Multi-use trail etiquette

As a cyclist, I have ridden more than 3,000 plus miles a year for the last 10 plus years. I have been a dog owner for longer. I have traveled to ride the Centennial Trail and the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, among others, over the years.

Now I live on the Centennial Trail, where I ride on it and walk my dog three times a day. It would be great if people kept to the right, weren’t zoned out on earbuds or cellphones and paid attention, but they don’t always do that. It would be great if cyclists would realize that they are driving something much like a vehicle (relatively speaking) where pedestrians and animals are. It is the responsibility of cyclists, skaters and boarders to slow down for pedestrians and warn them that they are coming up on them and passing on the right or left (it doesn’t matter).

There is no way to know which way startled people and animals will move or how they will react. Be polite and be safe. Let’s all think about someone besides ourselves. It is a beautiful world we live in and we should all be able to enjoy it without threat of harm -inadvertent though it might be.

Robert Witcraft

Valleyford, Wash.