Death on Dallas trail sparks concern about safety of Austin's trails

Last fall, a runner died after she collided with a cyclist on a recreational trail that winds through downtown Dallas.

Police determined that no one was at fault, and no charges were filed. But the incident shook the community, and showed that trail etiquette can have life-or-death consequences.

In Austin, more than 100 miles of trails, including the 10 most loved miles that encircle Lady Bird Lake, twist through the city. In recent years, those trails have grown increasingly congested. Runners and cyclists, tourists and nature walkers, sometimes two or three abreast, share a trail also populated by strollers, dogs, a serenading musician or two and the occasional squirrel that darts across the path.

According to the Trail Foundation, the nonprofit group that works to maintain it, the trail around Lady Bird Lake records an estimated 1.5 million visits each year.

The challenge is to figure out now — rather than after someone gets badly hurt — how to keep them all safe.

What happened in Dallas

The runner killed in Dallas, 28-year-old Lauren Huddleston, was wearing headphones connected to an iPod when she was struck on the Katy Trail, a 3.5-mile concrete path.

The cyclist who hit her, 31-year-old Asher Hamilton, was riding loops on the trail with a fellow triathlete, according to news reports. They were traveling an estimated 17 to 19 mph on a downhill stretch when the accident happened. Witnesses say Hamilton called out just before he tried to pass Huddleston, but she turned abruptly into him.

They hit head-on. Huddleston died in a hospital three days later.

The death has prompted a trail safety awareness campaign in Dallas and has spurred a continuing debate among city officials over headphone use and bike speed limits.

Guidelines posted on the Katy Trail website advise users to control their speed, turn the volume down on headphones or use only one earpiece, stay to the right on the trail and announce "passing on the left" when overtaking someone. They also suggest that runners and walkers use the narrower soft surface pathway designated for pedestrians, which parallels most of the 3.5-mile Katy Trail.

The Katy Trail has no posted speed limit for cyclists, although officials are now considering a limit of between 10 and 15 mph.

Also of note? A Dallas Morning News article reported that Hamilton was riding a Royal Windsor Triathlon bike, raising questions about whether the trail was an appropriate place for race training.

The Austin scene

Since last September, 18 park rangers funded through about $1.1 million from the city's general fund have patrolled the Lady Bird Lake corridor, usually in pairs, mainly by bike. They focus on the downtown trail, but also respond to issues in outlying parks. They can't issue tickets, but they can ask disruptive trail users to leave.

The biggest problem they see? "Congestion," says Pat Fuller, division manager of the Austin Parks and Recreation Department Park Rangers. "It causes a lot of problems."

Park officials had no record of serious injuries resulting from on-trail collisions, but weekly incident records show one report of unsafe cycling on the trail since patrols began. In that same six-month period, rangers stopped to educate trail users about the trail, including reminding them of proper trail etiquette, some 2,196 times, according to the report. There were no reports of collisions.

In Austin, park rules posted on the city of Austin website say cyclists must yield to joggers, and joggers to walkers on hike-and-bike trails. The rules also state that cyclists should ride at a "prudent speed."

Speed limit

One of the first suggestions that comes up in any discussion of trail safety is a speed limit for bicycles.

"If a cyclist is moving four to five times faster than a runner, that's a recipe for disaster," says Jack Murray, co-owner of Jack and Adam's triathlon shop. "Then you add earphones to either of them, any type of uneven terrain or variable, and something like what happened in Dallas could happen here."

Technically, a speed limit is already in place on Austin's trails. Park rules posted on the city website designate all portions of the hike-and-bike trails as "bicycle speed zones." As such, the speed limit there is 10 mph.