McLean Incident

[guitarsark]

although there has not been as much talk on this site as on the rage site, i feel obligated to speak for those who were at the incident. I was one of the three bikers who was stopped that evening. Althought i personally did not speak to the "official", as i was about 35-50 yards behind the other two riders, here's what i saw happen.
As it was stated, one of the riders was injured. he had poked his eye with a stick and could not see very well and did not feel comfortable continuing on the trail. as we were on our way back, we passed a small trail that let to McLean driveway parking lot and took that trail out so that we could hit the road and get back home. The rider was definately injured and we did need to get back.
As i was riding down the hill at Mclean driveway, i saw my fellow 2 riders speaking with a man on the side of the driveway. A van was parked near-by. The official had pulled over to talk to my friends. when i got there they were discussing whether or not it was legal to ride on the fireroads in the back of McLean. My riding partners said they were unaware that it was illegal, and that we weere just trying to get back to the road. If there was any hostility I didnt see it, but the official guy looked kind-of peeved that we were there and kept stressing that is was not legal to ride at McLeans.
My friend with the injured eye was aggravated and in pain and seemed a bit like he just wanted to get out of there, but we heard the official out and went on our way. It seemed to me that the offical was in a bad mood because he did not really give us the benefit of the doubt and kept stressing that it was illegal and that we shouldnt be riding there. Voices were never raised, and we heard the guy out.
it was my understanding from what the guy said that nite riding was never legal there because of safety/hospital liability issues.
I should mension that we were not cruising around the buildings but just riding straight toward the road.
I had not posted earlier because there seems like a lot of people that are just trusting that the officials statement that we were rude is true. Maybe the other bikers were rude before i got there but i didnt see any rudness. Nor did i speak directly to the official.
that's my 2 cents...also, belmont is a favorite place of mine to ride at night so I'm very upset that this has happened and would like to go speak with the McLean people if someone is organizing that.
Please trust that what i say is true, it was not easy for me to come out and say that I was there, there's huge comntroversy and pissed off people at rage. My own personal opinion is that it could have happened to anyone riding there at nite. I am not rude, nor do I ride with rude people. we're all there to excersize and have fun, not to rebell against"'the man"
thanks,
karen

Karen ,
I commend you on your bravery. It is clear by your posting and your willingness to meet with the McLean official that you are a person of integrity. In every misunderstanding there are at least 3 stories. Yours , theirs and ,somewhere in the middle, the truth. I hope everyone can get together and work it out.

good luck
bill

[T Grimble]

Karen,
Thank you for speaking up and telling your side of the story. I hope the person who was injured, was not injured seriously. Please let us know how he/she is doing. I am very relieved to know that there was an explanation for your being on the campus and it doesn’t sound like your group was overtly looking for trouble. I agree with Bill, it took a lot of guts to speak up on this matter and it adds to your credibility that you have done so. I should add that a mutual acquaintance that I trust very much has corroborated that your group is not the type that would look for trouble or act rude without provocation. As Bill said the truth lies someplace in between the two stories. There is also more to the stories than has already been reported.

Late last spring, the official from McLean had found a stunt that somebody had erected in the woods near the entrance to the coal road. This was a major concern for him from a liability point of view. Remember that this guy has been one of our allies and he understands that the typical mountain biker is not a teenage renegade but is a mature adult. He is accustomed to teenagers and young kids building forts and tree houses but not mature adults building stunts on somebody else’s property. I think that public land managers see this kind of thing more often and are not surprised by it but the facilities department for a hospital saw it as an overt disrespect of private property and a threat to their liability. The hospital is very concerned about what the public does on their property. They are currently engaged in a law suite with one private citizen who has been very vocal about preserving the property for public access (the details are long and confusing but the essence is that the hospital has a heightened sense of who is doing what on their property).

When McLean informed me about the incident with the bike riders on their campus, he told me he wouldn’t be surprised if they were the same people who built the stunts. This tells us a lot about his frame of mind. Although he agrees with what NEMBA has told him about bikes and riders both being passive he knows that there is a subset of riders who are less courteous. In his mind they are the ones who build stunts, ride at night and ride across their campus. He believed that banning night riding would only affect the fringe element of our community. I explained to the entire committee that NEMBA perceives night riding as a legitimate activity where it is allowed. I told them that I ride their several times a week myself. We pointed out that there is no signage or any way for people to know what the hospital’s policy was. There is no way we can argue with the hospital about what their policy is. It is their policy and it is whatever they say it is. We did however let them know very strongly that their policy needs to be communicated and enforced for it to be adhered too. There is no signage saying that the area is open dawn to dusk only and I have come across security guards after dark who have not asked me to leave. Both McLean and the Land Management Committee agreed to my points and understand that policies need to be communicated and enforced uniformly for them to be valid. I will continue to fight the nighttime closure issue. I believe that having legitimate trail users present at night makes the trails safer and reduces the likelihood of delinquent behavior.

That is a brief explanation of what might have been going on in the minds of the McLean officials. At the same time I am sure that the mountain bikers took a little of their own spare baggage into the encounter. We all do it. We know that our activities, although legal are often seen as offensive to some. I am tired of being treated like a pariah on the trails and when I am confronted by either a legitimate official or a zealot, I can’t help but to feel defensive. It takes a lot of restraint not to argue with the person. The #1 most important thing that every one of us can do to help support mountain bike access, is to make sure that every single trail encounter is a positive one. We can not give them any fuel for getting us banned. Sure there are some people who hate mountain bikers but most people are open-minded and if we always leave them with the impression that we are polite and courteous, they are much less likely to oppose our being there. I don’t think there is any argument that we can make to anybody on the trail that will sway their opinion of mountain biking. Our politeness will leave an impression though.

In regards to the actual incident, I think we want to keep our heads down for the most part and let the storm blow over. We need to respect the land owner’s wishes. It sounds like the people involved would like to clear the air with the hospital and if that is the case, I think I can make that happen. Contact me directly and we can figure out how to proceed. Our swallowing some pride and offering an explanation along with an apology may have a real effect.

Tom Grimble
tgrimble@alum.syracuse.edu

[knucklebuste]

All that for riding a bike through a hospital parking lot ?
J.H.C what is this world coming to? Knuckle :-X