By Mark Langton

I regularly make a plea to mountain bikers to slow down, as it is the one true way to solve the only valid complaint hikers and equestrians have about mountain bikers on the trails: that bicyclists scare people because they go too fast. Well, I’d like to recount a very personal experience of just how true that complaint is.

A couple of weeks ago I was riding on one of my regular routes. Just as I began rounding a slight downhill bend on a smooth wide doubletrack trail, I saw a family of hikers about 40 yards ahead. I was not traveling excessively fast, but my quick appearance surprised the group. I braked smoothly to a stop at least 10 yards before the first hiker, but the damage had been done: Mother, protectively reaching for her young 3-year old son who was walking beside her, loses her footing and falls to the ground, catching herself with her hands as she lands on her hip; Father, carrying an infant in a baby carrier backpack, jumping to the side of the trail; 3-year old son cowering behind his father’s legs, and in his frightened 3-year old voice saying “that bicycle scare me!”

All I could do was apologize profusely and make sure the woman was okay. She was, but she could have very easily twisted her ankle, sprained a wrist, or worse. If the man carrying the baby had fallen, he would have had no way to protect the infant in the baby carrier. Both the man and woman were accepting of my apology, the man even saying “hey, it’s a trail.” But I couldn’t help thinking that perhaps the rest of their hike was now ruined. I know the rest of my ride was not all that pleasant.

I didn’t think I was going that fast, and in fact I was able to stop in plenty of time and was never a threat to their safety. However, as illustrated above, I actually was a threat, because I startled them into a reaction that could have caused problems.

I often hear people trying to justify banning bicyclists from the trails by saying things like “what if a family with little kids were hiking and a bike came around a corner too fast, and they ran over the kids?” My response is usually something like “Of course we don’t want that to happen, but statistically it is not happening, so you can’t use a hypothetical situation to justify a restrictive policy.” And I still feel this way. But you can bet I’m going to go even slower around corners, especially on trails that I know are used more frequently by families. And I’m going to continue to promote the message of slowing down for corners, and always slowing to other users’ speed.

Please take a moment to think about why you ride on trails. Hopefully it’s to enjoy and commune with nature. There’s nothing wrong with pushing your aerobic and bike handling levels, but remember that there are others out there for the same reasons you are. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Ride as if there’s always someone around the next corner. Possibly a family with kids.