Living in southern Arizona the summer sun can peel your skin off, so I often ride at night. I’m fortunate to live near a nice bike/pedestrian path. Hand to God, though, I can’t tell you how many people are walking at night wearing black clothes with no reflectors or flashlights. Yes, I have a 500 lumen light, but it’s still hard as hell to see them until I'm on top of them. I’ve had more than a few close calls. And then there was the cyclist I almost ran over with my car. It was a road with no street lights, and he had black clothes and a black bike with no lights or reflectors.

I don’t want to hurt anybody and it frustrates me to no end that I almost kill them for their fault. Is it appropriate to stop and chastise them?

I wouldn't stop and do it. That could end up with you getting shot. Just scream at them out the window. Of course it sounds like "alkalskajlkjsdflakjsldkfjs alskjdflajlsdjfalj alskdfjlasj alsdkjflasjdflajlsdfj" to them. But they'll know you're upset about something.

Just do what I do, I mutter passive aggressively just loud enough for them to hear as I ride by: "woah, didn't see you at all dressed as a ninja"

As you know living in AZ anyone can strap a ****** on their hip (not just the cops). Would not antagonize the culprits.
Get acclimatized and ride in the daytime.
Been living in Tucson area since 1978 and have ridden many days in 100+ degrees. Perfectly do-able.
Am only 82 and still ride 100 miles a week.

As you know living in AZ anyone can strap a ****** on their hip (not just the cops). Would not antagonize the culprits.
Get acclimatized and ride in the daytime.
Been living in Tucson area since 1978 and have ridden many days in 100+ degrees. Perfectly do-able.
Am only 82 and still ride 100 miles a week.

I save my breath and I use a Delta Air Horn but only as a last resort. Normally, I use my thumb flicked bell for alerting pedestrians that are not paying attention. I try to be safe with a blinky on my helmet, a very bright 5 led tail light and a pretty powerful but inexpensive headlight. I wear a fluorescent orange safety vest and a reflective leg band. Just trying to set a good example.

The invisible pedestrians and cyclists annoy me too. I had a few close calls, I don't think hitting a pedestrian or a cyclist would be fatal for me or the "hitee." I certainly don't go as fast as I can when the lightning is sub-optimal.

Sounds like another example of what I call "the a**hole affect." I'm in New Mexico, and I have about a 3 mile stretch of open (straight) road between my house and the first red light. (Fortunately the bike trail starts about a quarter of a mile before the intersection.) I've noticed that, at any time, if there's a car approaching and a car coming up from behind, they will ALWAYS modulate their speed so that both cars get to be on the bike at exactly the same time. Never fails. I'm the weekend night supervisor for a local hospital. Another aspect of the AA is that, if two people want to talk, whether they are docs, nurses, other staff, visitors, or patients, They will ALWAYS stop in a doorway, elevator, stairwell--- anywhere they can be the most disruptive to other people trying to get by. They won't stop in a lobby, or outside where people can just go around. They will also spread out to block the entire width of the corridor, whether there are three or twelve of them. I've decided the AA is built into humans, like fight-or-flight.

Well, you have my respect! Yeah, I can do it in 100+, but it's more enjoyable when I'm thinking about biking and not passing out. I guess my reward would be an ice cold beer at the end of the ride. Hmm. Maybe I'll take your advice

Nothing like biking in Arizona at daylight, awesome.
Most likely you are going to be shouting at some poor landscaper or carwash worker that will not understand anything you say. He is just trying to survive.

Should be the AE. @$$hole Effect-effect is a noun-affect is a verb. No offense, of course.

"Affect" is also a noun when used as a quality of interaction with an organism's environment, as in, "She had a flat affect." An emotional state contrasted with cognition. Sorry for the jargon--- too many years in health care.

We are entering a new Dark Age- one with technology invented by people at the end of the Not-So Dark Age....which seems to be making people even more ignorant and self-absorbed. People are dewshes....

How about the OP simply riding on the roads at night? He already has the headlight. Add some good tail lights, reflective gear, and away you go... That eliminates most of the pedestrian problem, doesn't it?

public use paths are for the public...that means stupid people have a right to be there too. How do you have the energy and time to hate them for just being themselves?

Like a damn BOSS!!!


OP should looking into buying some NVGs.

I almost always ride at night also and I just avoid the bike paths and ride on streets with bike lanes. Just too many close calls with people walking in the middle of the lane. When you yell "on your left" they sometimes hear "go left" and more than once I've ended up riding through the grass / dirt to avoid them.

I've never seen an invisible pedestrian.

More light would help you see the ninjas from farther away.

Must be medical jargon, short for "affectation." Used properly, "affect" takes a direct object.

"A$$hole effect" is the (only) correct way to render that particular term.

I think as a cyclist you end up becoming good at seeing the dangers in the world, and acting defensively to avoid them. It makes it more obvious when you see others who entrust their safety to better judgement of others.

An old lady just got killed recently in marin county at nite hit by a cyclist coming down the mountain road cuz she was wearing dark clothing

I hate it when you are going fast down the bike path and yell out, "ON YOUR LEFT" to pedestrians, then they proceed to move over... to the LEFT!

Happens a lot to me. When I used to ride the smaller paths I would ride with 2 500 lumen lights both on high. You can "see" them a mile away, but ironically when they have their back turned to you and your riding 20mph they still don't have the common sense to stop off the path or at least off the center of it to let you pass.

This is why I stopped riding on MUPs. I can easily see something like this happening:

Cyclist kills pedestrian; does calling "on your left" not work? - Greater Greater Washington

That and most of the MUPs around me are filled with people walking dogs on leashes that span the whole pathway, and give you dirty looks when you shout at them.

We have a nice public bike path near my house, that is also used by walkers and joggers. Yesterday, I passed a group of walkers who were coming at me walking 3 across, which consumed about 80% of the width of the path, leaving me about 2 feet to ride on as I passed them. Did they make the slightest effort to only occupy half of the path as I converged on them? Of course not. As I went by, I said, "really people, 3 across"?