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Old July 22nd 18, 02:11 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
JBeattie
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Posts: 5,870
Default Making America into Amsterdam

On Saturday, July 21, 2018 at 1:57:44 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
On 7/21/2018 8:00 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-07-20 18:58, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/20/2018 10:53 AM, sms wrote:


I was astounded to learn that "almost ALL trail users in almost all
areas use a car to haul their bike to the trail."

Seriously, some people need to learn that life exists outside their
own neighborhood, and that not all areas of the country are exactly
the same, so they don't make statements that generalize based on their
own limited experiences. Certainly people from Silicon Valley and the
Bay Area, that have never experienced the eastern U.S., experience
culture shock when they go back east, or to the deep south.


Here's a link to survey data from 20 trails in Pennsylvania and New
Jersey:
https://www.railstotrails.org/resour...in al_Rev.pdf



"Purpose of Trail Use: Health 56%Â*Â*Â* Recreation 38%Â*Â*Â* Training 3% Other
2%Â*Â* Commuting 1%"

That's not "my own neighborhood." That's the next state over, and the
one past that. 20 trails. Ten years of surveys.

Why no comment on the data, Stephen? Joerg?


Because it is either wrong or you picked a trail with hardly any
connections to destinations where people need to go. Want to have an
example where this worked most excellently? Voila:

https://www.sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/61031

Quote "The Guadalupe River Trail is used more frequently for active
transportation, with 35.4% reporting commuting to/from work".


I don't see Frank's posts, but based on the past, his "data" is usually
either totally fabricated, or he finds obscure web references that are
not necessarily related to the question at hand.

The link he provided is a prime example. Trails for "Rails to Trails"
are often recreational trails, not the same as Multi-Use-Trails in urban
and suburban areas which have been designed to tie together residential
and commercial areas. I have ridden one such "rail to trail"
http://www.ridethehiawatha.com/. There are definitely parking lots.
It's not an area where anyone lives, it's purely recreational.

As an elected official I recently attended a "Trails and Waterways
Summit" where we discussed overcoming obstacles to continuing to develop
the trails network along creeks and rivers. The only real hope of
relieving traffic congestion is to at least slightly increase the bike
mode. Even a small increase would have an effect on congestion
https://valleywaternews.org/2018/07/16/first-trails-summit-is-a-success/.
I don't know of ANY of the county's creek and river trails where they
installed parking lots for people to drive to the beginning of the trail
and then bike, but perhaps there are some.

Where do all these waterways go past? Intel. Cisco. Google. Facebook.
Microsoft. Kaiser. Apple. Levi's Stadium. The ones that already have
paths are primarily commute routes during the week. Some see heavy
recreational use on weekends, but some do not. Since the water district
does not allow lighting, good lighting is needed to use them at night.


If you have a river with a bunch available dirt and willing tax-payers, go for it. MUP it! Depending on where it's located, it may get a few cars off the road for at least part of the day. We have some useful MUPs. I just don't think they're the best bang for the tax-buck, and cyclists need to learn road skills and particularly how to cope with auto traffic. Even in the NL, people have to leave the cycle-tracks to get places. You'll never have a bicycle Habitrail to your doorstep. http://www.bldgblog.com/wp-content/u...city_web-1.jpg

The notion that physically separated facilities are absolutely necessary to increase bike mode share is also proved wrong every day in PDX. Yes, the east side Springwater gets a lot of traffic -- but its closed for repairs, and the traffic is now on the streets. People continue to ride. And much of the traffic from the close-in east side is on traffic calmed streets and ordinary bike lanes or neither of the above. And BTW, bicycle traffic is traffic, and on physically separated facilities, it can be like getting stuck in a conga line, and then you throw in walkers and dogs, etc.
Physically separated facilities have a variety of problems like cleaning, blockage by cars, etc. https://bikeportland.org/2013/04/22/...ike-path-85780 Those problems can be overcome, but it takes a higher degree of diligence by the entity with jurisdiction over the facility. If you build it, you better be prepared to take care of it -- and from a municipal budget standpoint, I don't know if you can tap your gas tax allocation or have to use general funds, which are always tight.

-- Jay Beattie.




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