Youngsters wandering willy-nilly all over the bike path? Adults readily round kids up to the sound of screeching brakes and seem to completely ignore dinging bells or "excuse me!" hollers. At least that's the case in Seattle. I've been running a quiet survey during my recent sunny rides on bike paths. Luckily, I can get a good loud squeal by lightly squeezing my disks just so.

Mind you, I never give the customary "On your left" to pass youngsters unless they clearly show they are path-trained before I approach. I'll happily wait, it often cheers me up to see how much fun one can have on a path. Oddly enough, adults seem to hover most closely around kids learning to ride a bike than on foot. What they don't know is that I can predict where a kid on a bike will go. They only have so many directions they can do, and they don't change pace quickly. I quit riding The Bridge Pedal ride in Portland because too many kids swerved left and right, without any awareness of the people around them, The Bridge Pedal was so saturated with riders that options were limited should you need to swerve on account of a kid swerving. A bike path though, there is room to bank wide around kids on bikes. And any tentative kid, just trying to get the hang of a bike gets an emphatic "Whoo hoo! You got it!" from me as I pass. Kids of foot, though, you can't guess where they are going. I won't pass kids on foot before their adult is alert.