Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Tips for cyclists on cart paths
View Single Post
 
Old 06-10-2013, 08:35 AM
Advogado Advogado is offline
Gold member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,032
Thanks: 62
Thanked 685 Times in 229 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gidget254 View Post
Any tips or words of wisdom for those who plan to do a lot of bike riding in TV, as far as sharing the paths with carts? I am not a serious "cyclist" but just an "old lady" (LOL) who plans to ride my bike a lot when I move to TV in a few months, but I am a little nervous about sharing the paths - I don't want to get in anyone's way, etc. Any tips or words of wisdom appreciated! Am I silly for being worried?
Your are not silly. As a sometime cyclist, my advice to you is: Be careful. Be very very careful. A significant number of the golf cart drivers forget that the path is multimodal and do not give cyclists a safe amount of room.

The most dangerous sections are the traffic islands where the path splits into separate lanes. The single lane is not wide enough for a golf cart to safely pass a cyclist, so you have to seize the lane by riding in the middle, otherwise, you almost certainly will get passed. If you happen to accidentally veer or fall at that point, you are dead or badly hurt. (Of course, if you are approaching a single lane, you want to waive by you any carts that are coming up behind you so that you don't unnecessarily hold them up.)