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LETTER: Practise safety on city's walking trails

"My friend regularly walks the Red Willow Trail, and having experienced similar near misses, she now walks, not on the trail, but beside the trail, to hopefully avoid an accident."
letter-sta
We enjoy our frequent walks on the trails leading to Lacombe Lake. It has been good to see all those folks and animals on foot and buggies, plus roller blades, bikes, scooters and skateboards now joining us on our wonderful St Albert trails.

However, there is an accident waiting to happen if those quietly speeding up on the walkers do not announce their presence well in advance. They need to yell the simple words we learn as downhill skiers: “ON YOUR RIGHT”, or “ON YOUR LEFT”! It is not a silly thing to do! Adults need to do this, and especially to teach and remind all those groups of speeding youngsters the necessity for, and how to do this. It will be very sad to see the serious injury to the walker, be it an adult, animal or small child, and certainly the rider resulting from a high-speed collision.

Three times this week, we have had near misses. Three young cyclists sped by within inches of my right elbow, one adult cyclist (who appeared to be just learning to cycle) was barrelling up the middle of the path right behind us when the oncoming walkers yelled a warning to us, and one young cyclist turned sharply right in front of us to join an intersecting trail! Oh, and the few who tinkle their bells – these bells are hard to hear until you are upon us, and they do not let me know where you are coming from – my right, my left, or right through the path where I am! Our trails are wide, but there is little room for error in a split-second decision of where to move, or not to move, to avoid you.

My friend regularly walks the Red Willow Trail, and having experienced similar near misses, she now walks, not on the trail, but beside the trail, to hopefully avoid an accident.

So continue to get out in nature and exercise – but please remember to responsibly share the trails, so nobody has to spend the summer in traction, or worse!

Judy Loutit

St. Albert
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