Be Careful: Someone placing tacks on bike paths in Tucson!

[matt@expaz 2]

Here's a story about someone placing tacks on bike lanes/paths in Tucson. Sometimes people don't think things through. Not only isn't this cool, I doubt they have thought it through that if someone blows a tire and gets in a wreck (especially with a car) and dies, they could be charged with murder.

 

It also reminded me that a two years ago an intern who worked for me got in an ATV accident. She was riding double (the passenger) on a trail/road and someone had dug a deep hole, covered it with thin plywood and layer of dirt to make it blend in. The ATV crashed into the hole and the two of them went flying off. If I remember correctly, the driver suffered a broken shoulder or something like that. She only received minor scrapes and bruises. They called the sheriff. He told them that was the second time this year that something like this had happened in the area (near Sahuarita) and they were looking for the people who were doing it - facing criminal charges. They were lucky they were not going really fast or it could have been much worse.

 

Be careful out there. People are doing some stupid things.

 

http://www.kvoa.com/news/tacks-on-bike-paths-endanger-tucson-cyclists/

[dzJeepChic 2,313]

There is some whacko in Fountain Hills who randomly boobie-traps hiking trails out behind our old house. Sometimes it's something that a bicyclist would definitely not see until absolutely too late, and most likely wreck, other times it's easy to spot from either direction and avoid. George and I have routinely removed these obstacles whenever we see them, but who knows if anyone has ever been injured or worse by them? I'm sure that the trap setter has great intentions about 'saving the desert' or something, but what he/she doesn't see is the hazard to others will most likely resulting in injuries or death followed by trail closures.

[UnderlyVerbose 1]

Unfortunately, this seems to be happening all over. I found the following picture this morning. Oh, if I could only get my hands on the people who do this kind of thing to another person...

 

[urbex 0]

Unfortunately, this seems to be happening all over. I found the following picture this morning. Oh, if I could only get my hands on the people who do this kind of thing to another person...

 

I'll raise my hand as someone who had done that before, though with reason.

 

On our family's land in Michigan, we used to have BIG problems with people on bikes and quads using our land as their personal race tracks. I don't mean they're running the two tracks at a brisk pace, but rather going wide open down the tracks, creating berms on curves just from the speed, etc. It tore up sections so bad we had difficulty getting the tractor down some of the roads. There were also a few close calls with people flying down the road so fast we nearly got clipped by them.

 

It wasn't that we were trying to keep people off the land period, in fact it was well known in the area that we welcomed people to use our land as a go between between the state land we were flanked by, we just didn't want the two tracks torn all up, as we used the tracks to get our tractors to the back of our land to collect firewood.

 

We tried gating the access points, with signage saying people are welcome, but please keep the speed in check. People went around the gates, and based on the tracks they left, they didn't even appear to slow down. We fenced around the gates...people cut the fences down. Funny part was that the gates were NEVER locked, just latched. It took more effort to cut the fences down than it would have to open the gate.

 

We finally got fed up enough that we started roping the trails. We used large rope that contrasted with the surrounding land, and would be very easy to spot if you were travelling at a sane speed. Fly down the road at 50mph though, and yes...you're likely in it before you could react to it. They were low enough that they weren't going to decapitate, and set up with enough flex that we could roll up to, grab and lift over head and keep going, but run high speed directly into it, and it would catch you like a wire on an air craft carrier, and likely toss you over the bars.

 

That's what finally got the problem under control.

[6x6pinz 1]

talked to a buddy in WA. He said they are having the same issues (wires, ropes and carpet with nails on the trails) When the officials have been lucky enough to catch some of the individuals the reason given is that they don't want people back where they are growing their illegal pot plants.