I didn’t realize it at the time, but I witnessed something a couple of weeks ago that has weighed on my conscience since the event occurred. So, since it is bugging me, I must rant a bit to relieve this weight that is on my mind.
I took my dogs on a walk on a Sunday afternoon. I was walking along the lake shore near my home. The lake has a bike/walking path along most of the lake, however, there are a few segments where walkers, runners, cyclists and skaters must share the road with automobiles. I was walking alongside one of these segments when I see a young lady jogging toward me. She was running against automobile and bicycle traffic. A small pack of riders passed me, and as they passed the jogger, a rider wearing a Texas Tech cycling jersey called out to the jogger, “Wrong way!”
The cyclist had grey hair, a little bit of a belly, and was riding a bike that had to cost several thousand dollars. And he obviously was in charge of everything that goes on in and around that park.
Asshole.
Now for some facts that the Texas Tech jackoff is ignorant of.
Rule #1: Walk Facing Traffic. As early as kindergarten, I was taught to walk on the sidewalk, but when that was not possible, to walk facing traffic, so you could see cars coming toward you. Bicycles are to follow the same laws of the road that automobiles must follow
Nearly every walking/cycling path I have been on has had a notice that those on foot should be on the left, those on wheels should be on right.
Single track paths (typical of mountain biking/hiking trails) have a nearly universal rule in the U.S. that riders should go clockwise and walkers/hikers/runners should travel counter-clockwise.
There was
a young lady killed a couple of years ago on another very busy trail in Dallas. It turns out that trail does not encourage walkers to follow Rule #1.
