On 2018-03-15 05:47, Duane wrote:
On 14/03/2018 9:09 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 08:36:45 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

If you provide proper infrastructure
they will come:

That's the second time this week that I've cackled aloud while sitting
at the computer.


Probably because you never lived in a country with a very extensive bike
path system. I have.


I don't *do* that sort of thing.


I rarely use segregated paths but there is a ride I like to do from my
house in Montreal West Island area to the old port. It's ~100k and
really nice. About 80k of it is on bike paths. These paths follow the
river and then the Lachine canal so there are basically no
intersections. Along the canal where the path crosses city streets the
path has under or overpasses.


We have a similar bike path along the American River towards Sacramento.
I use that almost weekly.


Here's the thing. I take the day off work on my birthday and do this
ride with some friends because there's no one on the paths outside of
the commute hours. At commute time it's too crowded. On weekends and
holidays it's packed.


Same here.


So I guess my point is that if they make these things people use them.


Absolutely. I once had an experience I almost could not believe. Ran
some errands down in the valley and it became late. When I wanted to get
back onto the American River bike path it was almost like trying to
merge into traffic on a fairly clogged highway.

While living in the Netherlands I experienced a lot of bicycle traffic
jams. It seemed the whole town sat on these green or blue behemoths.


In Montreal, a lot of people use them. Whether or not they make sense
for commuters is another story. And group riding on bike paths is a bad
idea in any case if the paths aren't empty.


It's not that bad if the group does not absolutely insist on remaining
together. Just agree on the next pub, cafe or whatever where you want to
meet for a stop.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/