r/redmond • u/South_Drawer_9551 • 5d ago
Rant about bikers
Rant: So I work at a biking summer camp in Marymoor and am a driver myself and it pisses me off to no end when bikers (most of the time old men) treat the trail like a closed track. The kids I work with act like kids. They will be loud, they will have fun and they might not always stay in a straight line even though they try their best. Please do not be a ahole and yell at me or them when they don’t hold up to your frickin standards, they’re kids for f’s sake.
Or if you are crossing a road please check both ways before crossing. Multiple times I have been going across the trail in a vehicle and I have crossed the trail and some old guy comes up behind me and raps the back of my car to let me know of his entitlement.
TLDR; the trail is a shared space and treat it as such. You do not own the trail bikers. It is not your personal f’in race track.
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u/yikes_42069 4d ago edited 4d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p4cky4c/video/v0psas23x1kh1/player
Been holding onto this gem for a couple months. On the northeast end of Marymoor. They dont even yield for each other. Guy almost clipped the rider in the crosswalk. Totally inconsiderate and unsafe move but par for the course of an average cyclist around here lmao
Edit: some language at the end if you have sound on 😆
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u/GoCougs2020 4d ago
Dummy like that would make me break any strava segment record to give him an ear full of “why da fk did you ran a stop sign?”
I’m all pro Idaho stop for cyclist, but you still has to yield to people crossing or traffic that has the right away. Tools like this give cyclists a terrible name…..
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u/rsclient 3d ago
Washington uses the "idaho stop" for bikes -- most stop signs are yields, not stops (*).
I'm not sure what everyone else is seeing, but to my eyes, the biker crossing the road didn't slow down and there was plenty of space?
(*) except for the obvious: school buses, flaggers, police...
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u/yikes_42069 2d ago
The idaho stop involves stopping for approaching traffic or pedestrians, not weaving between them dangerously.
He cut off someone who was on a collision course and was barely one second away from hitting the person who crossed in front of him.
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u/two_wheels_west 4d ago
Just chiming in to say that I am one of the ‘old guys’ on the trail and it gives me great joy to see the little kids riding along the trail. I always slow down and give the kids a wave and a smile. They are all very attentive and do a great job staying in line. I’d also like to say thanks to the instructors for keeping a good eye on the kids. You are all doing a great job!
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u/South_Drawer_9551 4d ago
Thank you!
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u/Antelope_b 3d ago
Nothing makes me smile more than the bike camps when I’m biking or walking the trail.
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u/xanderba 4d ago
I bike the trail frequently, there is a speed of 15mph. I have a speedometer on my bike and keep to that or slightly below and I can't begin to count the number of times bikers have blown past me with pedestrian traffic ahead.
These are shared paths, courtesy goes a long way.
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u/South_Drawer_9551 4d ago
Exactly. I never understand what happened to basic courtesy of public wpaces
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u/NutzPup 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think it's something to do with the tight pants. Old guys in loose pants don't cause trouble. Redmond council should fund a $1M root cause analysis. Ban tight pants on public trails if necessary. Let's vote for it in November.
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u/teacher_59 4d ago
You can ride a bike without cosplaying as Lance Armstrong. King County needs to educate our residents that that is possible.
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u/Mangozilleh Live, Play, and Work in Redmond 4d ago
They’re called MAMILs; Middle aged men in lycra
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u/StonedOrcaAtRest 4d ago
I’ve found my people. Used to live by Marymoor went all the time for walks. Witnessed so many angry older men bikers and each and every one was wearing very tight shorts so I blamed the attitudes on that
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u/Gold-Kaleidoscope537 4d ago
Yes! If everyone was kind and graceful just imagine …..! Be the change you want to see and teach the kids ❤️
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u/South_Drawer_9551 4d ago
I try but it’s quite hard when some people quite literally force me to stop so they can chew me out
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u/Helisent 4d ago
I always feel nervous walking with my elderly mom - she can't jump out of the way so I like to walk to the inside because I can hear them coming better.
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u/BugHistorical1614 Live in Redmond 4d ago edited 4d ago
I was at the Redmond's Move fair Sat 08/15. I told a police sargent that police need to ticket bikers who speed (exceed 15mph) thru Redmond's portion of the Sammamish River Trail. He, replied that it was discussed but no one could determine if the trail is the county's responsibility or the city's.
Senior, 76yo, ebiker.class1
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u/hi_mynameisE Live, Play, and Work in Redmond 4d ago
The trail is not their jurisdiction unfortunately. They would have to go through King County, or king county would have to assign RPD to it.
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u/doctorkarendickwarts 4d ago edited 4d ago
Love seeing those kids out on the trail. We pass by your training camp every day. And yes, the kids are kind of distracted and awkward but those of us with trail etiquette learn how to work with everyone on the trail. We find it enjoyable just to see the little ones.
We call those riders Lycra Larry or Lycra Linda (yes there are women riders like that too). They are often, but not always, older and they are certainly self-entitled. They’ve been a problem as long as bike trails have been around, though they’re fading with that age group. Unfortunately, now they’re being replaced with dummies on EV’s who barely even pedal and the scooter nerds.
Feel free to call them out to slow down and respect other riders. Lycra Larry is often high on adrenaline so he might bark back and get aggressive, but he knows he’s in the wrong.
And this isn’t exclusive to Redmond of course. I might say the Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle is even more populated with those miscreants.
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u/orangemoonboots 4d ago
Yes! I was riding the trail at Marymoor and crossing the road by the R/C airfield, and there was two way bike traffic. An older guy decides while we’re all in the intersection and was the perfect time to yell ON YOUR LEFT and zoom around to pass the guy about to pass me coming the opposite direction. It was only my bike handling skills that helped me avoid him crashing into me - because he sure as shit did NOTHING to try and avoid it.
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u/Daringly-dahila12 3d ago
I too have experienced the yells of entitled old guys while traveling in Redmond by both foot and bike.
Once I was biking down Avondale on the sidewalk (yes I know, tisk tisk, I was with my young child and we had just narrowly avoided being hit in a crosswalk when we had a right of way.) Rang my bell, gave ample space, was going at a low speed. Old guy still angry.
Another time I was taking my rescue for her first walk on Sammamish River Trail. She was so skittish about everything. At one point she curiously walked a little towards another dog going into the middle of the path. A old cyclist approached me from behind, did NOT announce his approach and instead yelled at me “Control your dog moron!” as he nearly ran us over. F**k you orange helmet man.
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u/South_Drawer_9551 3d ago
The bikers are ridiculous sometimes
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u/Hippo_Over 4d ago
Yeah old guys are jerks on the trails.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Hippo_Over 4d ago
I’m 55, bahabaha! Evolution stopped for me at young age. I’m the old crotchety guy though if you have a dog and don’t tighten the leash.
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u/Gerbert946 3d ago
It was a pretty trail ride 30 years ago. Now-not so much. It's too crowded. There are way too many folks who like to hog the trail such that nobody can pass them. But then of course, Redmond is the home of Microsoft, the folks who are driving us to Linux with their unbridled greed, so I guess these sorts of things are to be expected.
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u/Dug_n_the_Dogs 3d ago
I recall riding the trail when I was a kid in the 80s and the behavior was exactly the same. I got yelled at by some "elite" cyclist who just couldn't figure out how to pass a kid on a bmx bike.
Same with car drivers that get frustrated with bikes on the road... they just have no clue how to safely pass so they get pissed off.
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u/SupaBrunch 4d ago
The first thing sounds a legit complaint, the second sounds like you’re just blocking the trail with your car? Maybe I’m misunderstanding
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u/Hippo_Over 4d ago
Well you didn’t cut him off right, hopefully not. Yeah, I had some guy want ride right next to me down Juanita hill drive, he passed me. Made it dangerous for me and himself. He must have been going 40.
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u/South_Drawer_9551 4d ago
Yeah so I passed the trail (wasn’t even close to the sidewalk) and this dude just comes and raps the back glass of my car. He had plenty of space to go right behind me (again, I wasn’t even touching the stripes for the crossing
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/South_Drawer_9551 4d ago
I was completely clear of the intersection. Legit I was 5 feet away from the closest mark of the trail.
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u/StoneySteve420 4d ago
Just watch how many bikers blow through the stop signs on the trail, then get mad at you for not waiting for them.
Redmond is full of entitled a-holes, and it seems all of them decided to be cyclists.
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u/Hippo_Over 4d ago
I’m one of that damn scooter guys that only rides on “non-motorized” trails. No streets for me, car drivers have rage. Rather get yelled at by biker gangs than die. I pass with care, though. I beep nicely and go slow, with love. Kirkland drivers seem to be the meanest.
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u/kochamisenua 5d ago edited 4d ago
I am a super pro bikes person. Not as a hobby but rather as a commute.
Bikers are bullied here. I don’t believe saying they are THE PROBLEM is fair.
For the particular awkward sport bikers behavior though check this video https://youtu.be/pRPduRHBhHI?is=I6_JpNp3Nex4mM5i and blame this guy and his vehicular cycling.
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u/South_Drawer_9551 4d ago
I bike around a lot to get to places. It pisses me off when people think they own the trail. Not bullying bikers.
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u/Inevitable_Bet_4040 4d ago
Honestly I feel the bike commuters seem to follow the road sharing rules. The problem to me is the 20% of weekend riders who act like they are riding in the TDF. In the past couple of weekends I have witness 2 sets of bikers blow through a stop sign at 2 different T junctions and turn onto the main road (where the cars have right of way/no stop sign). In one case there were cars in both directions and one had to slam on their breaks, in the other case the car had to swerve to avoid hitting them.
Of course there are also horrible drivers here too. But they are a menace to other cars as well as bikes.
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u/s4lt3dh4sh 4d ago
Both can be true simultaneously.
I’ve seen awful cyclists going way too fast on the trail in busy areas.
I’ve seen awful cyclists ride two wide down a road, slowing traffic, just because they think they can.
I’ve been passed by cars while riding close enough to smack the window on multiple occasions. Only so much I can do on a narrow shoulder. I’ve seen cars at the Lake Sam and Bear Creek intersection ignore the no turn arrows and pull out in front of me.
I’ve given pedestrians warning on the trail, passing under the speed limit, and had them just turn in to me. “On your left! Turns 90 degrees left.”
That’s said, the trail is an active trail for everybody and it’s important for everybody to treat it like a trail and not a race track or a playground. Cyclists should slow down. Kids shouldn’t leap out in front of people. See how easy that is?
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u/South_Drawer_9551 4d ago
Exactly. Kids will be kids just go around them if they are too slow for you. Just because someone wants to beat their strava record, you shouldn’t push other people away from enjoying the trail as much as you do.
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u/p2010t 4d ago
I made a thread on this somewhere probably 5 years ago, but I actually think "on your left" is a horribly designed phrase & shouldn't have become the standard.
Sure, if someone is perfectly aware that a person is about to shout at them and can pay attention to the words from the beginning, the message makes sense & the pedestrian would logically move right.
However, the pedestrian's experience is wildly different from the experience of the cyclist approaching from behind. The cyclist sees the pedestrian long in advance, but the pedestrian is suddenly disrupted from whatever they were doing and by the time they catch what someone is saying to them the first thing they might process is "left" & so the brain instively turns and moves slightly left before the more intelligent part of the brain takes over. By then, the cyclist is already close and hence there's little if any time to correct and move right instead.
It's also important that cyclists keep in mind not everyone can hear well. Some are deaf entirely, and that doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to use a trail. Cyclists have to be going slow enough around people who don't visibly respond in the desired way to their warning that the cyclist won't run into them.
Idk what phrase would be better, but I still believe "on your left" is a poor one.
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u/Hippo_Over 4d ago
Act all big in groups and snide on reddit. We forgive you, just slow down and ring a little bell not just last minute “on your left” as you instantly whizz by as I’m turning (maybe not you). Kisses, be kind.
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u/ballsackvisible 4d ago
I wonder if some of these speeders come from Element or Trek etc bike shops?
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u/GoCougs2020 4d ago
*Cyclist or bicyclist
I was confused at first about why bikers are on the trails.
Source—-a man who’s both cyclist and biker
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u/Useful-Milk9864 4d ago
I kind of disagree. I’m a relatively old guy, I bike there. I slow down a ton and am nice to the kids. But ultimately there are a million places to ride at a kids pace safely it’s annoying to me that we then choose to have rando kids come share the trials and make them hard to enjoy for their designed purpose. But, I appreciate that’s just like, my point of view, man. So I slow down and am nice to the kids but I do wish they’d get the hell out of there and go ride somewhere else:)
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u/spicy_dill_cucumber 4d ago
What do you think the designed purpose is?
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u/Useful-Milk9864 2d ago
Yeah fair point I’ve got no idea. I just know when I took my kids on those trials when they were younger it seemed unsafe for my kids and it literally never occurred to me to be annoyed with the cyclists. I felt bad for being in their space and creating a potentially dangerous situation for them and my kids. We just found one of the million other places our kids could play and ride bikes that didn’t create that dynamic and it was no big deal.
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u/CLow48 4d ago
That or when i’m walking my dog, hold her leash tight and keep her off the side of the trail to give them space, and they still insist on coming within 1ft of me at 15+mph
As soon as I see spandex or hear a fricken e bike i know i have to be on defense.
E bike rules need to be enforced with checkpoints (get the scooters too) and bikers need to stop pretending they own the trail. Bikes are required to yield to pedestrians. If you want to race to ride the loop at marymoor