Originally Posted by
JPprivate
I would always say that the faster/stronger one carries most of the responsibility for safety. A MUP is not your private racing track. On a MUP you must at any moment expect children (doing children things), dogs, people, tricycles etc. If you run into them, you are doing harm and you carry responsibility.
If you want to race get off the MUP and on the road.
I think the best approach is to take as much of the responsibility for safety into your own hands as you can, especially if you're not the stronger/faster one. The adults clearly eff'd up in this situation. Maybe they weren't aware that fast moving cyclists use the MUP, I don't know, but they should be teaching their kids how to use said trails correctly. By not supervising their kids, they are putting the kids and other users of the MUP at risk.
The OP probably shouldn't have been going that fast since he couldn't see around the corner but to lay the blame primarily on him is a mistake since he was at least following the rules. They share blame and it's pointless to argue who is most at fault.
Jeremy, I realize you feel bad and angry at the same time. I'm sorry that happened to you. The very positive outcome though is that nobody was seriously hurt and everyone involved most likely learned something valuable in a way that will stick without having to pay too much of a price.
As far as blame goes, the other question to ask is what are peds doing on a portion of the MUP with a posted speed limit of 20? The MUPs around here have separate "lanes" for peds and cyclists, often physically separated. Even with that the speed limit is only 10 mph in some places. Perhaps the operators of the MUP share some blame too.