Learning To Use the Greenway Without Killing Each Other

My pal Dan Casey, who writes a column for a local daily in Roanoke, has an especially useful piece this morning (here) about safety and courtesy for bikers and walkers on the greenway in the Roanoke Valley.

This is a growing concern because use of the greenway increases exponentially as the sections lengthen and connect. Use at peak times often resembles a city street at lunch and the mixture of bicycles and walkers is always dangerous, welcoming boorish, inconsiderate and thoughtless behavior by both riders and walkers.

I am a frequent greenway walker and biker and what I see from each perspective makes my hair stand up. There is some kind of territoriality that seems to infect people on the greenway in the same way drivers of cars change personalities when the key is turned. Normally thoughtful and considerate people won't give an inch and they insist on riding/walking two, three or four abreast on a narrow roadway meant for traffic in both directions.

Read Dan's piece for the rules, but let me say here that if you'll simply trade places with the walker/rider you're in conflict with and assume his posture for just a moment, you'll get an idea what you need to be doing. Those of you who can't walk and talk or ride and talk unless you're beside each other and totally mindless of your environment, need to be somewhere less congested. You are a hazard.

(Photo: inbetweenathlete.com)