You don’t know what cha don’t know. If you can’t ride dirt ride street.

A risk on waking up but still try to rise to the occasion. Keep on doing what you feel is right for you.

3 months before 61st B-day went down and was in a neck collar 24/7 sleeping/awake/showering with nothing allowed but walking for 16 weeks. Saw neurosurgeon end of 16 weeks and next day back on the bike.
3 months before 70th B-day was hit by a 300 pound wild hog resulting in cracked ribs+punctured lung+cracked scapula+shoulder trauma and Ortho gave clearance to ride 2.5 weeks later so went riding
16 days after 72nd B-day hit again by another 300 pound wild hog but only a fractured left tibia by ankle with 3 months off bike and still have effects
YESTERDAY 75years OLD just 1 mile from home had driver cut apex on a left turn with me going into the grass(thankfully no curb) and missing me by 2-3 feet.
Have PCa- Prostate Cancer - that can kill me and life goes on until it doesn't AND will continue to take risks because after death it's boringgggggggggggggg

Risk: distracted drivers
Reward: Future of more Full Self Driving (FSD) "not distracted human" drivers

This risk was a recent reality for me as I was knocked off the road by a distracted driver in a cybertruck and if that driver had been using Tesla FSD then this unsafe (and illegal) pass would have not been attempted and I would not have been injured.

Advice: Stay on bike paths if possible since there are too many unsafe humans driving today.

Looking forward to a safer cycling future with less distracted human drivers ...

Two cyclists had head on with each other on local reservoir trail just the other day. One died at the scene. I don't think the path is even a mile long and isn't through. It is around and back and not narrow. There is risk anywhere.

"Fear is the little death." That's my motto. I only ride road. I'm never afraid. I've never gone down from a judgement error. I don't limit my bike's speed other than not being careless about cornering. I'm a very fast descender. I run 400+ lumen flashers on both ends of all my bikes. I wear very visible clothing, no earth tones. I use a helmet mirror. I've had one "vehicle encounter" but that's the reason for my current practice with the lights and clothing. I wasn't really injured, just some lower leg bleeding, no bike damage. I kept riding, finished my planned route. I am careful about where and when I ride. I mostly ride on relatively low traffic rural roads. These days, most of my riding is on our tandem, so we have 4 eyes to keep track of what's going on and we are a more impressive and visible object.

I used to rock and mountain climb. Quit that many years ago. I was occasionally scared, and probably for good reason. If you're scared, you're not in the high function state you need to be in. I still ski piste and Nordic. I'm never afraid skiing, partly because I'm pretty good, but also because even though my practice has been "if you're not falling, you're not learning", I've never been injured. I'm good at falling, having had lots of practice.

I'm also the luckiest SOB on this planet. That helps. But as it is said, we make our own luck.

Even though I had a recent CABG, I've been in very good health, which I feel has been due to a lifetime of hard physical activity.

My bike buddies have had more and more serious accidents on bike paths than on the road.

Some of my worst experiences with other cyclists, and pedestrians, have been on multi-use paths. They are far from being a "safe" place to ride. A cyclists needs to keep their focus and awareness of surroundings sharp, the same as on the road. Many mup users are paying no attention to what is happening around them, have no concern for others, and are lacking experience.
Riding a bicycle poses a risk at all times, regardless of where one rides.
Due to a lack of focus , I had a serious crash last year, in my driveway, returning from a ride. A bit too much speed, a moment of lack of attention, down I went. It is something I had done innumerable times. That one time caused 3 cervical fractures. 2 broken ribs, full tear of the right rotator cuff, and a badly separated ac joint. Sixteen months later. I am still dealing with the shoulder, having had a full reverse shoulder replacement done on 7/24/25. Riding bikes for 68 years, I have gone down many times. The last one is the only time I needed professional medical services from anything bike related. Nobody and nothing to fault but myself.
I have been doing short, slow, easy rides for the past 2 weeks, with a whole lot of smiling.

Maybe since most bike paths are MUP's so faster cyclists and electric powered vehicles are the risks to the slower walkers, runners and riders?

even on a mountain bike wiht no cars around you still hav eto be careful. years ago i crashed in teh BLM 7 miles from nearest road. i woke up bout 10 minutes after the crash. i was lucky.

No, it's the other way 'round. Some people think being on a bike path is like being in their driveway. Those with earbuds in and out of control dogs and children are the worst. The great thing about public roads is that there are laws and rules and people follow them.

Risk vs reward vs how much BS do I want to put up with.


I don’t find riding on normal/local roads with angry/aggressive drivers very rewarding, and comes with higher risk. Riding my normal weekly rides on the same bike path - over and over and over isn’t very rewarding, some reward - but not much… but lower overall risk in terms of getting hit by a Suburban.

I’m ok with taking more risk for roads with higher rewards - like riding the mountains or rolling countryside.

yes, my worst wreck was on a gravel trail… but no dump trucks to worry about.

It’s a balance. My fitness/health rides are “safer”, but I leave in some adventure…

Agree, very much dislike the earbud users who dont hear approaching or on your left and the long leashed dog walkers. I view the slower MUP users as risk since Im doing the most passing and they are often not concerned with being passed and making it difficult to pass safely.

Why is the slower cyclist who is riding in the proper place in a lane under some sort of obligation to listen for your approach from the rear and shouted messages or required to move even further aside to enable your easy passing at your preferred speed?

Requirements... don't do intentional harm...
but requirements are the very basic, the very lowest of acceptable levels.
'consideration' and 'doing unto others as you would have them do to you' is generally needed when living in societies.
alerting others when you expect to pass them, is consideration
making some additional space when doing so has no ill effect on you, is also consideration.
even the smallest, remotest groups work their best when 'consideration' is a basic part of living within.
doing so allows individuals to live without conflict and fear - better for everyone.
... I don;t know any Robinson Crusoes ...
if you expect 'consideration', then giving it would be a good choice.
Ride On
Yuri

fify.

Strawman? Baloney!
Must-go-fast boys on a bike path/MUP or wherever else they are insist that others who are riding properly put them at risk if their shouted "messages" intended to get these too-slow folks out of their way don't get the response that the must-pass-right-now folks expect are their due.

Self righteous cyclists who make unsafe risky passes because of their own impatience will blame others for their own jackassery.

Slower users of MUP are not the risk. The real risk is cyclists who ride too fast and refuse to slow down and pass in a safe manner and make sure that they pass within safe distance. We're talking about MUPs here and not a race track, people can walk as slow or ride as slow as they want, and it's your responsibility as a faster rider to make sure you pass safely....Also yelling OYL isn't a proper way to announce yourself, you should be using a bell or a horn.

No, it's not "the other way 'round." This reasoning, such as it is, drives me crazy. That's exactly how drivers reason when they say bikes don't belong on roadways and that cyclists get what they deserve when they're injured or killed on the road.

It's not a bike path.

It's a multi-use path.

If bikes were prohibited from the path, 99% of the problems that occur there would vanish. Since that's not going to happen, be prepared to stop and walk your bike when you encounter iffy situations on the path. Problem solved. If riding in a civilized manner is too slow, hit the road.

You missed the reasons that make users of a MUP risks (faster or slower)
Also, you dont make the rules on passing and what is proper, any audio notification is better than just passing.

The choice given in the post you quoted was not between any audible notification and none, obviously. It was between yelling (often incomprehensibly, and with insufficient time between the yell and the pass for the people being passed to figure out how to react) and using a bell or horn.

I understand the urge to maintain speed on the bike on trails. I tried MUPs a few times and found myself getting annoyed at all the people obliviously cluttering up the path. Since it was clear that that wasn't ever going to change, I went back to riding on the road. Problem solved.

I approve this message.

Theres rudeness everywhere. Max speed on MUT here is 15mph. Theres lots of room on the trails. Kind of like the freeway people travel in packs. When approaching folks, slow down. Be that person. Theres plenty of opportunity to go the limit just ahead of you.

what nice about the MUPs where i live (the ones i take anyway) i can go miles and miles without ever seeing anyone. high desert and lots of heat will do that. i get a nice clear path with no cars. a great trade off.

Some of the comments from entitled cyclists who expect everyone else to "get out of their way" are from the same school of thought that entitled motorists display when they make reckless passes on the streets and highways because otherwise they might "risk" having to slow down (shudder!) and wait for a proper place and time to pass slower vehicles "in their way." After all in this risk-reward playbook slowing down is a an unacceptable risk that is trumped by speedy passing of whatever is in the way.

Just Imagine! Some "rude" slower drivers/riders don't even move over and get outta the way after being warned with numerous blasts of a speed boy's horn.

Well, yes, I agree. Depends on the area, but they certainly can become walkers only paths, not MUPs. I don't ride some of them anymore unless it's the only way to get somewhere. They're usually better in the rain and at odd times of the day or week. Walking your bike the whole way is, I guess, the answer. It's not "situations on the path." The problem is that a runner suddenly does a U-ie right in front of you so that you hit them and you go down. Or child or dog that was comfortably walking with their mom or dad suddenly runs across the road, same thing. Earbuds, inexperience, or simple ignorance. I've also ranted here about riders who use earbuds, but I get shouted down.

There's a major MUP here which gets so much bike use that there are very few walkers. I'd guess at least 10 to 1. I've never encountered a problem on that MUP but I have a friend who was very seriously injured by an earbuded runner. Thing is that the road alternative to that path is no fun at all and the area is densely populated. The MUP that I don't ride anymore also parallels a road which is shoulder-less and quite busy. That's the reason that the path was built, but one can now neither ride that road or path at some times of some days without having dangerous encounters.

Sneaking behond somebody and yelling some confusing jargon to move out of the way isn't a proper way for a cyclists to announce themselves. That's why bells and horns were invented. Imagine if cars had loud speakets instead of a horn and drivers just yelled at one another.