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Yeah it is goofy... the one-sided nature of the sign is kind of lame. I always have lights on and bells dinging when I'm riding on the trail. Even my road bike has a bell when I'm heading out to for a country run. I usually run into pedestrians with earbuds too lound to hear bells, in-attentive dog-walkers that let their dogs road across the trail with hard-to-see extendy leashes, and groups walking 3+ abreast completely oblivious to the fact that there are other people that use the trail. Multi-use trails means everyone has to play nice.
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Minor tweaking to the Laurel Trail near Waterloo City Centre:
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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Can't seem to figure out whereabouts those photos are taken!
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(05-05-2016, 05:36 PM)clasher Wrote: I saw a sign on the Iron Horse in between Strange and Victoria from the "trail etiquette committee" that admonished riders to use their bells when passing. It looks like something a busy-body just put up their own... didn't think to stop and take a picture but the placement of the sign wasn't very prominent so I wonder what good "they" think it's gonna do. It's along the bush on the left side when heading south if anyone else wants to look at it. It's good for a chuckle but that's about it.
Finally came across one of the aforementioned signs:
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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Wow, that's pretty curt/passive aggressive. That doesn't help smooth the tensions between cyclists and pedestrians at all...
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I bike on the trail more that I walk it and I don't see a problem with the sign. It isn't always a contest to see which type of user is the most inconsiderate. It's about safety.
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I could just see someone putting up a sharp "Don't walk 3 abreast" sign as retaliation, and it escalating from there, that's all. There's a much more polite (Canadian?) way to word signs like these recommending behaviour changes. If you word the sign with a reason why the behaviour inconveniences others, it's far more likely to get a positive response, and the desired outcome.
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I generally treat multi-use pathways as pedestrian paths exclusively. I don't have a bell on my bike, but even when running, much of the time calling out "left" when passing results in unpredictable reactions (like jumping to the left as they shoot their head around to see behind them) or nothing at all (due to headphones/whatever) to the extent that I don't even bother calling anything out at all anymore as it seems safer.
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"On your left" is pretty standard for joggers, I think. It's certainly Captain America's method.
I was in Ottawa a few years back and their trails seem to have a strongly followed system - if you're in a pack of joggers/walkers and see a bike approaching from the front, you call "bike up" so everyone is aware; if a cyclist appraches from the rear, the cyclist rings theri bell and the rearmost pedestrian calls "bike back".
Just having fun, no harm meant.