Late (as usual) this morning, I rode on largely deserted trails with one notable exception: just before High Street I fell in behind a car and trailer driving on the trail. It was a maintenance vehicle there legitimately and being driven responsibly at a nice even slow pace and lights flashing.

As we approached High Street, where the trail makes a tight S-bend with a couple of blind corners, a cyclist coming the other way popped over the hill and was confronted with a car bonnet. I could see his face change as he prepared to hurl some serious abuse at the driver before he realised that it wasn't a bozo doing something stupid but just someone doing their job. It's a narrow stretch of track here with no shoulder space on either side but the rider managed to squeeze by and grinning at me said "That's not what I expected".

Pondering interrupted

I was pondering just what is reasonable to expect to encounter on a shared pathway when I came up to the bridge crossing at Nettleton Park. With a sweeping blind corner on the approach I always ring the bell and particularly today as I saw three pedestrians heading onto the bridge ahead of me. The bell did it's job and they cleared to the left but their dog - unleashed and ankle-high - didn't. With Fido firmly out in my overtaking line I was practically pulled to a standstill. The dog owner seemed suitably embarrassed and apologetic (although I doubt she'll employ the leash more judiciously next time) so I curbed my grumpy tendencies and left it at that.

Pondering regained

Which left me to continue pondering. Shared pathways are not built with the same attention to road engineering as, well, roads are. We've got tight corners onto narrow bridges, blind corners out of underpasses, corners with bad camber, edges that fall away suddenly and treacherously, blind corners around overhanging trees and shrubs, gravel and debris spilt on asphalt, surfaces more rough and uneven than Bass Strait in a rowing boat, and more blind corners. Sometimes you get that all in the one place. It makes life on the trails interesting.

To blindly go

Where roads are often engineered to take the rough edges (and sometimes, entire hilltops) off the landscape, shared pathways are just laid down wherever the land lies. And frankly, I prefer it that way. But I reckon blind corners are a bit of a worry (who'd have thunk it?) because anything can leap out from behind them: from a maintenance vehicle to a tiny dog. Or even another fast-moving cyclist.

Comments

pedaller

Sounds like your trails are like many of Sydney's shared paths. They have been designed with slow-speed recreational cycling in mind rather than commuting (and definately not training). They are valuable assets to have, and hopefully they encourage cycling, but we also need to consider the needs of commuting and training cyclists so that we can turn that interest in recreational cycling into something really beneficial.

Treadly&Me

Actually, I'm not really complaining about the shared pathways. I think they're great; certainly many of them could be better made and maintained. And of course there should be more of them.

I don't think shared pathways and training at speed will ever be compatible but the trails can be very useful for commuting - depending on where you're going from and to.

Shared pathways are an important part of the cycling infrastructure…I just wish something would be done about those damn blind corners!