I've been in a similar situation and was completely obliterated by a girl on her bike. Just not paying attention and bam. She was fine, although quite shaken up by the fact that she had just seen me go sailing over the handlebars (don't ask how I went that way with a rear end collision) with the bike on top of me. She did stick around to make sure I was alright though. In retrospect, I should have gotten her number.... she was cute
Originally Posted by
apricissimus
There's also a s--t happens element to this. You can't tell when a five year old kid is going to pop out of nowhere. And not knowing how fast the two of you were going, it's tough to say whether the guy behind you had enough time to stop or otherwise get out of the way. If you stopped very quickly, he might not have been as close to you as you think.
Rules of the road (in a car) state that you're still a jerk if you fail to yield to a stopped vehicle. If I'm tooling along at 40 and slam on my brakes, the person behind me should still be able to stop without hitting me. I know, because I was one the idiot/jerk once (in my old car) and got the law read to me by the officer. Yeah, this was a bike path, but no, I don't believe its any different. The guy who slammed into the one stopped was at fault and was very discourteous to just get up and leave though, I've gotta believe that if that much damage happened to one bike, that the other guy had some injuries (personal and the bike) as well.
Originally Posted by
Hobartlemagne
Don't ride on the paths. Stuff like this happens all the time.
Its been said before but not all bike paths are created equal.
Edit: In regards to drafting in general, I found myself being super self-conscious about it while riding behind someone simply because of this board. Were it not for some of these posts I likely would be one of those people who others hate. I say this just to show that its not necessarily common knowledge. Yes, personal space does matter, but not everyone shares the same ideals and boundaries.