Bike path today! Walkers!

[m@Robertson]

I was wondering how or if a smartphone could be attached to act as your dash camera? I would rather cover my rear with video then depend on the honesty of pedestrians. I seen a flexible holder for smartphones that can attach to a bike and wonder if anybody has tried this method?

A smart phone is not going to have anywhere near the video resolution of an action cam, which is also electronically stabilized. EIS is crucial to getting usable video, as law enforcement and your attorneys are going to need very detailed info on very small things (like license plate numbers on a moving vehicle). Using the gear I have, you can read a license plate coming at you two lanes over on the other side of a 4-lane street. Try that with lower-res cameras and it fails the license-plate-reading test - which I have tried at lower resolutions, as well as higher frame rates (i.e. 60 fps).

Native 4k/30 fps is the standard you want, which crosses off a whole bunch of more expensive options. I wrote the whole build and comparison process up with parts lists and further details here.

https://talesontwowheels.com/2023/03/12/diy-bicycle-front-and-rear-dash-cam-part-1/
Yes you could use a smart phone and after a fashion find a halfway solid mount, but its going to be a very poor solution by comparison. It'll never physically be as stably mounted just for starters, will lack EIS which compounds that problem, will not support loop recording which is crucial, will have a relatively low resolution... there's more but I'll stop there. A phone camera is just the wrong tool for the job.

 

[Obstacle]

Also, when we ride our e-bikes or any bike, many have the tendency to think that they are more important than walkers. I guess the best thing to do would be put your self in a walker's position and having bikes with by at 20 miles an hour real close, it would make me feel uncomfortable as a walker. Slowing down and ringing the bell a good bit back is respect for walkers and their desires too. Once a biker flew out of a side street right in front of me in my car and I had to put on the brakes abruptly, and I tap my horn and got the finger raised back at me. This should never be, we should show respect for one another, and always be ready to show respect for walkers as well.

People make mistakes that's what goes hand in hand with being people. People also have bad days perhaps the finger salute rider just got fired wrongly or had a disagreement or had something stolen. Understanding that we people are many & very few of us people have an easy life. Just be nice to everyone else, no matter what, just be nice.

 

[Smaug]

The action cam idea is one I've thought of, but haven't moved forward on. I figure that an accident with a car is 50/50 whether it will happen from the front or rear, but mounting and powering two cameras is for the truly committed; it's a lot of logistics, either in spare batteries or figuring how to tap into the wiring of your eBike. For m@, his eBikes are hand-made, so he already knows the electronics. For those of us riding commercially made eBikes, it's different.

I think the path I'd go is with a single Insta360 camera. It has wide angle cameras front and rear. High resolution, but to cover 360°, they are VERY wide angle lenses and even with the high resolution, one may not be able to make out license plates. (any idea on this, @m@Robertson ?) A single handlebar mount would work. You will have to think about battery life, and I bet they have a dash cam mode too. On the other hand, it is just one small, pocket-sized camera. Not too big or heavy or hard to mount/unmount. Could also be used for other sports like snowboarding.

 

[Hakaman99]

People make mistakes that's what goes hand in hand with being people. People also have bad days perhaps the finger salute rider just got fired wrongly or had a disagreement or had something stolen. Understanding that we people are many & very few of us people have an easy life. Just be nice to everyone else, no matter what, just be nice.

Yes, people make mistakes, but many can still have rude dispositions as well. This> "just be nice", will get you taken advantaged of. I like the word 'respectful' a bit better, but I know what you mean. What is bothering me is that I encountered two different walkers on my 1st bike ride and both had disdain for me (biker) you could cut with a knife. That's 100% of my encounters ! I believe walkers have to be respected and accommodated, but there wasn't any reciprocal intentions by them. Ifeel a camera is a must. Does the Insta360 camera see 360° with just one of it's cameras?

 

[m@Robertson]

The action cam idea is one I've thought of, but haven't moved forward on. I figure that an accident with a car is 50/50 whether it will happen from the front or rear, but mounting and powering two cameras is for the truly committed; it's a lot of logistics, either in spare batteries or figuring how to tap into the wiring of your eBike. For m@, his eBikes are hand-made, so he already knows the electronics. For those of us riding commercially made eBikes, it's different.

Well no thats not true. There is no electronics knowledge involved. No tapping into any wiring. The gear is the same for a Rad Rover or a Riese & Muller or a bike with no motor at all. As for logistics and setup, I've already done the thinking and testing, and written everything down so you can see it all for yourself up front. Just read, click and wait for the Amazon guy to show up. Also remember my riding is daily routine riding. No-brain-required convenience is part of the gig.

You leave the cameras in place when you get home. The next morning you just plug in the two USB power connectors into the single power bank. The cameras auto-start recording when you plug them in. Off you go. When you get back home, unplug the two plugs and the cameras stop on their own in about 5 seconds. Just plug in. Unplug. The end.

At a store, you don't want to leave the cameras on the bike, right? So you pop open each scuba box and pocket the cameras. Two will fit in a pants pocket with room left over, but usually I put them in a pouch that also holds my wallet, keys and phone. If you buy any camera solution you're going to have to do this step too so its nothing special for my setup, except the use of scuba boxes means the camera doesn't have to be set up again. You just pop it in the box, close the door and its already mounted and pointed where it needs to be.

Once a week, you charge the USB power bank that powers both cameras.

 

[Rockbike]

Yeah I'm not one to get Road Rage or lose my calm to a degree, I'm more often than not ask myself where is their mind, what are they thinking, are they overly medicated?

All kinds of thoughts and scenarios go through my head.

I have Tesla drivers that for some reason like to pull in front of me then put their brakes on while they're fiddling with their center console TV!

I drive a RAV4 hybrid so I can't see that they're lashing out to me because I'm driving a twin turbo Cummings Diesel!

I wonder how they react when a 35 mph mini bike group blast down the bike?

The Walkers are consistently taking up the bike Lanes walking side by side with no regard that it is a commuting path.
This is just a rant to see if other assisted cyclists get the same occurrences?

Here in Washington, I've found Tesla drivers tend to be more courteous than most motorists. Go figure, I'm not sure what you have going on down there in California.

 

[bobcat931]

Thanks for sharing the dot rules I will check my local plus other than the speed limits here in California for bike paths.

But my rant and point was when people are walking a breast,

My point here is you have two people at an intersection sitting in their cars jaw-dabbing about how their kids are doing in school and the light has turned green and they're holding everybody up in traffic with no regards to other people's responsibilities that's my point.

These jackasses that walk side by side down these trails; I don't care what side they're on, they're walking a breast and they're causing everyone to have to come to their yield.

As soon as they get clipped by some kid that's going 30 miles an hour or faster they'll walk in a single file or just not even walk on the trail again.

They don't seem to realize that falling off a bike can cause big bodily injury like broken hips and cracked heads. I've seen this happen many times on these bike trails and it's always caused by a pedestrian doing something stupid and or a cyclist that is either not paying attention or not giving enough signal ahead of time and assuming that the person hears them or sees them.

it's fairly unusual to see people walking on the opposite side of the flow of traffic.
if you're riding on a public Street you are required to ride with the flow or Direction of traffic.

30 miles an hour on a bike specific or mixed use path? A litte sanity is in order. On a mixed use path 30 mph is too fast to give adequate warning to pedestrians--i.e' "on your left" or bell/horn. Couples have a right to walk side by side on a mixed use trail, then yielding to an approaching cyclist with adequate warning. Pedestrians and bikers both just need to know the "rules of the road." On your other point, yeah, a serious problem where I live with people yakking or finishing a text at a green light. Infuriating!

 

[Mysery]

I was out riding yesterday at a local park when I came across maybe 10 riders on e mopeds. All are young males probably age 15 or so. They are mostly acting and riding like young males which I'm sure some people weren't happy about. Nice park with multi use paths, skate park, ball, soccer and football fields, basketball courts, playground, picnic pavilions and fenced dog area. When I was that age we were riding mini bikes and small motorcycles acting in the same stupid way. I don't see anything good coming from this if it continues. I already can't fish at the pond there because some people apparently had issues with it.

Peace

 

[Hakaman99]

I was out riding yesterday at a local park when I came across maybe 10 riders on e mopeds. All are young males probably age 15 or so. They are mostly acting and riding like young males which I'm sure some people weren't happy about. Nice park with multi use paths, skate park, ball, soccer and football fields, basketball courts, playground, picnic pavilions and fenced dog area. When I was that age we were riding mini bikes and small motorcycles acting in the same stupid way. I don't see anything good coming from this if it continues. I already can't fish at the pond there because some people apparently had issues with it.

Peace

It really is a problem because when a few bikers act rude to hikers and walkers, unfortunately all of us get lumped into the same group of bad character. That's just the way it works with human nature. I had a biker buzz by me at a high rate of speed while I was walking my dog almost to the point where he brushed my arm as he went by. I didn't know there was a biker around until he whizzed right past me, probably 20 to 25 miles an hour. If he hit my dog he probably would have severely injured or killed him, and right off the bat I wanted justice. This stuff goes on all the time with rude bikers, and it causes walkers to be rude back. I don't know what the answer is, it almost seems like there needs to be a community discussion at this point. I have had thoughts of talking with police to see a direction to go, to try to mend feelings, but I don't think that would get too far. A friend of mine probably had the best response when he said always give walkers the right of way and cater to their desires even though it may be inconvenient for me.

 

[rightfromtheart]

This is just a rant with ongoing observation of walkers taking up the entire bike path.

Today I was riding along the bike path and was doing about 18 mph and approached three people taking up both lanes.

I slowed down and proceeded to tell them to not block both Lanes this is a bike path as well as for walkers.

the jackasses started saying, you're going too damn fast you need to slow down.

So I proceeded to tell them the bike rules that it's single file and it's a Class 1 trail that means cyclist with a manual bike can ride up to 20mph and most do on a manual bike. This is a path that bicyclists use to commute .

Their pinheadedness assumed that just because I was on an e-bike that I was going extremely fast and did not look out for anybody and decided to block both lanes to force me to slow down.!

I then told him that it's illegal to block the lane and if I were to fall down I could come after you in the court of law. Then the one jackass said well you probably have to find me first. So I made a comment well it sounds like you're not a very good solution to the ongoing problem of recklessness on the bike path.

I had my hand on my full can of gel spray ready to blast all three of them if they made one move toward me.

I just can't believe that there are people that are trying to police bike paths that have no business doing that and possibly causing the injury to others.

Just because somebody pissed them off in their lifetime or scared them, they're out for everybody.

these are people that take up the lanes just to take up the lanes because they think they can do it.

I'm a walker as well, and I often walk on bike paths or populated Pathways and I always try to keep it single file and be conscious of bicyclists and other pedestrians. Share the road!

But my rant is really about why some people take up the full Lanes walking side by side on the bike paths.?

Are they trying to prove a point? Are they trying to slow everybody down?
That's my rant, not trying to offend anybody.

Hi,
I ran into the same issue when I got my ebike last December.

I found people just carrying on conversations while centering themselves in the middle of the path as they are walking …

I bought my bike to commute here in OKC to and from work, a simple 6.1 mile trek to and from …

I thought I would be eliminating all signal lights and car traffic and saving $100 a month on gasoline.

But what I discovered was that my 6.1 miles became a 12 miles “trails” ride, filled with people and bikes, changin a normal 15-20 minute trip to work, into a 30 minute trip …

Luckily, my bike can go 35mph, so I just upgraded it with side mirrors, turn signals, a 20,000 lumen head light, and a 125db super loud air horn - I used to ride a motorcycle, and so now I feel safer taking my old route, on city streets, in traffic to work. Its funny too, I am still getting to work and back just as quickly, sometimes even more quickly, as I did driving my car …

Back to your situation, all I can recommend is using your “bell” or ebike “horn” to announce your approach when coming up on a clump of people, they should respond by moving to the outside of the path, or at least they did so for me on the ONLY day I took my bike on the “trails” to work - HA!

Good Luck - Blessings, Bob~

( ***edited - still saving $100.00 a month on gas though!)

 

[popekr]

I was walking on the Walking path last night, and here in the USA we drive on the right side of the road! these two people walking, were clearly from another country because they were enforcing their right to walk against the flow on the right side.
We graciously moved around them and I made a subtle comment " they must be from Europe" I don't think they heard me nor understand.
So I believe that we have such a large influx of foreigners here in California that you don't know what they're thinking. So be on guard for stray walkers!

They might be from Rhode Island. On those bike paths bikes ride on the right, walkers walk on the left going the same direction as the bikes. So you'll encounter walkers walking toward you as they go in the other direction and you pass them on the left. I don't know if I explained it properly but it seems to work well
.