
have a sign with a bicycle and a person walking with a child in one hand.
There can also be pictures of horses and mopeds ( lightweight motorcycles
restricted to 30 km/h ) of course. I'll leave horses and mopeds out of the
discussion for now because I'm not sure how they are to be treated yet (
legally that is).
There are two kinds of signs for paths that are for pedestrians and bikes.
One has the picture of the person on top and the bike on the bottom. Clear
enough. Bikes stay to the right and walkers stay to the left.
The other one has the walker to either side and the bike to the other side.
Far out. They are actually telling you which side you are to be on.
Eeehhh. Let's see now, what did that last sign say. Was it to the... no or
was it to the. Besides they are of course only placed at the beginning of
each path. If ever I wanted to call somebody an idiot it is the person came
up with that stupid idea. Oh how I hope he reads this.

I gave up and am not even goin to try figure out how to yield for horses.
Actually horses and dogs are the easiest to cope with. I always call out to
them softly when a little distance off. They do not wear any headphones or
cellulars and *always* hear me.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

10-05-2003, 03:41 PM	#2 (permalink)
Per Elmsäter Posts: n/a	Re: Multiuse trail rules: Left or Right side walking? kab wrote: > This, coupled with the convention of walking to the left on roads with > automobiles to face traffic, seems to make it sensible to adopt the > rule of walking left on multiuse trails. I'll buy all your reasons except this one. You don't seriously mean that it makes any difference on what side you walk on to face oncoming traffic on a trail do you. I think it would work nicely if pedestrians stayed on either side and let faster moving vehicles like bikes and inline skaters etc through in the middle. Reality shows us it isn't so though and unfortunately I don't think legislation is going to change this until we have grown into these rather newish phenomena. I'll give you an example from here in Sweden where we of course have legislation that deals with this in detail. OK so on every multiuse path we have a sign with a bicycle and a person walking with a child in one hand. There can also be pictures of horses and mopeds ( lightweight motorcycles restricted to 30 km/h ) of course. I'll leave horses and mopeds out of the discussion for now because I'm not sure how they are to be treated yet ( legally that is). There are two kinds of signs for paths that are for pedestrians and bikes. One has the picture of the person on top and the bike on the bottom. Clear enough. Bikes stay to the right and walkers stay to the left. The other one has the walker to either side and the bike to the other side. Far out. They are actually telling you which side you are to be on. Eeehhh. Let's see now, what did that last sign say. Was it to the... no or was it to the. Besides they are of course only placed at the beginning of each path. If ever I wanted to call somebody an idiot it is the person came up with that stupid idea. Oh how I hope he reads this. I gave up and am not even goin to try figure out how to yield for horses. Actually horses and dogs are the easiest to cope with. I always call out to them softly when a little distance off. They do not wear any headphones or cellulars and always hear me. -- Perre You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.