Interesting and respectful discussion, thank you all for the contributions.
“your freedom ends where the next person begins”.
I couldn't agree more. After a few years of MUP commuting this shared principle of respect for others makes the whole thing work, and when cast aside I can see how the system breaks down. A few memories of this:
* A road cycling treating the MUP as his personal training zone and threading a very narrow gap between opposing groups of pedestrians at high speed. He missed taking out the groups by centimetres. I put that down to a Strava PB or training regime taking precedence over the safety of fellow users. He would have be better served by training on roads or at hours with less foot traffic.
* A similar scenario where an older couple on a pair of brand new matching ebikes weaved dangerously between two groups. It looked like simple inexperience on the part of the cyclists.
* An off the leash dog decided to have a go at a colleague on his ebike. The dog connected with the wheel and went flying. Dog and rider were fine, dog received a dressing down from its owner. The dog legally should have been on a leash, lesson learned hopefully.
* Ebiking up a long gentle hill one on the MUP one morning I picked up a roadie drafter. I had no idea he was there, there was no verbal indication or audible cue whatsoever - I overtook him a kilometre back down the hill and he must have thought the race was on or used me as an air block up the hill. Two groups of walkers had stopped to talk up ahead so I eased off the pedals and my invisible drafter flew into the back of me. He went flying and scraped his elbow pretty badly. I managed to stay upright, slowed to a halt and checked on him for a few minutes before we went our separate ways. I was rattled and mortified I'd contributed to his accident but mystified that he gave no warning he was there.
* On several occassions a dirt bikers would tear up the MUP at dusk on my ride home - completely illegal. He was a young guy who lived in the area and would tear through the bush, across gridlocked 4 lane highways. Always a bit terrifying to see him buzz past at 70 km/h but I guess the authorities or maturity caught up with him eventually because I haven't had that happen the last few months.
Beyond that there's the weekly nuisance of pedestrians walking down the middle of the pathway with earbuds on oblivious to their surroundings, but a few sharp rings of the bell and I'm on my way.
I think ebikes work wonderfully on MUP's. There's very little cost to slowing down to pass pedestrians or slower riders safely - we're not focused on maximum momentum efficiency like the road cyclists nor do we have to put much energy into getting back up to cruising speed afterwards like regular recreational cyclists.
I live in Australia where our ebikes are restricted to 25 km/h (20 km/h if you sport a throttle). That may take some of the tension out of the prevalence of ebikes on MUP's and MTB trails that I read about in the US.
I don't see high powered ebikes as necessarily a risk in and of themselves. No reason why someone riding a derestricted bike can't do it in a respectful manner, slowing down to the same respectful crawl that I do when passing. Derestricted bikes do get noticed though - I was sitting with my in-laws at the beach the other week and they commented on some throttle-only 'cyclist' weaving his way in and out of pedestrian traffic at dangerous speeds. I held my tongue but their comment was 'those things should be banned'. I think it was the lack of pedaling more than the speed which irked my in-laws in this case.
I see it ultimately as a numbers game: throw enough high powered ebikes onto shared use pathways and sooner or later one will end up in the hands of someone with a higher risk profile, perhaps under the influence of drugs or alcohol, experiencing a mental crisis, or maybe just running late for work or having a bad day. Speed + mass + impaired judgement can and does result in fatal consequences. These incidents do get noticed by the non-cycling public.
From time to time I lobby our transit authority to review our low ebike limits, but I'd rather preserve our current right to use MUP's and MTB trails. And I'm always careful to be part of the 99.5% of positive MUP interactions: a smile and a wave does wonders!
