Springwater path is one of Strava’s top ten segments in the U.S.

Strava users are my least favorite group of cyclists. Springwater is no place for that kind of speed and it is always the time for that discussion.

Passing too close, too fast, with no courtesy warning.

Yikes, waaaaaaaayyyy to fast for a mixed use path.

I like strava for miles counted and not going for any victories. 🙂

As a heads up, the Springwater trail will be closing summer 2018 for 3 months between Sellwood and the Oaks Bottom trail junction for the long delayed fish culvert improvement project. At least that’s what the flier I received in the mail said. They have been talking about this project for over a decade and apparently there are finally enough funds to start. The only detours available will be riding surface streets through West Moreland and Sellwood or skipping the Springwater corridor all together and riding on the west side path.

That would explain the guys on TT bikes that I see in full tuck doing laps while I run with my kids. Not cool.

I used springwater trail all the way to Lents (205), 5 times a week for commute.
It’s a lot safer then sharing a road with cars. I was wondering if anyone can tell me why there is no lights at all. It get little creepy at night and early morning.

Interesting stat. In Ride Report’s dataset this section of Springwater doesn’t even make the top ten list in Portland – let alone in other cities.

A 20 minute each way segment year round, featuring: deer, ospreys, bald eagles, otters, geese, frog chorus, roller derby sounds, ferris wheel, Christmas boats, steam train, rainbows, rowers, sailboats, wildflowers, snow, Hood to Coasters in costume, babies in strollers with jogger Moms, cargo bike kids going to school, kids on their first bikes, music from party boats, golden autumn leaves, sunsets reflected on the river, feral cats, islands, sand & gravel barges, houseboats, herons, icy rain in the face, moonlit nights, misty mornings.

Smooth pavement, few MV conflicts, flat grade, connects business, natural areas, and residential areas. That’s a formula for success. Where else could we do that?

That’s a really fast ride, but I think it’s worth remembering that strava record holders did that segment that fast one time to be on the reader board. It’s not likely people are averaging 30 mph every single day during regular commute hours. I can’t imagine you could reasonably maintain that speed except when the path is nearly empty. In that case, I’m less concerned because there isn’t much potential for cross traffic the way there is on other popular paths or bike lanes (esplanade, waterfront, etc.). However I’d agree that it is way too fast during heavier use and when passing within 5 feet of anyone.

Any future infra put into the city that is similar to this should include:

1) a MUP for all sorts of users, riders, rollers, walkers, children, strollers, dogs, campers, skateboarders, etc.
2) a parallel BIKE ONLY path where high speed cyclists are expected and welcomed and paths are engineered for this.

There should be more than enough land to make this a reality and move Portland from Bronze to Silver and beyond. If we can maintain a rail line that gets used a handful of the year, we can also have a bikes only path.

What I really want to know is who drunk-hashed the section from Sellwood to the North this Spring? It’s not that they did a bad job, it’s that they did a terrible job and they did so in permanent ink.

I got my wife to bike that segment with me a few years back; we stopped to watch a bird and some folks flew by way to close, way to fast. Never been back. Sad. We both got on our first bikes about 65 years ago.

On the speed topic, I walk on the westside trail daily with my dog. Lots of times, it’s almost empty, and biking fast is no problem. Biking towards someone who can see you coming isn’t any problem, even going fast. Passing from behind can be unsafe even when slow. I appreciate a warning–bikes can be almost silent, especially with wind blowing through the trees. My older neighbors really get surprised and scared by fast cyclists passing from behind with no warning.

I think I’ve had only one cyclist pass me in the last several years who I’d call rude.

I try to be aware of cyclists approaching from behind. On a sunny weekend day, I assume they’ll be passing regularly from behind. Often, though, I’m out when a cyclist might not pass me more than once every several minutes, and I don’t feel guilty for not checking behind me regularly at those times.

I appreciate headlights when cyclists approach from behind–I can see the light bouncing off trees and ground ahead me well before they overtake me. Bright lights, especially blinking, from bikes approaching from in front can be blinding.

Biking, biking fast, walking, running, walking with dogs and kids…all can happen safely on the same path when common sense is used. I’d say the most important aspect of common sense is to acknowledge that the same trail is a completely different environment (calling for different behaviors) on a crowded, summer Saturday afternoon than on a winter morning or evening.

Over time, Portland does need to create more off-road options that don’t just lump commuting or training cyclists and people walking with dogs and kids all together on the same narrow path.

Strava or not, those riders will still go as fast as they can. They did it before Strava, they’ll still do it without it… Assholes gonna asshole…

Paths like this are places I feel safe going fast; there’s not a lot of stuff to the side where someone or something will enter the path suddenly from, and I don’t have to stop every block.
I would commute 11 miles to downtown along it daily; I thought of it as a “bike expressway”.
Sure, there are plenty of users of the path, but many of them are also bikes; also, there’s great visibility of the path ahead giving one plenty of time to slow down if a group is occupying the path.
I also take my kid for walks along the path. I tell her to watch out for bicycles in both directions, and I myself do as well. You can see them coming from a good way off.

Nope. I checked Strava. All the guys in the top 10 race. Most are CAT1-3.
I’ve been on group rides with a few of them and they are just animals.

Remember the basic rules that all people appear to follow: Everyone that goes faster than you is crazy, out of control, and unsafe. Everyone going slower than you is a meandering, clueless moron.

Alternate Headline: “Strava records suggest that cyclists rarely travel fast on Springwater path.”

I see the same trickle-down from bicycle racing in this discussion that I’ve seen in two decades working in the bicycle industry.
Strava is designed to get people to not only use it, but to encourage competition between riders (by goading them on to ride farther and/or faster on their routes).
Riders who take this bait are not in a sanctioned bicycle race, but they are definitely racing all the same. As someone who is slow and does not race, I’d prefer not to have to compete for space on an MUP with racers, wannabe or otherwise.

(**On another note: Am I the only one who finds it interesting that the lead photo shows people riding on a much cleaner, quieter Springwater from an 8-year-old photo — on a ride captioned as being hosted by a “Street Trust” which did not exist then?)