My takeaway from last weeks “group riders on Moonee Ponds Creek bike trail” post (Melbourne, Australia if you don’t know). I’ve added a few thoughts of my own as well.
Moonee Ponds Creek trail has become a cycling commuter highway for workers heading to & from the city. It’s heavily used by kids riding to school & back. It’s full of pedestrians, dogs, prams, ebikes, scooters, & the elderly.
Yes… Moonee Ponds Creek trail is packed… 
and that makes it suck! (sometimes).
and that makes it suck! (sometimes).Here’s a list of reasons why in no particular order:
1. It has many sections where the path narrows right where it goes around bends that are so tight they might as well be right angles on single lanes. Several of these bends include steep inclines/declines compounding the problem.
2. People on bikes, ebikes & scooters are happy to overtake others straight into oncoming traffic expecting everyone else to move out of the way.
3. Riders don’t pull up behind pedestrians travelling the same to let oncoming traffic through before passing.
4. There’s a general unawareness & lack of consideration between users who are using the path differently from each other (Riders/joggers/walkers/commuters/etc.)
5. Many pedestrians have dogs that are not on leads right on the path.
6. Many pedestrians have dogs on leads where the dog is on one side of the path & the owner is on the other causing a trip wire.
7. 25% of people feel comfortable coming around blind corners on the wrong side.
8. Many riders don’t have bells or lights.
9. Ungoverned Ebikes & scooters are usually ridden at crazy speeds by people who don’t know how to ride at crazy speeds.
10. Riders give pedestrians the sh*ts.
11. Pedestrians give riders the sh*ts.
12. Riders give riders the sh*ts.
13. Ebikes give everyone the sh*ts.
14. Going against the flow in peak hour is scary AF.
15. Where’s the bloody toilets??