I learned so much from this post! We get quite a lot of horses on the lanes around here - narrow, with overgrown hedges and verges and with very little space for (motor) vehicles to pass safely. We're very used to slowing right down and not passing until or unless it's safe, but I see - and hear - other road users revving their engines and overtaking without leaving enough space, and the horses and riders must find it so alarming.
Oh that's horrible! I hope there are "rodeos" to follow as the cars speed by them. People have a strange relationship with horses these days, too. They don't value them nor do they respect the riders. After all, the riders are enslaving these poor beasts without their consent, right? Bosh! Don't get me started.
Very informative, Sue, and nicely written with empathy for all trail users! We have mixed-use trails right here in URBAN Santa Cruz and on campus. They are used by walkers, people in wheel chairs, baby strollers, equestrians, dog walkers, old folks out for a walk -- and bicycles. The cyclists are always in such a hurry and they do put all the others in danger. I am not saying ALL cyclists, but there have been many many accidents. It is a problem that needs resolution.
A couple of friends and I were standing on a sidewalk in San Jose when a bicyclist came toward us, yelled get out of the way, and rammed one of my friend between the legs, sending her backward a few feet and landing on her tailbone. The rider was shocked by what happened and she got a ration of anger from my friend. The biker was told that it was illegal for bicyclists to use the sidewalk except if they're walking their bikes. My friend was in deep pain for a long time, but lucky nothing was broken or ruptured. It could've been so much worse.
Being a Mountain Biker and cyclist in general, I agree with you. Dismounting and halting or if there's room, walking one's bike past the Horse, is not only the courteous thing to do but also the safest. Here's in the PNW we also have to contend with mountain biking dopes who goes blasting by you on hiking trails. Their ignorance and sense of self-entitlement enrages those of us who ride with our brains under a helmet and not up our own asses.
You have just reiterated my own rage toward mountain bikers who have no regard or respect for other users of the trails. That's why I wrote "Ghost in the Forest." I got to murder one guy who laughed at me as I jumped off the trail when he came up behind me and severely injure the other guy who came up behind him and heard what he said to me. Moments later (in the actual not literary incident), I heard yelling. Perhaps the sane one chewed out the asshole for being a dick. But I'll tell ya, Ed, the arrogance and entitlement Jeff and I saw at the initial meeting of the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition was stunning. Definitely the Get Out of My Way mentality.
I'll have to send this post to a friend who lives in Lake Tahoe. She's a hardcore environmentalist (as in Earth First hardcore) and she'd definitely show up to one of the next meetings to put the cyclists in their place.
I learned so much from this post! We get quite a lot of horses on the lanes around here - narrow, with overgrown hedges and verges and with very little space for (motor) vehicles to pass safely. We're very used to slowing right down and not passing until or unless it's safe, but I see - and hear - other road users revving their engines and overtaking without leaving enough space, and the horses and riders must find it so alarming.
Oh that's horrible! I hope there are "rodeos" to follow as the cars speed by them. People have a strange relationship with horses these days, too. They don't value them nor do they respect the riders. After all, the riders are enslaving these poor beasts without their consent, right? Bosh! Don't get me started.
Very informative, Sue, and nicely written with empathy for all trail users! We have mixed-use trails right here in URBAN Santa Cruz and on campus. They are used by walkers, people in wheel chairs, baby strollers, equestrians, dog walkers, old folks out for a walk -- and bicycles. The cyclists are always in such a hurry and they do put all the others in danger. I am not saying ALL cyclists, but there have been many many accidents. It is a problem that needs resolution.
A couple of friends and I were standing on a sidewalk in San Jose when a bicyclist came toward us, yelled get out of the way, and rammed one of my friend between the legs, sending her backward a few feet and landing on her tailbone. The rider was shocked by what happened and she got a ration of anger from my friend. The biker was told that it was illegal for bicyclists to use the sidewalk except if they're walking their bikes. My friend was in deep pain for a long time, but lucky nothing was broken or ruptured. It could've been so much worse.
That is absolutely horrifying, Sue. I'm so sad that happened to your friend.
Yikes.
Being a Mountain Biker and cyclist in general, I agree with you. Dismounting and halting or if there's room, walking one's bike past the Horse, is not only the courteous thing to do but also the safest. Here's in the PNW we also have to contend with mountain biking dopes who goes blasting by you on hiking trails. Their ignorance and sense of self-entitlement enrages those of us who ride with our brains under a helmet and not up our own asses.
You have just reiterated my own rage toward mountain bikers who have no regard or respect for other users of the trails. That's why I wrote "Ghost in the Forest." I got to murder one guy who laughed at me as I jumped off the trail when he came up behind me and severely injure the other guy who came up behind him and heard what he said to me. Moments later (in the actual not literary incident), I heard yelling. Perhaps the sane one chewed out the asshole for being a dick. But I'll tell ya, Ed, the arrogance and entitlement Jeff and I saw at the initial meeting of the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition was stunning. Definitely the Get Out of My Way mentality.
I'll have to send this post to a friend who lives in Lake Tahoe. She's a hardcore environmentalist (as in Earth First hardcore) and she'd definitely show up to one of the next meetings to put the cyclists in their place.
Tahoe bikers especially need a herd of bulldogs to rip their egos to shreds.