u/AltruisticTrifle3790

I want to talk about something that’s really important to me and probably a lot of others here.

I ride mountain bikes in Skopje, and while we’re lucky to have a gondola and a great mountain, we don’t actually have proper, designated MTB trails. Because of that, everyone shares the same paths — bikers, hikers, runners, kids, families… basically everything mixed together.

And honestly, it’s becoming a problem.

There have been accidents. Some serious, some minor, and a lot of close calls. You’ve got riders going fast (sometimes way too fast), hikers not expecting bikes at all, and kids riding with zero awareness. It’s just a bad mix.

A few weeks ago, there was a situation on the mountain where a hiker stopped a young mountain biker (a kid, maybe 16) and started yelling at him. Here’s the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pJv3y5f9ZU&t=789s

You can feel the tension — and honestly, both sides are frustrated. Hikers feel unsafe. Riders feel like they have nowhere to go.

But this isn’t really about one incident. It’s about the bigger issue:
We’re all being forced into the same space without clear rules, infrastructure, or separation.

Right now it feels like we’re just waiting for a really bad accident to happen.

So I’m asking this seriously:

What should we do?
How can we change this situation?
And what exactly needs to change — riders, hikers, city planning, or all of it?