Attention world: it’s called a BIKE path. In Forest Park, there are even pictures of bikes on the bike path, and signs that show where bikes go and where pedestrians go.
In this rant, I recognize that there are other uses for a bike path, and that in a few cases, the pedestrian path and the bike path are one. So this isn’t a rant against rollerbladers or segways (no, wait, yes it is) or even runners.
On Sunday, I thought I had finally seen it all. Kids not playing, not walking, not moving, not talking, but apparently just standing on the bike path until I had to yell at them to move, please. Another kid who started out just fine, looking both ways before crossing, then crossing at an appropriate time, then just kinda wandering around back onto the bike path and JUST STANDING THERE until I reminded him that it is a BIKE path. Plenty of walkers (not runners) 3 or 4 wide, blocking BOTH lanes of the bike path when there is a perfectly usable pedestrian path just a few feet away.
Then I saw him. I mean, I’ve seen people driving cars on their cell phone (GET OFF THE PHONE), even people driving with their knees or no hands/knees while eating or on their cell phone. I’ve never seen a guy riding his bike while on his cell phone. Nor have I before seen a guy riding his bike while on his cell phone with no hands on the handle bars. I’ve seen it now. GET OFF THE PHONE OR GET OFF THE BIKE/ROAD.
But today, there were only walkers to worry about. And a group of adults just standing on the path, on a steep hill, just after a sharp curve, in a group, talking, blocking both lanes. Of the bike path. With a perfectly usable pedestrian path just a few feet away.
And the guy that was on his cell phone was out riding again today. No cell phone this time. But still no hands.
Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw later, though. On the hill beside the science center, one of the "steep" climbs (steep being relative in St. Louis) in the park, I glance up (on a climb the head tends to look down) and notice a POLICE CAR. ON THE BIKE PATH. DRIVING TOWARDS ME. I appreciate and welcome the Metropolitan St. Louis Police Department patrolling the paths in Forest Park. This is a good thing. But NOT in your freaking car! OR perhaps he was just driving away from the nearby police substation where they keep the police horses. Except that there is a perfectly usable DRIVEWAY there.
Unbelievable.
Bike paths. Generally intended for BIKE use. Acceptable other uses: other non-motorized wheeled transportation (rollerblades, weird stand-up tricycle thingy-mabobber, etc.) and runners who are aware of the situation and keep to the far right of the path.
Note: I’m a slow rider. There are bikers training/exercising on race bikes at up to 20-25 miles per hour, even faster on the downhills. Inappropriate uses considering the availability of a pedestrian path: walking, standing, loitering, sleeping, motorized vehicles - ESPECIALLY 4-wheeled vehicles that take both lanes. Come on, people!
