Pedal Rambling: Use common sense, not just common courtesy
By Augus/Disptach Writer; Chuck Oestreich,
After a winter full of snow surprises, bike-time beckons. There still be may be some snow on the ground, but it can't last forever, can it? In this monthly column, longtime cyclist Chuck Oestreich explores what an urban cyclist can find while rambling around the Quad-Cities, and sometimes beyond. Fun, fitness, finding destinations, and physical and fruitful awareness are all down the path. Join now, and start pedaling.
How can you avoid her? And not agree with her? We're talking about that balancer extraordinaire, Dear Abby. Like a bicyclist, she superbly mediates heartfelt problems while remaining upright and firmly in control.
A recent column caught my eye with the screaming headline: "Common courtesy conquers perils on the bike path."
What's not to like? Well, for one thing, the words "bike path." Please, please, please: It's not a "bike path," it's a "shared-use path." Sure, most users of these paths are bicyclists (not on a Sunday afternoon on Butterworth Parkway in Moline, however), but the paths are shared by a bewildering variety of users, all moving through human power only.
Please, do remember -- it's not a bike path; it's a shared-use path.
The second thing that caused me to clamp on my brake levers were the words "common courtesy." Well, sure, I have to go along with that. What's not to like? But the word is so namby-pamby, so evocative of juvenile admonishments from elders, so nicey-nicey.
I'd rather substitute "common sense" for "common courtesy."
Abby answered three letters, all with a simple, courteous answer. The first was about speeders on the paths.
I think a speeder on a path needs more than common courtesy. He or she needs common sense -- something that should immediately leap out and scream, "I'm outta here! This is no place for me. I can't go fast. I can't go steady. I could hurt someone. I could even hurt myself."
Speeder: Use your common sense and get off the path. It's a shared-use path. Little kids in strollers, grandmothers with dogs, Rollerbladers: They all have a right to use it. It's not yours alone, speeder. Go out to an outlying road that you can share with a few motorists -- not with the likes of lovers walking arm in arm.
Another letter had to do with friends walking three abreast. Were they courteous? No. Were they using common sense? Absolutely not. Their mouths were going as fast as that speeding bicyclist.
The same rule applies to them. If you want to talk back and forth among your friends, get off the path. Take a break. Have a chat fest. Then get back on the path and do some walking -- single file, or perhaps two abreast if conditions warrant it.
Someone else wrote to Abby suggesting that everyone should use a bell (ah, very European!), but a deaf walker didn't buy that. "I'm hard-of-hearing and could not hear that dinging bell behind me."
What to do? It's a double case of common sense. First off, the handicapped walker surely must realize that walking on the right side, with a judicious use of looking behind, is the only way to go. And other users of the path just have to realize that saying "On your left!," ringing a bell, having a fit, or making some other warning sound doesn't work all the time -- for good reasons.
What works is common sense. Slow down; observe others in the vicinity; and proceed carefully around walkers.
Another strategy for dealing with shared-use paths is to think of them as two-lane, meandering country roads. Do you speed on such roads? Come on, tell the truth. The real, honest answer would probably be, "Yes, sometimes. When I'm on a straight stretch with no other vehicle in front of me, why, I just might notch it up a bit." That's not absolutely right, for sure, but it's not a violation of courtesy, either.
What about a wide vehicle rambling down a country road? Using common sense, what do you do? No problem: You slow down, wait for an opportunity, and then go around if it is going slow. Same thing on a path.
On a two-lane highway, a hard-of-hearing driver presents no problem. Wait! Stop! What about those goofuses with their woofer set at the max, or ears stuffed with iPod buds, or cell phone in hand and stuffed teddy bear in the rear-view window?
You have no clue as to what's going on with them. So you have to rely on good old common sense. Slow down; wait for an opportunity; and share the road (path) -- even with numbskulls such as the above.
Dear Abby was absolutely right to stress courtesy. But even more, on a shared path, simple common sense rules the ride.
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