New bike path

On 3/15/2018 8:47 AM, 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.

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.Â* It's ~100k and
really nice.Â* About 80k of it is on bike paths.Â* These paths follow the
river and then the Lachine canal so there are basically no
intersections.Â* Along the canal where the path crosses city streets the
path has under or overpasses.

Here's the thing.Â* 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.Â* At commute time it's too crowded.Â* On weekends and
holidays it's packed.

So I guess my point is that if they make these things people use them.
In Montreal, a lot of people use them.Â* Whether or not they make sense
for commuters is another story.Â* And group riding on bike paths is a bad
idea in any case if the paths aren't empty.

Most of us probably enjoy a segregated path that's well-maintained,
scenic, and mostly empty. Probably few of us enjoy a MUP when it's
seeing heavy use. And with good reason! With widely varying users,
narrow spaces and a "no rules" environment, movements are often chaotic.

So Joerg should lobby for paths that will be unpopular, because those
make for the best riding. Of course, that's a tough sell. Can you
imagine asking for tax money for a new freeway, by saying "It will be
great! Hardly anyone will use it!"

Nationwide, only a tiny percentage of these facilities can be justified
as shifting mode share from cars to bikes. Despite the cherry-picked
examples, most miles of MUP connect nowhere to nowhere, for obvious
reasons.

So almost all are linear parks, even though they're "sold" as being
transportation facilities. They should be paid for from park taxes, not
federal or state transportation tax dollars.

--
- Frank Krygowski