Startling pedestrians can be so much fun.

Jeremy McCreary said:
Reviving this important thread to ask how members handle intrusions — which I'm defining here as pedestrian encounters inside dedicated, well-marked bike-only lanes.

NOT talking MUPs here. Hopeless case IMO. Where pedestrians have a right to be, I just assume that they're about to do something stupid right in front me, slow way down, ring my louder-than-average bell multiple times, yield to them as needed to keep my distance, stop if necessary, and try to be as polite as I can.

Intrusions are different, and I'm still struggling to find a way to handle them. What do you do?

Recently, I've had 2-6 intrusions per ride of 10 miles or more on our good-to-excellent bike infrastructure here in coastal SoCal.

In well over half of these intrusions, the intruders didn't even move over to let me by. They fully expected me to get out of their way — even when I was obviously hemmed in by fast traffic, physical barriers, or both. Particularly galling because they usually have their own walkway right next to the bike lane.

Unwittingly or defiantly, intruders reject the win-win, and it really pisses me off. Visions of handlebar-mounted RPGs dance in my head, but I have the restraint to respond rationally and safely. Question is, how?

After 4 intrusions on yesterday's 9-mile Coast Highway ride to Cardiff State Beach, I had occasion to discuss the issue with a very thoughtful sheriff patroling the parking lot. Beyond the top-priority need to avoid potentially dangerous confrontations, he wasn't sure, either.

He understood the safety issue and gave me the name of the agency to call to request enforcement with some hope that it might do some good. When I guessed out loud that the police might have more important things to do, he disagreed. Encouraging.

Then he said this: Over the last 4 years or so, there's been an explosion in the number of people who think rules and laws don't apply to them.

These scofflaws recognize neither the rule of law nor his duty and authority to enforce it. To them, every warning, citation, and arrest is an unfair abridgement of their right to do whatever they please. Wonder where they got that idea?

Think about what that means for cycling safety and car replacement going forward.
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Is it expressly forbidden for pedestrians to walk or jog in a designated bike lane in Cali? It sucks, but ultimately we are responsible for not hitting pedestrians.

California Vehicle Code Section 21211(a) states that no person “may stop, stand, sit, or loiter upon any class one bikeway” as defined in § 890.4 of the Streets and Highways Code. They also may not stop in any other public or private bicycle path or trail, if the stopping, standing, sitting, or loitering impedes or blocks the normal and reasonable movement of any bicyclist.

There I found it. IF bikeways are encompassed in the definition of roadway.
CA Veh Code § 21954
(a)Every pedestrian upon a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway so near as to constitute an immediate hazard.
(b)The provisions of this section shall not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.
 
BlackHand said:
Is it expressly forbidden for pedestrians to walk or jog in a designated bike lane in Cali? It sucks, but ultimately we are responsible for not hitting pedestrians.

California Vehicle Code Section 21211(a) states that no person “may stop, stand, sit, or loiter upon any class one bikeway” as defined in § 890.4 of the Streets and Highways Code. They also may not stop in any other public or private bicycle path or trail, if the stopping, standing, sitting, or loitering impedes or blocks the normal and reasonable movement of any bicyclist.

There I found it. IF bikeways are encompassed in the definition of roadway.
CA Veh Code § 21954
(a)Every pedestrian upon a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway so near as to constitute an immediate hazard.
(b)The provisions of this section shall not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.
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Makes sense to me.
 
BlackHand said:
Is it expressly forbidden for pedestrians to walk or jog in a designated bike lane in Cali? It sucks, but ultimately we are responsible for not hitting pedestrians.

California Vehicle Code Section 21211(a) states that no person “may stop, stand, sit, or loiter upon any class one bikeway” as defined in § 890.4 of the Streets and Highways Code. They also may not stop in any other public or private bicycle path or trail, if the stopping, standing, sitting, or loitering impedes or blocks the normal and reasonable movement of any bicyclist.

There I found it. IF bikeways are encompassed in the definition of roadway.
CA Veh Code § 21954
(a)Every pedestrian upon a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway so near as to constitute an immediate hazard.
(b)The provisions of this section shall not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.
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Hard to find a clear statement on pedestrian rights in bike lanes in California. Clearest I can find comes from the Seal Beach Sun News...

California Vehicle Code §21996 ... states: “No pedestrian shall proceed along a bicycle path or lane where there is an adjacent adequate pedestrian facility." So if there is a sidewalk, pedestrians must use the sidewalk. If there is no sidewalk, you may walk on the most right hand side of the roadway.
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Most of the bike lane intrusions I encounter occur in places with "adjacent adequate pedestrian facilities". And the intruders rarely keep to the right.

Maybe my best bet is to install a voice-activated Valium mist dispenser on my handlebars.
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Hard to find a clear statement on pedestrian rights in bike lanes in California. Clearest I can find comes from the Seal Beach Sun News...


Most of the bike lane intrusions I encounter occur in places with "adjacent adequate pedestrian facilities". And the intruders rarely keep to the right.

Maybe my best bet is to install a voice-activated Valium mist dispenser on my handlebars.
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I think someone secretly installed a Coprololia dispenser on my bike.
 
Ran into a Karen on a recent ride through Sunnyside Urban Forest which is my favourite ride. I'm the world's most polite biker, ringing my bell, slowing down, saying thanks but still got stopped by a lady who insisted I wasn't allowed to ride my bike there. I stated I was because my Gazelle is a class1. She even had a photo to back up her argument:
IMG_7601.jpeg

Only problem was it showed a motorcycle icon. Tried to explain that to her to no avail so just rode on. Went ahead and took my own photo to make my point, went back and talked to her again. Showed her my photo;
IMG_7598.jpeg

Explained that there would be no point in having a share the path sign if bikes weren't allowed. She actually agreed and admitted she was in the wrong. One small step.............
 
Mr. Coffee said:
I'm still in touch with people from that world, and I've heard several remark that in the last four or five years those once-in-a-season encounters are more often once-a-day. A lot of this seemed, at first, to be due to an explosion of people playing outside during the early part of COVID-19. But it has persisted and seems to be a pretty deeply held cultural change.
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There's a wider piece drawing these threads together I haven't seen explored well.

We've lived through a pretty profound collective shock the last few years, arguably not far off a total war experience (in the west, excess mortality was certainly far higher than any war in living memory). With the worst hopefully behind us, the response seems to be to put the experience in the past, not dwell on it and do our best to get on with living life. Which is good in some ways, life is for the living.

But I think the trauma continues to bubble up in both predictable and surprising ways: shorter fuses, shattered resilience among the young (and probably old), the entitlement you highlight, a heightened polemic in social and public discourse, a deepened erosion of trust in authority and scientific knowledge, not to mention the ongoing mental, fiscal and health shocks rocking already embattled households and the grief of losing loved ones prematurely. Some of these may have been exacerbated by Covid, some perhaps just continuing unaffected on their upwards arc.

I haven't read or seen much if anything in the way of reflection, memorialisation or conversation about what we went through. Is it just me, or do we rush to forget the bad times, without reflecting on how they've affected us and how we can overcome the impacts?
 
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I rarely ride the bike paths and only do so when I’m transitioning to other trails. I found myself on the other side of the fence yesterday when six skateboarders came barreling down a section of the MUP that I was riding on. The first one was headed right toward me as I made my way up the hill. He spotted me at the last second and jumped off of his board but his momentum threw him into the bushes. I asked if he was okay and he seemed more concerned about his board which by now was rocketing somewhere down the path. His other friends were also on my side of the pathway but were alerted to the situation when they spotted me and slowed right down. As I expected, none of them were wearing helmets or protective gear likely for fear of not looking ‘Cool’.
 
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