Before & after bike ghettos

On 10/19/2010 12:38 AM, Chalo wrote:

When such trails occur within a city, all trail access points can
constitute access to home, work, or shopping for many people. If this
concept doesn't work in the 'burbs, well, what can I say... it's far
from the only screwed-up thing about the 'burbs.

It's only right that cyclists and peds should have some limited access
thruways, and it's only right that these should be legitimate
applications for transportation funds. We cyclists have spent all our
taxpaying lives buying motorist-only freeways. A little reciprocation
would be nice.

We're getting more and more of those in the SF Bay Area, but the
progress is slow. The Stevens Creek Trail goes right into an industrial
park where Google and several other large employers are located. Another
trail goes right by Intel and continues into North San Jose near Cisco.

While these trails are nice for their lack of traffic, they are often
not suitable for commuting because you can't go very fast on them, and
there are often other users on the trail not behaving responsibly. They
often take a contorted route to cross freeways, railroad tracks, and
other surface streets.