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Long Cyclist-Only Paths

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Long Cyclist-Only Paths

Old 02-11-21, 07:33 AM
  #26  
Reflector Guy
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Just by coincidence, last night Youtube recommended a video to me which featured a guy riding on some paved paths and he was doing all kinds of dangerous close-passes to pedestrians and joggers, and admonishing them afterward for being there. Example: They'd be keeping to the far right and he'd buzz by them much too close anyway, or he'd pass them at full speed when they were crossing between the bollards at street crossings. I don't know what rules are in place for that particular path (and the pavement marking shown occasionally in the video was confusing) but it was a really strange video.

Maybe tonight I'll watch some more of his.... Perhaps I am missing some key information.
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Old 02-11-21, 08:02 AM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Russ Roth
Trexlertown, PA; a nice little cycling mecca. They've got a velodrome, a crit course, somewhere around 80 miles of contiguous rail trail and amazing country roads with lots of hills and little traffic. The course is across the street from the velodrome.
It looks pretty cool.


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Old 02-11-21, 08:57 AM
  #28  
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Oh, I did forget about a trail or trails on the other side of the reservoir from me. They are nicely paved and wide. However they have one narrow section marked off for pedestrians and a much wider section for cyclist. Not sure how many total miles. And I've never seen any rules posted for their use. But admittedly have only casually looked online.

I've been on them a few times, but prefer the road. The road has right-of-way with few stops. And though the path usually isn't crowded, I'd hate to get into a situation where a group of friends walking can't stay single file in their path and I decide to act like one of butt-holes in the Amsterdam bike path videos. While it's not so in parts of Europe, our laws here still put the pedestrian supreme no matter where they are.
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Old 02-11-21, 12:41 PM
  #29  
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I think it looks nice also, but the problem with these paths, is that they go nowhere. I do enough riding, I don't need to find a path to just do laps. But if that's what you're looking for, then it is perfect....
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Old 02-11-21, 07:38 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Notso_fastLane
I'm not aware of any that are cycle only. That seems, unfortunately, like something very few cities would do. I have been on some (around the Seattle area) that were marked such that peds were supposed to stay within the lines and bikes within their lines, but we all know how effective paint is....
I wonder if you're talking about Green Lake? There's two sets trails around it--one just for bikes--but pedestrians took it over. There was a bit of a turf battle for it, but cyclists were finally driven off. It is somewhat frustrating how so many urban trails became too busy to enjoy.
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Old 02-11-21, 09:31 PM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by Reflector Guy
Seems the city or county or whatever municipal entity that administers the path would open itself up to all sorts of guff from the citizenry if they tried to keep some groups out. So they keep them open to all.
I don't think anyone is expecting that a bike route alone be built, but rather that the non-motor-vehicle route sometimes would be best separated into mandatory pedestrian and cycling routes.

Of course non-compliance is an issue - occasionally by cyclists (though not as much as on routes that have no cycling alternative), much more by pedestrians.

Some examples from NYC:

Ocean Parkway path has a fence down the middle, massive non-compliance by baby carriage pushing grandmothers

Williamsburg Bridge - bikes on one side pedestrians on the other with all the car lanes in between, again reported pedestrian non-compliance

Brooklyn and Queensboro bridges - in the process of having a drastically separate vehicle lane turned into a bike lane to replace a previous shared one (which in the Brooklyn case had a paint divider). We can guess from the Williamsburg bridge example how that will go...

My favorite example though is in Battery Park where they just made the bike-only lane too darn pretty. It's this sinuous pair of directionally split single-file paths through a flower garden, and people just can't resist taking an evening stroll there, and not on the no-bikes-allowed sidewalk 30 feet away. They should have left it harsh and utilitarian to be the key connector that it is, and maybe planted the garden with its paths a bit to the east for the evening stroller crowd.

Last edited by UniChris; 02-11-21 at 09:40 PM.
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Old 02-12-21, 09:05 PM
  #32  
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The NorPac Trail from Taft, Montana up to Lookout Pass at the border of Idaho. No cross traffic. Technically not bike only, but you’ll likely encounter anyone else except deer. Do you like cold and snow in the winter?
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Old 02-13-21, 08:11 AM
  #33  
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This is not a bike path, nonetheless, it looked like a really nice road to ride...However, it was kind of ironic how they told a cyclist to get out of the middle of the road

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Old 02-13-21, 11:46 AM
  #34  
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Cross Vermont Trail and the Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail are a pair of rail trails here. They are emphatically not bikes only, they are open to everything from ATVs and snow machines to bikes, walkers, runners, equestrians, and sled dog teams. In practice I have met <5 other people/40 mile segment.
A bikes only path would have to be carefully thought out and sold to avoid seeming elitist, and thus garnering a very negative backlash against bikes.
Would ebikes be allowed?
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Old 02-16-21, 01:27 PM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by cb400bill
It looks pretty cool.


The Olympic team trails for the 1996 games were held at T-Town. Bob Rodale is almost assuredly affiliated with Rodale, Inc. (publisher of "Bicycling" magazine), etc., in nearby Emmaus. I saw LeMond there back in the late 2000s. Marty Nothstein is from Allentown and used to ride there.
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Old 02-18-21, 09:45 PM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by flangehead
Thank you. That is precisely the kind of infrastructure I'm searching for as examples.
That’s not an infrastructure. That’s a driveway
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Old 02-19-21, 08:14 AM
  #37  
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Summary

Thanks to all for the replies.

To summarize, there were two “wheels-only” facilities identified. One is the Austin TX Veloway, a 3 mile loop that allows rollerbladers and cyclists but no pedestrians. The other is the Eurovelo segment in Burgundy France where one side of a canal path is bicycle-only.

There appear to be numerous examples of lane and/or physical parallel path separation, from small loops with lanes (Rodale Park in Trexlertown PA) to long linear with physical separation (Tulsa OK River Parks). It sounds like compliance, enforcement and common courtesy vary widely.

In terms of usage, the Tulsa trail operator, River Parks Authority, tells me they averaged 3000 to 3500 people per day before COVID. I contacted Austin Parks and Recreation regarding the Veloway and they said they do not have any usage statistics.

This is very helpful in understanding the range of options that have been tried. Thank you.

Last edited by flangehead; 02-19-21 at 08:15 AM. Reason: Clarify Tulsa time period.
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Old 02-19-21, 03:03 PM
  #38  
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I forgot about our local velodrome. I think it's open now (they were just starting construction when I moved here in 2018).

I need to go check it out when the weather is nicer. I'll take the velo and see how it works there.

Draper Cycle Park | velodrome, in-line skating, pumps and jumps, mountain biking, cyclocross and more
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Old 03-01-21, 09:03 AM
  #39  
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In Georgia we have the Silver Comet / Chief Ladiga Trail that is 94 miles long. It has a few busy pedestrian areas near Atlanta / Smyrna.
Most of it is rural and you can easily get more than 5 miles between road crossings.
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Old 03-03-21, 09:04 PM
  #40  
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I wish we had this in my city!
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Old 03-04-21, 06:36 AM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by UniChris
I don't think anyone is expecting that a bike route alone be built, but rather that the non-motor-vehicle route sometimes would be best separated into mandatory pedestrian and cycling routes.

Of course non-compliance is an issue - occasionally by cyclists (though not as much as on routes that have no cycling alternative), much more by pedestrians.

Some examples from NYC:

Ocean Parkway path has a fence down the middle, massive non-compliance by baby carriage pushing grandmothers

Williamsburg Bridge - bikes on one side pedestrians on the other with all the car lanes in between, again reported pedestrian non-compliance

Brooklyn and Queensboro bridges - in the process of having a drastically separate vehicle lane turned into a bike lane to replace a previous shared one (which in the Brooklyn case had a paint divider). We can guess from the Williamsburg bridge example how that will go...

My favorite example though is in Battery Park where they just made the bike-only lane too darn pretty. It's this sinuous pair of directionally split single-file paths through a flower garden, and people just can't resist taking an evening stroll there, and not on the no-bikes-allowed sidewalk 30 feet away. They should have left it harsh and utilitarian to be the key connector that it is, and maybe planted the garden with its paths a bit to the east for the evening stroller crowd.
My main beef now is the amount of straight up motorcycles on the bridge bike paths. Bike lanes are now "not car" lanes. Also good for parking your car. More Magic Paint is needed here.
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Old 03-11-21, 06:41 AM
  #42  
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Locally I can't think of a single long distance cycleway that's reserved for bikes only....in fact outside of bike parks I can't recollect seeing a sing bike only trail anywhere in England or Wales. Close to home there are a few segregated cycle only lanes in Bristol, but they're usually a few hundred yards long at best.

In terms of shared paths though we have a few that are very good, like the Bristol-Bath Railway Path that runs for 15 miles and takes you from Bath right into the very centre of Bristol, the Strawberry Line that runs from Cheddar to Yatton, and the Greenway from Bath to Radstock. The BBRP is far and away the best of these; it's completely off road, well surfaced along its entire length and the vast majority of users are cyclists. Other shared paths have the problems of uneven surfaces, large groups of pedestrians all across the path, and dog walkers. I find there's no worse combination of users than cyclists and dog walkers with poorly trained dogs off the lead or on extending leads.
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