Originally Posted by
philbob57
To clarify:
1) I don't play chicken with young schmucks. When I see a bike being ridden no handed coming towards me, and the bike isn't going in a straight line, I'll ride a few yards at the bike. If that doesn't do the trick, I go back into my lane and slow down and suppress the urge to whack the kid.
2) I just slow down for kids who are pretty clearly learning to ride. I'm not happy with the parents, who shouldn't take their kids on a MUP until they can ride in their lanes, but as for the kids themselves, I'm happy to give them the time they need to learn.
If not on a MUP, where is a kid supposed to learn how to ride in a lane? I think those parents are doing exactly the right thing as long as they do everything they can to make their kid's presence known to other cyclists. The only thing I've ever said to "correct" such parents is to tell them they didn't need to apologize because teaching kids is a big part of what the paths are for.
If someone is closing with me head-on in my own lane, I'm yelling at them to move over. They obviously don't get it for some reason, and I'm not going to wait for the light bulb to go on over their head. I don't care what the situation is, I think intentionally riding at their bike at any distance close enough to send some sort of message is a really, really bad idea.