Peds v. bikes
So, it happened again today. I was cruising the bike path around Lake Nokomis and three separate times I passed pedestrians on my path. Not on the foot path, where they belong, but walking down the bike path. It's curious behavior. I mean, it's not as if there isn't a perfectly good ped path, and closer to the lake, to boot. So what makes people want to walk on the bike path?
I stopped a couple of guys on Lake Harriet one morning and asked them. They said they wanted to run on the green next to the bike path, which is fine I guess, but they weren't. They were walking...on the bike path... I suggested to them--pleasantly--that were I to ride on the ped path I'd catch hell for it, and probably from the first pedestrian I passed.
"Your right," one admitted. "It's not really fair, is it."
I didn't stay to see if they changed course, but I hope I made them think.
There are signs along the Lake Harriet bike path that say, "If you don't have wheels beneath you, you're on the wrong path." Which I think is a fairly friendly way of putting it. I try to follow that example when I feel an instructive moment coming on.
Today, I just looked quizzically the two-footers as I glided by.
So, any thoughts folks?
What's so appealing about the bike path that makes pedestrians (even moms with strollers) willing to risk a probably painful collision with a bike? Is the asphalt really smoother on the other side of the lawn?
Happy trails to ya.
