VORB IS IN MAINTENANCE MODE You will not be able logon or make posts. We recommend you ride your bike in the meantime. [CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION]
Joined: Jun 20, 2004 Posts: 4,694 Location: Back in the Hood
Posted: Sun 29/Jan/06 10:21am Post subject: Walkers (and Dogs) Up Makara Peak
I've had a couple of close-ish calls with walkers over the last couple of weeks: yesterday 4 women on the switchbacks at the bottom of Ridgeline & 2 weeks ago a guy with 2 dogs on the lower part of Trickle Falls who was quite agressive. Both times I was going relatively quickly but was in control and was able to avoid them, both times the walkers (& dogs) were not quick to get out of the way and if I had been pinning it there would have been a collision. The guy was a bit aggro when I stopped, said hello and told him that he was walking up a custom built DH track and should be careful (he told me he'd walk his dogs anywhere he bloody wanted). The women freaked out and seemed surprised to see a rider. Given Bob is a noisy bike with bent squealy disks they would all have heard me coming...
I know that there's no way to exclude walkers from the park and there are signs at the bottom of Vertigo/Trickle Falls but should there be more warnings for walkers? It seems wrong that we are put in a position where we have to be careful of walkers not only on dual use tracks outside the Park but also in the Park despite the fact that riders are the ones who have built paid for and maintain the tracks?
How can we educate walkers to expect riders and to take more care? Bigger signs at the Park entrances?
I galling thing is that if I hoit them I'm wearing protective gear and a helmet so would be unlikely to get hurt but would probably get blamed
Joined: May 31, 2004 Posts: 11,127 Location: Hangin' out, gearin' up
Posted: Sun 29/Jan/06 10:32am Post subject:
Agreed - if you're going to go for a walk in a MOUNTAIN BIKE PARK you've got to expect riders at any time. Personally I think walking up there should be discouraged, in the nicest possible way, for everybody's safety - there are plenty of other cool places to walk in Wellington, and if they're going to insist on walking in the park they need to stick to the 4wd tracks as much as they can and be prepared to haul esra off the track at a moments notice.
I've come across the odd runner up there and they've been really good. Some people, like the guy you ran in to, seem to go to places like that just to get aggro at people who are doing what they love in the right place - you can't win with those people, they're only happy when they're making other people miserable.
Joined: Jan 12, 2003 Posts: 32,882 Location: Derailled
Posted: Sun 29/Jan/06 11:42am Post subject:
Better signs and warnings that its at their own risk, nothing like seeing a small child crawling on the landing of a jump as you're coming towards it at 60...
Joined: May 22, 2002 Posts: 3,327 Location: Christchurch
Posted: Sun 29/Jan/06 11:45am Post subject:
_jb_ wrote:
Better signs and warnings that its at their own risk, nothing like seeing a small child crawling on the landing of a jump as you're coming towards it at 60...
The signs are sufficent, you'd have to try pretty hard to miss them, walking backwards up the dh track.
Joined: Dec 25, 2001 Posts: 34,393 Location: Poundland
Posted: Sun 29/Jan/06 4:35pm Post subject:
ssipface wrote:
maybe if bikers stop getting so aggro about their "right" to ride on walking tracks it might help/
Agreed - mountain bikers ride on purpose built walking tracks all the time. If walkers took the same "ban them" attitude as some of the posters in this thread have been spouting we'd lose 90% of the tracks in NZ.
Joined: Nov 13, 2003 Posts: 11,089 Location: Wellington
Posted: Sun 29/Jan/06 4:43pm Post subject:
My approach has always been an overly friendly "Hellooo". This is very disarming, and makes it hard for them to grizzle about me to the council. Walkers on Mt Vic always seemed to be quite disappointed by my strategy
All times are GMT + 12 Hours Goto page 1, 2, 3 ... 10, 11, 12>>
Page 1 of 12
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. The comments are property of their posters, all the rest ℗ 2000-2008 by Tama Easton.
Extra design ℗ by Scotty Lane and Nathan Whitley. Photos and written work on this site are property of their owners, do not use them for commercial purposes.
Developed for Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 and Mozilla Firefox 3.0
