Question about the bike/walking trail

[Kurt]

A note that may be obvious to some but maybe not to all. If a cyclist is wearing spandex and on a bike that cost $1,000+, then the bike path is not an option. Not even a consideration.

The bike path is for families on bikes, kids, cats, joggers, strollers, skateboards, bears, walkers, rollerblades, dogs, Rollergirl, snakes, and Jason Aldean.

 

[beachmouse]

Riding fast is fun though. Especially since you get a little bit of hill with some of the dunes along 30-A and get a rare chance in these parts to get some good coasting momentum going.

 

[PJJ]

It's hard to take the "Share the Road" argument in good faith when you are doing 18 in a 45 behind 15 other cars so some self-important road biker can make a point that he has a right to the roads as well.

 

[kitlit]

Here's what I don't get: why all the hostility and snark? I recently (unintentionally) got into this argument on FaceBook when a "serious" biker was offended by a comment that another of my friends had made. I don't have an actual problem with the cyclists themselves--they've got every right to be there--but I DO have a problem with peoples reactions to them when it puts me and mine in danger. We all know that there are those drivers who will whip around cyclists and into the other lane, regardless of oncoming traffic. And, let's be honest, not everyone driving on 30a is a tourist--some of us DO have to get to work, and PJJ is correct: it's hard to be stuck in a line up of 10-15 cars behind one or two bikers who are doing nowhere NEAR the speed limit, despite their claims to the contrary. It can be a problem.

The thing that gets me is that I was actually ON the side of the cyclists in this conversation, and all I got was ridiculed for my lack of knowledge. I suggested that perhaps it would be a good compromise for the cyclists to use the road in those areas where bike path traffic was heavy, but then shift to the path in those long stretches of 30a where actual traffic gets heavy but there's seldom any bike path traffic... The response was this: "I find it interesting that folks who have probably have never ridden father than approximately 20 miles on a bike EVER are always the experts." And yet, here's PennStater above, another cyclist, saying that that is precisely his (or her) approach. Why does it always have to be a "you wouldn't understand" thing? Just because I don't don the spandex and run triathalons, I am incapable of understanding that the cyclists want to ride in what they deem the safest, easiest place? I get it, but that IS the concept of "sharing" the road--looking at not just YOUR needs, but the needs of everyone for safer and easier--this goes for drivers, too. And I'm not going to say "It's the beach, lighten up and go with the flow" because some of us DO have places to be, but that doesn't give me any right to put the bikers in danger any more than it gives the bikers the right to put me in danger. Both sides need to give a little.

For the record, the cyclist in question also lost my support when he stated that "Usually, it is overweight--high BMI--folks/drivers who gives us local NW FL cyclists ANY type of hard time while riding." Is that REALLY what cyclists think? Because I know LOTS of people who complain about the cyclists, and they really seem to come in all shapes and sizes... I don't have anything against the cyclists because of my weight, or my health, or my physical aptitude... I simply want the road to safe for everyone. Why do we have to lower the conversation to this? As I told him; I think that a little more tolerance all around would do us all some good. /rant off/

 

[RiverOtter]

A note that may be obvious to some but maybe not to all. If a cyclist is wearing spandex and on a bike that cost $1,000+, then the bike path is not an option. Not even a consideration.

The bike path is for families on bikes, kids, cats, joggers, strollers, skateboards, bears, walkers, rollerblades, dogs, Rollergirl, snakes, and Jason Aldean.

kurt +1

It's hard to take the "Share the Road" argument in good faith when you are doing 18 in a 45 behind 15 other cars so some self-important road biker can make a point that he has a right to the roads as well.

Seriously? You can't manage a safe pass around a cyclist? Also, there is only a very short stretch of 30A that is a 45MPH Zone. Yes, some cyclists do take up a little too much space but I could say the same about some "Self-Important" folks in their cars getting all worked up because they'll get to the stop sign a few seconds later than if the cyclists wasn't there.

 

[PJJ]

Seriously? You can't manage a safe pass around a cyclist? Also, there is only a very short stretch of 30A that is a 45MPH Zone. Yes, some cyclists do take up a little too much space but I could say the same about some "Self-Important" folks in their cars getting all worked up because they'll get to the stop sign a few seconds later than if the cyclists wasn't there.

Yes, seriously, I can't manage a safe pass when I'm the 12th car in line. And yes, there are short stretches of 30a that are a 45 mph zone. When I have to drive it several times per day, it becomes much less infrequent.

 

[rdelong43065]

That's certainly justification for running them off the road.

I rarely see motor vehicles stop before crossing the path and rolling onto 30A from driveways and cross streets.

Excuse me? Where did I say that I justified running bikes off the road?

 

[1amos1]

bad bikers

The big problem I encounter almost daily are riders who want the right to the road but don't want to obey the rules of the road. I have yet to see A bicyclist riding on 30a stop at a stop sign. I would love to see an ordinance that prohibited unmotorized vehicles on the roadway like it prohibits motorized vehicles on the bike path.

With no shoulder, hills and curves, many drivers unfamiliar with the road the spandex cad bikers on 30a are a danger to themselves and others.

 

[jcpd2]

Is it the male or female Spandex that has to be slaughtered?

 

[Jdarg]

A note that may be obvious to some but maybe not to all. If a cyclist is wearing spandex and on a bike that cost $1,000+, then the bike path is not an option. Not even a consideration.

The bike path is for families on bikes, kids, cats, joggers, strollers, skateboards, bears, walkers, rollerblades, dogs, Rollergirl, snakes, and Jason Aldean.

And my mom on her trike. I'm going to attach one of those bright orange flags to her trike, and a sound system so you will see her coming. Oh wait- you will hear her. She will be talking (yelling) on her cell phone while navigating the bike path in Seagrove. I keep telling her that she will not die of old lady stuff- but will get creamed by a car pulling out along 30A, or some other way, but her odds are very high that it will happen on the bike path.

We don't allow our daughter on certain sections of the bike path when it is busy- like now!