Originally Posted by sggoodri

There are plenty of advocates for "same roads, same rights, same rules" who also support off-road paths. These paths can't support cars safely, due to their design, but are adequate for slower, lighter, narrower bikes, and that's great. Cyclists traveling on them should still endeavor to operate according to the basic "rules of the road," however, to avoid crashing into other bicyclists, and will have to use extra caution around pedestrians. The rules reduce crashes for cyclists on regardless of whether the other traffic is cars or bicycles or whether the facility is a wide road or a narrow path. It's best to treat narrow paths as miniature roads.



As I said before, the basic rules of the road reduce crashes for drivers of all vehicle types. Changing them makes users less predictable and increases the likelihood of crashes. There are some restrictions on motor vehicles that are required for safety or to reduce damage to roads due directly to their weight, speed, or size; these restrictions don't have any reasonable applicability to bicycles. But the basic right of way rules, destination positioning, and so forth apply equally well for crash prevention for all drivers of vehicles because of the common elements of driver perception, cognition, reaction, and vehicle maneuverability constraints.