slcbob

I'm usually a kill-'em-all, pro-Darwinian type very happy to join you on the highground looking down and mocking the stupid people. Not so fast this time, though. My two cents from the cheap seats -- if I were a pedestrian on that bridge, I'd probably be in the wrong place. The lane markings don't immediately leap out to me and make a lot of sense. I do get it now that you've pointed it out. Sounds like Eagle Eye may have, too. Good of you to offer a mild correction. Perhaps now the kid in his stroller will survive for long enough to be as stupid as its Dad.

Pretty good man-on-the-spot photography. In such a law abiding place as NYC, I'm amazed at the recklessness of those pedestrians. Thank goodness those NYC bikers would never disregard traffic directions, propriety, and courtesy.

goodboynyc

Everyone in NYC feels entitled to do whatever they want. Me? I feel entitled to snuff fools while biking.

AdamDZ

There are signs overhead showing where bikes and peds should be going, plus most people follow the rules so the pattern should be very clear. You can't tell that from these snaps but I'm sure you would not have any problems figuring this out. I think its is arrogance after all, as someone above pointed out, not stupidity, and being self-centered.

AdamDZ

Hey, I'm totally with you. I am not defending cyclists here, just describing a funny incident I had. Cyclists, salmons mostly, get on me nerves too.

seawind161

LOL, reminds me of JoeyBike's "meanderthals".

exile

I'm confused by the markings on the road. It looks like an arrow pointing in the direction he was heading, but I can't tell if it shows a bike or pedestrian sign behind it? However reading your post AdamDZ, it sounds like there are markings overhead.

colleen c

Please don't feel bad. You're doing them a big favor. Good habit has to start somewhere. If they are so oblivious to their surrounding, a warning or two might just save their lives one day.

Some Itune lover are so tuned to their mp3, they are in the far side of the galaxy. I once blasted this guy with my Airzound indoor at the train station. I was going down the stair holding my bike waist high with one hand on the handlebar. He was walking up the same stair on a suicidal mission with his head on a direct collision course to my wheel. I shouted at him and he kept his head tilted down staring at his Iphone with those super sized headphone jamming away. I started to lower my bike immediately and hit the Airzound horn. He almost crap in his trouser but it stopped him right away. It was his lucky day. My wheel was within a foot of wacking his family jewel inbetween his leg. Imagine him losing that to my Armadillo. Maybe, just maybe there a small chance that person awareness has raised a notch or two.

goodboynyc

To exile, https://gothamist.com/2010/04/06/as_p...ed_the_dot.php

If you look at the image below the headline, the Williamsburg Bridge today follows the "Proposed" image. So the blundering fool talking while strolling isn't even going WITH bicycle traffic. He seems to be straddling the shoulder lane of the bridge.

Rollfast

If it's useless then why bother teaching them any other ways to do it wrong and just adapt your relative rightness -1 or -2?

scorch

Its not really a big deal IMO. What im guessing is the guy just got on the trail, and it looks like there was a cyclist in front of him, so maybe he chose not to cross over and get in your path and was eventually going to cross over after you crossed, maybe thats why he said he just got there?

Honestly, even if he is in the Bike lane, why approach him? There are tons of people always going the wrong way etc.. Who elected you officer of the trail? No offense by the way, i would never approach him over something some petty as that.


It makes me think in the future we will need police patrolling trails.

10 Wheels

Going by this he is going the right direction,

spooner

Sometimes I have to gently remind people that here in the U.S. we walk on the same side that we drive - the right.

I honestly think that a lot of people don't realize this.

goodboynyc

That pedestrian sign is old(or at least it wasn't removed properly). All cyclists ride on the right half of the exit and pedestrians walk on the Left half of the exit.

nice_marmot

Reminds me of the springtime tourists in D.C. who get all huffy when you ask them to stand on the right side of the Metro escalators so you can run down and catch your freakin' train home. Jerks. People LIVE here.

AdamDZ

These are not that visible and are clearly painted over. For some reason they're more visible on the picture than in reality, they're just shades of gray on black asphalt.

Actually... um, no. In NYS and most other states the pedestrians are supposed to walk against the traffic, on the left, if no sidewalk is present.

No, I said the thread was useless as in "I'm preaching to the choir", I still believe that in some cases you really ought tell people that they're doing something wrong. Can't just shut up and go about your own business.

AdamDZ

He was on the wrong side from the beginning. Plenty of other people had no such problem. As I said before, what ticked me off is that he was pushing a stroller with a small kid. That kid would be seriously hurt if a bike crashed into them, because his dad is a mucking foron.

NYPD doesn't give a rat's ass about peds and cyclists.

spooner

Agreed. I was discussing Multi-use paths.

Sirrus Rider

There's no point in it. Zombies like that are absolute experts in stupidity and will just drag you down.

bjornb

Seriously, life improved for me when I stopped caring about things like this.

tjspiel

Wow, some of you guys are pretty harsh. I see no problem in politely pointing out to the guy that he's in the wrong place but referring to the guy as a moron is a little over the top. Yes, I realize that no one has done to his face.

Clearly at one point in this MUPs existence, he would have been in the right place. Maybe it's the first time he's used the MUP in a while and just went to that spot out of habit? Maybe it was his first time there period? In my experience MUP signage seems adequate IF you know where to look for the signs. They rarely jump out at you, however

Also, I doubt he or his kid were in much danger. He was barely in the bike lane at all. Any cyclist could clearly see him and he, them. It hardly looks like there are swarms of bikes anyway and in my experience, there just aren't that many cyclists doing 20+ on MUPs. In fact, if there are a lot of bikes on the MUP, you probably shouldn't be going that fast.

What this reminds me of is the way some drivers act when cyclists dare to use THEIR lanes instead of the nice MUP or bike lane.

For the sake of full disclosure I'll admit that at night I sometimes run on the cycling paths in certain areas because the Ped paths aren't adequately lit everywhere. I run in the left lane so I can see if there are any bikes coming. There rarely are at that hour, but if I do see one, I step off the MUP.

wheeldeal

What type of camera are you using?

AdamDZ

Oh, that is a complete mess in NYC. This bridge had peds walking against the traffic before the re-painting, other bridges are different. There seems to be no definitive rule for peds and bikes traffic on MUPs here (they're not called MUPs either).

A.

AdamDZ

The cheap keychain camera from eBay. There is another thread about those actually.

AdamDZ

That part of the bridge goes down for several hundred meters, it's very common to see bikes go very fast. Even a clunker can easily hit 20mph there without much effort from the rider. I think there were actually bike-pedestrian collisions on that part in the past, before the lanes were re-painted to separate bikes and peds.

Yes, I was very calm and polite and I didn't yell at him or call him names.

mikeybikes

Kinda how I feel too.