- Travis Gasper
Dear Katy Trail Cyclists,
Those signs that say, “Maintain a safe speed”? Not just for decoration!
I run with only one earbud in, not so I can enjoy HALF of Lady Gaga’s music, but so I can maybe get some warning as you fly by at 20 mph. How about this: you say, “passing on left,” and I promise to look behind me before turning or stopping, k?
Maybe this way we never again have to read about someone getting hit or killed on the Katy.
Love,
Travis
We promise. But you also have to promise not to run with your dog, not to run two or three abreast with your friends, and to use the pedestrian pathway where it is provided, not the bike lanes.
Interesting comment-if memory serves me I can’t recall the last time there was someone hit or killed by a pedestrian. Just like the rules on the road, if everyone follows them there won’t be a problem.
Yes Travis! My mother was in town this past weekend and the pedestrian pathway is not always there as she discovered and we were nearly taken out by two people blazing down the trail on their bikes as two DPD officers stood and watched. My mother looked at the officers and said, “I don’t think THAT was a safe speed!” They just looked at her like she was crazy as the bike riders flew on down the trail.
I also jog the katy trail and I try to stay on the designated pedestrian trail. This would help with some of the traffic. I’m not saying that cyclist are always right but my parents taught me to look both ways before I cross the street and that needs to be a rule for walkers/joggers. Also cyclists/skaters need to be aware that SPEED KILLS.
Travis,
I’ve got a workout for ya that’ll keep you off the Katy Trail and out of harms way from speeding cyclists. You won’t need any earbuds either. Just you and me and some horizontal hula.
HAHAHA! Montemalone, I’ll recommend that to my mother next time she’s in town. 😉 I’ll send her knocked at your door.
From what I discovered on the Trinity Trail in Fort Worth, few citizens really know the proper “trail” etiquette. For them, the “trail” is an extension of the sidewalk in the front of their house, seemingly, as they do all of the bad behaviour things mentioned . . . all the while being in their own world. And then there were the groups of fast bike people obviously in some kind of training . . . who didn’t seem to mind riding side-by-side, BUT they (and others) did warn “Passing on the left”–when I heard that, I’d usually get a little closer to the right side of the pavement.
If one is in any kind of competitive bike training, it’s more difficult to find a safe and decent place to train (especially mileage-wise) than it is to find a place to run–the weekly bike shop-sponsored rides are not close enough for such training AND present their own flaky situations/interactions with vehicle traffic on the public roads they use.
Bike riders and runners should be able to co-exist on the same trail, but some in either group will always seem to have “issues” of some kind, one way or another.
A start would be for the DPD officers to have portable hand-held radar and issue tickets (a moving violation ticket just as if they were in a car) and also give tickets to runners for not being good pedestrians. BOTH sides will need to make concerted efforts to better co-exist on the trail.