09-08-2025
After a couple of close calls, this cyclist is urging etiquette on Moncton's public trails
Social Sharing
Riverview's Karen LeBreton has had two near misses with bikers while using Moncton's riverfront trail.
As a regular trail user, she believes everyone should be mindful of the shared space and follow trail etiquette.
Both incidents happened at the trail's blind spots when LeBreton was biking toward Moncton from Dieppe, she said.
The first was when a speeding biker couldn't see her coming around the corner.
"I stopped my bike because I had time and I yelled out so that it'd make him aware that I'm in front of him, and he swerved and he crashed into the trees," she said.
WATCH | 'We try really hard to educate':
The City of Moncton wants you to learn some trail etiquette
3 minutes ago
Complaints from trail users have prompted the city to add more signs encouraging users to follow certain protocols in shared natural spaces.
Not long after that, LeBreton came across a couple riding side by side at another blind curve. She said them not being as fast helped prevent a collision.
"You would just think people would have more common sense, and what makes me scared ... being on the trails now is then what recourse would I have if I get injured because of somebody else's neglect?" she said.
"Especially now with all the e-bikes and the e-scooters, people are traveling a lot faster on the trails and just don't seem to have proper knowledge of how they should be conducting themselves on the trail to make sure everybody's safe."
In the last few weeks, the City of Moncton has increased signage on the riverfront trail following reports from trail users, said Monica Tucker, the city's manager of recreation.
She said the riverfront attracts a lot of traffic and signs about basic trail etiquette like alerting upon passing, riding on the right and following the speed limit have been posted at four key locations.
"We have started with this one ... if we have other issues at certain spots, other trails, we would look at doing the same thing," she said.
Tucker said the city continues to monitor issues on trails across Moncton.
"We try really hard to educate and the ... more we hear about it, the more we can understand what the issues are."
She said a large amount of complaints that come in are about people wearing headphones or earbuds while on the trail.
Tucker advised everyone to be mindful of their surroundings and have the volume at a low enough level to hear a bell or alert made by a fellow trail user.
Steven McArthur, owner of Move Scooter Rental, has over 200 electric kick scooters that people rent across Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview.
He said the scooters can go up to 25 km/hr on the streets but the speed has been capped to 15 km/hr on trails across the three communities, following Moncton's speed limit guidelines.
"We put geo-fencing around all the zones in the city, limiting the speed, so as soon as one of our e-scooters [enters] the zone geographically, it will automatically slow the scooter down," he said.
Geo-fencing means to create a virtual boundary around a particular geographic location using GPS technology. When in use the scooters report their location every five seconds, said McArthur.
"So if there is people going faster than that, it's definitely not with our scooters," he said.
McArthur said signage is important on turns and he encouraged users to alert people while passing them on an e-scooter.
"It's not rude to ring your bell, it's just notifying them that you're behind them," he said.
The City of Fredericton does outreach activities to educate people about trail use, including bike bell giveaways and education by the Fredericton police, said spokesperson Shasta Stairs in an email to CBC.
Marc Dionne, Saint John's director of parking, parks and recreational facilities, said in an email that the city does not have bylaws for the use of trails.
"We simply ask for common courtesy," said Dionne.
The City of Moncton does not issue fines to those not following the trail rules, but staff from the recreational department do stop people to educate them, said Tucker.
