Thread: New bike path
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Old March 19th 18, 05:32 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
JBeattie
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Default New bike path

On Monday, March 19, 2018 at 8:10:15 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-03-18 17:12, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 10:05:08 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-03-18 09:22, Frank Krygowski wrote:


[...]

It's folly to think that bike trails are going to generate an
America with fewer cars plus lots of thriving bike shops.


It does work here. Not fewer cars but more cycling. For me it has
turned from next to nothing to 4000mi/year while my car has dropped
to less than 1000mi/year. One core reason can be summed up in two
words: Bike paths. In my case mostly singletrack but that's just my
preference.


O.K., so to summarize, you moved into a former cow pasture turned
into an air-park golf course community; you work from home and ride
on trails to other urban areas in the Sierra foothills. You ride
with twenty pounds or more of special equipment, including first-aid
kits, rope, a giant battery and light and need double suspension to
manage the terrain. There are mountain lions, and the distances are
so great between population areas that you take a gallon or more of
water in the summer.



As I have stated before those are normal things for people out here. We
love animals, including wild ones. Even a mountain lion does not
normally attack if you behave properly. There is always a chance but it
is way lower than getting smacked by the front bumper of a truck with a
soused driver in there (happened to a rider on my regular road bike
route and she died).


... Sounds like a perfect commute route, although
putting in some bike lanes may attract more riders.


It is a perfect route. Every time I ride it, for fun or for a utility
ride, it feels like a mini vacation. Also a perfect escape when facing
difficult electronic circuit design work where I just head out there,
sit on a big rock, then start thinking and sketching. In fact, some
ideas already come during the ride there. The only noises you hear are
animals, wind and occasionally an aircraft.

They wanted to grade and pave that whole trail to the tune of $50M, and
we know where such government estimates always go. Up, up, up. I was
very vocally against it. It also would not increase the number of riders
much because most are not willing to ride 40-50mi in a day. A fraction
of that money would easily pay for bikle paths parallel to Highway 50
into the Valley. But no, that is probably too "pedestrian" for those folks.


We have bike trails with parking lots, too, but they don't do much
for relieving traffic congestion, even though some purport to commute
on the trails. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_bGCOFCQ0I Judging by
where the video ends, the guy probably works at Rapha. No mountain
lions, and are inner-city trails are never far from water, usually in
puddles.


Those are the easier well-maintained routes. We have similar ones like
here, one of my errand routes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44zqIKf2T_I


O.K., so this is about super-hard trails through the uber-gnarly Sierra foothills -- what people "out there" use (apparently to get to Costco). Why did they bother putting in the bike lanes in Folsom? Why put in roads to the golf course in Cameron Park -- or to the club house? I would think the sons and daughters of the Donner party would have been content with pits and punji sticks -- rattlers and mountain lions. It's all about being hard, right? That's what gets the Intel workers on their bikes in Folsom, I'm sure.

We have nice trails too, but not through drab brown hills. http://www.skibowl.com/summer/sites/...OD-800x400.jpg If I lived in Government Camp, that would be my commute route. In fact, I was there the other day, and there was this guy and his kids, coming home from the taco stand in Govy. He had triple suspension because the trail is so gnarly, and he had a Winchester Mod. 70 for shooting Grizzlies. His kids had Marlins. It's just what people do in Govy. Hard, hard people. God's people. But you don't want to be around them when the provisions run low and they get hungry. It's too far to Costco, and they may eat you.

-- Jay Beattie.
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