Cycling in Melbourne Australia
Yarra Trail Rage
Hey. Just wanted to post re riders on the Yarra Trail particularly around the Collingwood Children's Farm. As well as cycling, I frequently hike along the trail too. I'm alarmed at the aggression coming from fellow riders on this trail, esp. on weekends when it gets busy. Yes, it can be crowded, particularly in this farm area, but I don't see the need for the constant bell ringing and the "MOVE OUT THE WAY!" that I got yesterday from a rider while I was far over to the left and had been on a 12 km walk. The trail is for all types of exercise, not just riding. No exercise is more important than the other.
I walk / ride this area at least once a day. I've seen all sorts of terrible behaviour coming from cyclists: weaving dangerously through small children on a busy Saturday without a touch of breaks, yelling for families to control their kids and MOVE!, and once my little dog almost got hit by someone veering off the path to avoid a crowd and onto the grass where my dog was minding her own business. Reminds me of the freeway at peak hour and it makes me feel sad about the selfishness of humanity.
Cycling is about exercise and commuting in a healthy, stress-free way. Some folks get on the trail and make all us cyclists look like a bunch of a-holes.
Pedestrians are to bikes, what bikes are to cars: i.e, an occasional inconvenience and interruption to flow.
I think as a community, we should set the example of how we'd like to be treated on the roads with respectful treatment of pedestrians. At least at the Collingwood Children's Farm which is reliably covered with people every Saturday and Sunday. If you don't want to go through this crowd, exit just at the farm, go down St Heliers, turn left on Clark and follow back to the trail. It is about the same distance. If you do go through the crowd, do so with patience and be ready to slow down for unpredictable kids running around the trail with the excitement of feeding goats and horses.
And remember that walkers are entitled to a little bit of the path too!!
I walk / ride this area at least once a day. I've seen all sorts of terrible behaviour coming from cyclists: weaving dangerously through small children on a busy Saturday without a touch of breaks, yelling for families to control their kids and MOVE!, and once my little dog almost got hit by someone veering off the path to avoid a crowd and onto the grass where my dog was minding her own business. Reminds me of the freeway at peak hour and it makes me feel sad about the selfishness of humanity.
Cycling is about exercise and commuting in a healthy, stress-free way. Some folks get on the trail and make all us cyclists look like a bunch of a-holes.
Pedestrians are to bikes, what bikes are to cars: i.e, an occasional inconvenience and interruption to flow.
I think as a community, we should set the example of how we'd like to be treated on the roads with respectful treatment of pedestrians. At least at the Collingwood Children's Farm which is reliably covered with people every Saturday and Sunday. If you don't want to go through this crowd, exit just at the farm, go down St Heliers, turn left on Clark and follow back to the trail. It is about the same distance. If you do go through the crowd, do so with patience and be ready to slow down for unpredictable kids running around the trail with the excitement of feeding goats and horses.
And remember that walkers are entitled to a little bit of the path too!!
Tags: aggression, childre's, collingwood, crowds, cycling, farm, hiking, hour, patience, peak, More…
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Frida Louise on -
I recall friends from Sweden visiting me in Melbourne and they once made an observation: "You have so many signs in Melbourne. There is a sign for everything here!" It had never occurred to me before but I felt embarrassed that we need so many of them.
Sign Sign everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign
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Permalink Reply by LongLoad on -
In this instance I believe that the signs help. I have notices that one council on my commute has clear Path use advise at the entrances to its paths, they highlight all the common sence things like keep left, warn of approach etc.. The also have middle lines and arrows. Not everyone complies, but it is a lot better than in the neighbouring council where there are no such signs or lines. It appears that common sense needs prompting.
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Permalink Reply by Frida Louise on
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I'm sooo not a fan of 'warn of approach'. On a 3 hour walk on the trail, I get pinged at every 5 seconds and it's very bothersome. I blame signs for that as cyclists are advised to do this... it is another common sense issue, i.e:
I always keep to the left and I can hear tires approaching anyway. The ping of the bell just makes it hard for me to escape on my walk, if ya know what I mean. When I'm riding, I sound my bell at people who look like they could use a warning (erratic people, people with children, people taking up a lot of room) but not to joggers or walkers minding their business on the left.
Anyway, an aside point but just thought I'd mention it!
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Permalink Reply by Frida Louise on
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Is it? Call me stuoopid, I thought it was a courtesy? Way annoying, like honking your car horn at every car you pass on the freeway.
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Permalink Reply by Euan on -
Not that I can see. It really is a nonsense that one should ding a bell every time one passes a pedestrian.
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Permalink Reply by LongLoad on
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I agree, and used to use the same theory as you, but still copped abuse from some people saying they couldn't hear me coming. It appears that people who are annoyed by over warning are less abusive than those annoyed by not being warned. So now I ring most times, just to let people know, and twice for erratic people - it makes me sound like an ice cream truck. I am also more conscious of letting people know I'm coming when I have the trailer etc. on the back.
As I pointed out to a pedestrian one day, if walkers don't want to shared paths, there is an extensive network or footpaths cyclists are (generally) not allowed on.
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Permalink Reply by Frida Louise on
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Good point. I suppose you can't please all of the people all of the time. Maybe I'll just get a t-shirt with a message on the back saying "Cyclists: please refrain from *pinging* me while passing." And a little icon of a bell with a strike through it? Or maybe not. An ipod then?
I think you can safely assume that joggers and walkers (i.e. people wearing hiking boots or runners / people looking serious about their exercise) know to keep left and are used to making room for bikes (thus probably don't need a warning *ping*).
It is the tourist types, the out-of-towners, the people with kids, and perhaps the elderly that I find to be erratic and perhaps not savvy with the rules of the shared path. Oh, and people with dogs not on a leash.
Maybe all pedestrians should be fitted with rear-view mirrors? And a bumper bar. Ok, sorry, I'm getting carried away here. -
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Permalink Reply by WalkingMelways on -
Agreed, "Pedestrians are to bikes, what bikes are to cars". This remark reminds us that cyclists' infrastructure, if you can call it that, still is middle ground. I slow down when I ride through a busy part of a bike track, and I'll speed as well as my legs will carry me on a busy road. If someone refuses to slow down and take care past the children's farm on a very curly path, they should have considered the nice straight streets (if they're commuting), or piled the bike into the back of the Scooby wagon out of town (if they're training). We've been lucky to get a few metres of Copenhagen-style lanes. Patience is a virtue.
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Permalink Reply by Ritsardo on -
"bike track: ? Think you may may mean a recreational track that is shared with pedestrians. Now, bicycle lanes are a different thing, but still some pedestrians don't understand them either.
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Permalink Reply by WalkingMelways on
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Look, "bike track": that's what a lot of people call them, don't be perturbed by it, it's just semantics. Some are called bikeways, shared footways, bicycle tracks, whatever. Who can step on to any 2m wide strip of concrete/asphalt in Greater Melbourne and define it? (One doesn't call a road a "shared commuting space for rubber-wheeled vehicles".) Maybe this vindicates your keenness for signs, which I support. As you have read, I advocate sharing behaviour.
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