County government’s park staff made the correct decision to keep access for bicyclists along a tricky one-mile section near Chickamauga Dam where speeding bikes can pose a threat to walkers. The Riverwalk was designed as a common off-road trail for all, and it should remain that way.
That shouldn’t mean, however, that bicyclists get to ignore a safety hazard that puts both walkers and riders at risk.
Park rangers should enforce safety rules, and bicyclists themselves should become more active about warning their peers to respect walkers. Warning signs, speed bumps in critical places and more attention among both walkers and bicyclists about mutual courtesy for others would be immensely helpful.
Bob Fulton, in a guest column in our Perspective section last Sunday, suggested some reasonable rules for the Riverwalk. Bicyclists ought to slow down as they near walkers, and politely alert them with a bicycle bell or call – on your left – to their presence in order to pass walkers. Walkers can help by opening a path for riders to pass them. Both can say thank you – one for the alert, the other for being given a path.
Common courtesy could do wonders to build an ethic of mutual respect for each others’ right to use the Riverwalk. Indeed, it would boost the karma and enjoyment of both to make mutual courtesy, rather than resentment, an easy habit on the Riverwalk.
If groups of walkers don’t seem to hear and give way, bicyclists can exhale and walk around them, and smile about it, if that’s what it takes. Most walkers will get the hint. Oblivious speeding bicyclists may need to be called up short. That would be best done by other bicyclists. If they make unsafe riders aware of the hazard they create, that will strengthen their community, and build mutual courtesy by pedestrians, who usually are driving cars when they encounter bicyclists.
Courtesy goes both ways. We’re all in this together.