BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

quatruccio's law in action.

there are assholes in every crowd

Indeed.

probably the same dudes who i pulled up to yesterday to tell them their tail light was out and they pealed out and tried to hit me at the next light... if someone could just get these two dudes off the roads/trails we could abolish the Q law and everything would be peachy.

It brings to mind the scene from the movie "Breaking Away", the Italian racers with the frame pump in the wheel, a pedestrian with a walking stick. Now I'm not saying I'd do that, but sometimes I just imagine.....

That's funny, each time I see a "biker" cruising down the sidewalk I think of that same scene in Breaking Away...

But then my super-ego weighs in. Sigh.

They might be related to the iPod zombies who can't hear when you ask to pass and don't pick up after their dogs.

i wonder if they're dating any of the big pack of girls who were running on the jail trail earlier this spring, like four or five abreast, and forced me off the trail coming toward them in the opposite direction. looking right at me the whole time.

my mom rants about people who walk in packs and take up the entire sidewalk. She walks mostly in squirrel hill and oakland. It's not cyclists, it's not pedestrians, it's not students, it's humans not paying attention, not caring, or both.

Back when I traversed more populated areas, I'd keep going in my little path on the far right, and if the pack didn't let me have a person's width of space (assuming there was room for two of us), I'd barrel through, shoulder checking if necessary. That would get me "hey!" and "bitch!", so I changed to simply stopping dead in my tracks before they got to me. A few times people walked straight in to me, man they were embarrassed (and immediately mocked by the rest of the pack). It takes a special kind of idiot to walk into a stationary object, especially one that's alive and makes eye contact.

Doesn't help with people biking on paths or sidewalks, not sure what would beyond the more invasive measures already described above.

I changed to simply stopping dead in my tracks before they got to me.

It takes a special kind of idiot to walk into a stationary object, especially one that's alive and makes eye contact.

yes!

+1 stopping with eye contact. I like to make them own their stupidity.

ejw: you're my hero. I do the same thing -- stop in my tracks. Amazingly, when the clueless offenders walk into me they usually look up and say, "'scuse you!!"

Yeah.....i am guilty of riding with an iPod alot of the time but i also look back behind me every 3seconds because i don't wanna hold anyone up, although 90percent of my riding is done alone. The best are walkers/joggers/humans in general that prefer listening to their music at 11 and you ask 4 times to pass them, then just pass them anyway and they scoff and are so offended you 'blew by' them...

EJWME is right, it's not walkers,cyclists,joggers..It's humans.This just so happens to be a bikeboard, so when someone is disgruntled about a cyclist they just call the whole cycling world out.Coughcalliecough.

When people block the sidewalk standing and talking there is a special type that really gets me.

That's the person who sees you coming from a distances and moves slightly - not to accommadate your passing, but to make it so you can't make eye contact with them when you are close need them to move.

The older, prosperous Shadyside types often do that.

I take no issue with anyone using headphones, but at least keep it to a volume that enables you to hear someone shouting:

"PASSING ON LEFT!"

"YOUR DOG JUST CRAPPED ON THE PATH!"

"GO STILLERS"

I'd get an air horn, but scaring someone to the point of a bowel movement is kind of obnoxious IMO.

+1 barrel through, shoulder checking if necessary.

Ejwme: Don’t forget to keep your elbows up!

scaring someone to the point of a bowel movement is kind of obnoxious IMO.

plus it just adds to the problem the dog left on the path.

It sure would be easy to mount a Vuvuzela to my bike...

++++ oh my god. I'm laughing so hard I'm crying. First I pictured cyclist + airhorn = jogging ipod pooper. The vuvuzela is just so much better. But you have to wait until you're right next to them, then get them like 3 inches from their ear. My mental cyclist looks like Colbert too.

Why is it that the funniest things would also be the rudest things if one were to actually do them? Am I sick and twisted?

You probably shouldn't ride and blow a vuvuzuela, I foresee way too much potential for a "roadrunner/coyote" outcome.

Seriously though, for every 2 cyclists doing this,

there must be 20 people walking in frick, probably

with dogs off leash.

It sure would be easy to mount a Vuvuzela to my bike...

Problem with this is, the first time you blow it the walker might leap up and shout "Goal! Goal! Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga GGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

+1 Steevo

Seriously though, for every 2 cyclists doing this,

there must be 20 people walking in frick, probably

with dogs off leash.

This is very true. I ride from Kensington to Reynolds every day, twice a day and there are always people walking their dogs off leash, taking up a lot of the trail who are reluctant to move or take responsibility for their dogs. I just ride a little slower. I like dogs and I like Frick Park.

There is one awesome old guy I say good morning to every day who has a pug. His dog is usually on a leash, and if he's not he's really well behaved and sticks close to his owner.

If that works. Long story short = dude with dog off leash at frick.

I walk my dog off-leash in Frick park. That *is* where the designated off-leash area is, after all.

I know that some dog walkers let their dogs off-leash outside the designated area. In some cases, they're just being jerks. In other cases, not so much. The first time I went, I walked my dog in on a leash, then came to the fence for the off-leash area. I walked her in, let her off the leash, and started walking with her.

Eventually, someone yelled at me that I wasn't in the off-leash area. I hotly yelled back that I was. Later, I discovered that I wasn't. You see, it turns out that the fence that "encloses" the area is L-shaped, which is approximately useless.

steevo, Yikes. People know their dogs bite and they still let them run off leash, it makes no sense.

I don't excuse the behavior, I just don't go to the dog meetup group message boards and complain to all the dog owners there about off leash dogs. Dog owners are no more part of a club anymore than we are. Generally just a response to the entire thread.

I get chased by dogs quite a bit on the junction hollow that are off leash. Luckily, I'm pretty good with dogs and just stop and end up petting them awhile but I feel like people somehow don't realize that it's a bicycle superhighway these days or something. meh, I like dogs

One night I was on the path between the tennis courst and Braddock. A large bulldog in the tennis court start seriously snarly and trying to get through the fence at me, while his owner laughed in parking lot.

I pulled out and flourished my long U-lock, then made a little polo swat movement. Suddenly the owner, who had found it so funny, was desperately calling his dog. Luckily - for both me and the dog - there was no way to get from the tennis court to the path.

I was, of course, tempted to go back and have a discussion with the dog owner (and let my U-lock do the talking) but that would be st00pid and dangerous.

At the risk of being flamed, We take our dogs to frick and let them run off leash. We do clean up after them tho, and the dogs themselves are not usually on the trail proper but in the woods along the trail. When we do come across cyclists and the dogs are on the trail, we just call them and they get out of the way. We are probably the exception, not the rule, but I agree that there are plenty of irresponsible owners. And if you dog is going to bite someone, then it definitely should not be at frick park.

As a note, the reason we let our dogs off leash there is because the fenced area is not big enough to satisfy our dogs. They would run around the entirety of FP for hours and hours if we let them, and we only go out there a couple times a month.

That aside.. same argument as always.. there are assholes.. some ride bikes, some drive cars, some have dogs.

If you can read your dogs mind and at the same time predict the future that it will never ever bite someone, you are a step ahead of me.

I have no problem with controlled dogs being off leash. After all that's the point of a leash- to be able to control your dog. It is absolutely possible to have your dog off leash and know that it won't bite someone.

I don't want to be a pooper here, I like dogs and stuff, but I've known several people, some children, who've been bitten by dogs who wouldn't bite anyone.

for those who are curious, the off leash fenced in area in frick park has like, tripled in size. its huge an amazing now.

as a new dog owner, it is very frustrating when dogs run up to us off leash, with him on leash.

this discussion is definitely one that is a challenge for the parks: how do they manage an area that wants to be used by adults, kids, educational activities, plays (quantum is setting up right now for one) cyclists, dog walkers on and off leash, people who don't know anyone is managing it, runners, nature lovers, etc? Its a big park, but you have to think about how many people are in it each day and all the different activities they want to do there.

Anyway.. its a big challenge and would be much easier on ALL USERS if everyone would be polite and obey the posted rules. They are there for many reasons--safety and ecology of the area being two big ones. Dogs and people running through certain areas destroy what is being worked on desperately to bring back. Bites like what Steevo has photographed can lead to many problems... was the dog off leash? Did he find the owner? Does the dog have its shots? If he couldnt find the owner, you gotta go get your shots.. because you just don't know.

I find the 30 foot fishing reel type leashes very annoying. The owner is typically on one side of the path, the dog is off in the woods on the other, with the dumb leash stretched across the entire path. They usually just stop where they were walking and begin to reel it in instead of walking to the other side of the path. I'm not a dog person at all, but I don't really mind well-trained dogs off the leash. Unfortunately, I'm guessing the 'well-trained' group doesn't have much overlap with the 'idiot owner with a 30 foot leash' group.

Anyway.. its a big challenge and would be much easier on ALL USERS if everyone would be polite and obey the posted rules.

This goes for most of life, methinks, not just the trails in Frick Park.

many owners think that both they and their dogs and well trained. i for one know that neither me nor my dog are well trained. (we are working on the dog)

totally agree caitlin. I wish more people would know their limits (regarding their pets, and driving and everything else we talk about here).

They could actually enforce the rules and give people tickets for having their dogs off leash and they could put the dog parks closer to the park entrance.

Thats like saying they could enforce speed limits. I do agree that the location of the off leash areas is inconvenient and I dont like that they arent fully fenced.

If you dont have a dog that obeys well, its difficult to keep them in the off leash area, which kind of defeats the point of the off leash area.

The ones at north and south park are fully fenced with double gates.

netviln, it is full fenced now! its huge and awesome. if you want we can go together, we have only been there once and it was awesome. its huge! and there is a whole separate area for smaller dogs or dogs that need a break. you should check it out, seriously went beyond my expectations.

oh and there are double gates.

no really the off leash area is bad ass. i really didn't think it would be as good as it was for us.

i was expecting something incredibly more crappy apparently. they just redid it like 2 weeks ago or soemthing.

I was out a Frick again yesterday. I didn't see a lot of people which was nice and didn't have any dogs running at me.

However I noticed someone off the trail so I stopped to be a nibshit. Here they were going at it.

Caitlin, I will def check it out next time we are there. I do wish they would fully fence the hot dog damn too tho.

i know, i havent been to the hot dog dam. also i seriously never go to the beechwood side of the park, so i had no idea where the off leash area was. it was like a whole new world was opened up. seriously, i always am in the nine mile run part!

ps- yr ian right? iknow we know each other but i routinely forget people's online handles.

me? Im Chris.. I know I posted somewhere in the intros thread and the pets thread..

less stories about dogs and more about people going

at it in frick.

pics or it didnt happen.

less stories about dogs and more about people going at it in frick.

... if they're taking up the entire trail. Keep it on topic, folks.

Props for the spontaneous going at it, as long as they weren't taking up the entire trail. The world needs more of that and less of whatever. Hopefully they were wearing helmets.

Damn, I hope they know how to id poison ivy.

Were you on the "fruit loop"?

Sounds like a great theme ride for the BikeFest calendar.

@noah: wrong park

shenley is the park with the fruit loop, right?

i thought it was frick. a friend of mine - who i know runs in frick often - came across it one day, so i assumed frick. either way... getcha frick on

What's the courtesy there: on your left, ring the bell, rock some Barry White?

On a more serious note... Also a dog owner. Used to have 2 dogs, then had only one because the other bit my son. Love dogs. Got a new second dog, but always keep an eye when kids and dogs (even MY kids and MY dogs) mingle, because EVERY dog is capable of biting. They're dogs, it's what they do.

My neighbor said that she ran into two people doing it in the second field back from the beechwood entrance. Like 20 feet from the paved trail, right by where everyone walks to get to the off leash area. And apparently they weren't being very subtle.

DOG OWNERS:

there are deer in frick park and dogs are pretty much pre-programmed to chase them... cyclists fit this same motion pattern... leash your f*cking dogs, i don't care if they are toothless. i don't need to be bunny hopping or running over your dog as it runs rampant while you walk around like a moron yelling "FOOFOO! FOOFOO! WHY DID YOU CHASE THAT DEER!!?".

Two twelve year old slow arthritic, limping Labs I used to walk for a neighbor once dragged me by their leashes on the ground through the brush for about 15 feet until a tree stopped me - they saw a squirrel in the woods. Squirrels live in nests 4 feet from their water bowls back home, unmolested, but these were somehow special squirrels, in the *woods*. First and last time I walked them in the park. The instinct to hunt is pretty darn strong. They had to rest on the 4 block trip TO the park, but found the energy to bolt like that.

I have to admit to letting my dog off the leash outside the leashed area in Frick. Exactly once and for about 5 minutes. He did well... but I know him well and I could see the wheels turning in his little doggie mind.... so the leash went back on.

He's good with cyclists (after much training), but not with squirrels, bunnies or deer and I didn't want to be shouting "Terror! Come Here!" in the middle of a public park.... [His full name is "The Terrible Zodin", but over the years its been shortened to 'Terror'.]

I don't take my dogs to Frick anymore because they would stop to watch all the people having sex. It's not that I minded the stopping and the watching, but their panting was pretty embarrassing. Not the dog panting, the people having sex.

Somehow I feel like I've missed out on a quintessential Frick experience... been going their regularly since 2008 and haven't come across that once. Guess I've been lucky, but I think I might stop taking family there!

When I had a broken arm and couldn't ride, I walked home through Schenley park quite often. This got boring quick, so I started to take different trails home and some weren't all that well traveled. One day I came walking up a dried up creek bed looking like a total dork with my broken arm, backpack, carrying a lunch box. I almost tripped over a group of high school kids drinking and smoking pot. They didn't move (aside from their eyes tracking me) or say a thing as I carefully stepped over them. It was awkward.

There are areas in Frick where you can tell kids hang out, drink, get high, etc. They are well off the beaten path though and I only ever came across any of them because I was exploring what looked like potential new single track.

I've been hanging in Frick off and on for decades. Last time I saw the human mating rites there was in 1976. It did impress me at the time.

I'm pretty sure it happens-but usually it is more discreet (and more rare) that it is being presented as here. If it were actually that common, what you would have to really look for is the pervs lurking nearby in the bushes.

I had to panic stop one night while riding through Mellon Park. It would have been one seriously ugly scene if I had missed seeing them for another second.

In Scheneley, I used to take the drinkers trash bags. Like rattlesnakes, drinking teens are more frightened of approaching adults on bicycles than the adults are afraid of them. And trust me, that's plenty scared.

Mick

Speaking of sex in the park, I present you with, Operation Hot Rod."

Hah. I take this way home everyday. I have never biked past, at any time of the day, without seeing some guy just sitting there in his car. I thought they were waiting for their kids to finish frisbee golf or something.

<-- so clueless.

Ha ha. Too funny,

Yeah, I used to run in schenley, and I lived about two blocks away, so I ran past that place almost every day just past rush hour. I always saw cars going down there, so I figured it was a shortcut past some traffic, or whatever. One day on my way home I turned in to explore - it's a tiny dead end street that was literally crammed with cars parked to the side, some double parked, and a bunch of men milling about. I jogged to the end and went home.

Not really sure what that little dead end circle is supposed to be for. The only thing it's really good for is, well, that.

There is a big running track there, tennis courts, open fields, frisbee golf, a few picnic areas, and a great view. Unless this is not where I'm thinking of.

Operation Hot Rod: I want to be a cop, or at least a consultant, so I can name the task forces and operations they do.

The goal should be to have people crying with laughter, after you explain the objective.

@Dwillen - the place where men meet is the hill on the other side of Greenfield Avenue from what you are thinking of.

There are many trails that go to traffic circle ("The wedding circle"?) on the top of the hill. They would be a good alternative to Pocusset St (which is deadly for a bike at night) Except the way is blocked by many, many trees that are cut to block the paths.

I'm not sure if those trees were felled by the men that use the Wedding Circle to prevent being raided by police, or by the people who live on Pocusset to keep the sex acts from spreading to too much of the park. It's a shame - those are nice trails.

In similar theme - a friend and I took a blanket out to picnic at sundown on the top of the Frisbee Golf course (next to the skating rink). In about 5 minutes we became aware that more than one man was lurking watching us.

There is a hole on the (real) golf course that is surrounded by trees, circled by W. Circuit Rd . Various times in the past, I have taken dates out there to... um... dance in the moonlight... and such.

I later found that there is a trail that circles that fairway, just in the woods. It gives a superb view on anything that happens on the "isolated" area of the golf course, while being invivislbe to anyone on the fairway. There are many signs of that rail being a busy teen drinking area.

I have also ridden over the golf course on a bike and seen college kids running through the sprinklers on a green and giggling - and a seriously creepy guy about 50 yards away sitting on a bench in the dark, watching.

I was told these were the same reasons that the "rest stops / check the view" places on ARB were closed to traffic.

lol, at "police want to get the message out that they are not homophobic.....take it to a bedroom"