Originally Posted by Mr. Underbridge
No, of course not - if you're saying 'on your left!' every 5 seconds, that's your cue that said MUP is not in a condition for speedy cycling - as you point out.
So what is it in a condition for? Staying home and not using it, because you've got the audacity to ride a bicycle? Or, if you're riding along at a crawl, should you still constantly say, "On your left"?
Unfortunately, I've noticed lately that some peds have taken to intentionally walking against traffic on the MUP, no doubt because they're sick of being buzzed by silent cyclists. So to those who find no reason to ever announce...there's your result.
Er, well, perhaps. Is it a reasonable result? I'm not so sure. Given that a pedestrian on a MUP is in an environment where they may reasonably expect other users of the
Multi Use Path to be using the path in other ways -- and that most of those ways involve moving faster than a pedestrian -- I think that this pedestrian bears some responsibility to maintain awareness of other traffic. I don't think it's too much to ask to turn your head and look behind you from time to time. It seems to me that that's part of the pedestrian's accomodation to other types of users on a Multi Use Path. Cyclists have to make some accomodations; pedestrians should as well.