On Nov 17, 10:39 am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Nov 17, 3:48 am, Peter Clinch wrote:





Tom Keats wrote:
Bike paths generally don't get you to the butcher shop,
bakery, cheese shop, supermarket, hardware store,
department store, library, community centre or job site.

At best they lead to pretty places where you can pick
berries when in season, and snap some soon-to-be-forgotten
pix with a disposable camera.

Bike paths divert customers away from commerce.

That's implementation dependent. There's no particular problem doing
one's shopping via bike path in NL, for example.

So this highlights not a basic problem with bike paths, but with bike
paths that aren't implemented by people who understand their use. No
shortage of those around here either, but it isn't a fundamental failing
that is 100% bound to afflict all examples.

In America, I'd guess that basic problem afflicts well over 90% of
bike paths. Almost all are linear parks with negligible
transportation benefit, and nothing will change that.

Within thirty miles of my house, I know of only one multi-use (or
"bike") path that is mostly used as a transportation link. It's only
a quarter mile long, and gets cyclists and peds through a dead end for
cars, and into the village center. Contrast that with the much-
trumpeted rail-trail, just completed, that runs through over 100 miles
of corn fields, paralleling beautiful, peaceful country roads!

Except for rare exceptions, you can't fit many utilitarian bike paths
into our urban or suburban landscape. The land is already taken up.
And the odds will always be minuscule that any given cyclist will find
a bike path from his home to any particular destination.

Yes, I know a dozen bike path fans will mentally object, saying "Well,
I ride my bike path to XYZ!" But unless you're a statistical miracle,
almost all the practical places to which you want to ride are off the
bike path, and so is your home. And it's always going to be that way.

- Frank Krygowski- Hide quoted text -

We do have some bike paths that go largely under-utilized because of
the intersections. They are a problem. Well they also run under the
train, which makes it more simply to just ride the train.