MattTheHat Oh, I get you. Well, I should have done a better job, I guess. What I really mind are the following:
1. Lack of respect for rules. If a rule says "keep right except to pass," then I expect riders to
stay to the right when passing oncoming traffic. Our MUP does not have room for two-abreast passing in most places, and traffic is light enough in those same places that moving over isn't difficult
for almost everyone.
2. Lack of respect for others' safety. Rules are rules, but if a family is breaking them, and stretching out across the path, Mom showing cousin her new tattoo while dad distributes snacks to the kids and grandma ... well, is grandma-ing ... then
I don't think you ride through that group at speed. I think you maybe say "folks, maybe it would be best to move off the path (as there's a huge, wide, shoulder)" or whatever, but i don't think one should make a point when doing so may risk an injury to any party.
3. I don't really care what speed one is going - if one
follows posted rules and does considerate things like call out your passing when you're unsure if the party ahead has seen/not seen you. And I call out "passing" or "coming around' or "on your left" then you should move to the right of the yellow line.
Finally, I assume that we agree that all rules are meant to be generally understood and applied not for their own sake, but so that
we all go home healthy and intact. The person who grabbed my bars is part of a group that rides in a formation that I'd describe as "semi-paceline" (about 7-8 rides, 2-3 riders across) and they literally ride so that others are forced off the path or to the very edge. (I will add that these tools can't even steer well, but you get my drift).
They forced some slow-moving cyclists on beach cruisers onto the shoulder, and I used a noun that in hindsight was absolutely perfectly fitting. One of them took umbrage, sprinted after me, pulled alongside and grabbed my handlebars. That's not OK, at all, at any speed, but doing so when I'm nearer 20 than 5 mph was meant to illustrate the disregard for safety by this person.
It's a shared path, and sharing means respecting rules (even if one doesn't like them), and operating by the Golden Rule as well: do unto others as ... etc.
The vast majority of users do fine with all of this - those of us who 'see' each other every week for years wave, etc. People are nice. You'll never want for help if you get a flat in ABQ. But the few iceholes that muck it up are, sad to say, rather similar to the gentleman in the story (meaning: expensive gear, presumption of experience). Which means: they're not ignorant, they're
choosing to be iceholes.
I do not care for such people.