sfrider 

MUPs are best avoided, unless obviously there is no other option for some stretch like a bridge or along a freeway where there is no other road. Apart from debris and people walking and running, and around here tourists wobbling around on rental bikes, they also have a 15mph speed limit. Road bikes and experienced cyclists just don't belong there.

Jim from Boston

paved bike path a mess I don't ride itBut also as @berner posted elsewhere:

Seattle Forrest

Yep. That stretch is part of a few of my routes, too. Coming from the UW bridge, these a lot of nice view. You just have to expect to go slow there. Lately it's been more people on rental eBikes then peds slowing me down, I bet it has a lot to do with time of day. Also like the path through Myrtle Edwards, and the Chief Sealth down from Renton to Beacon, that one is pretty much always empty.

canklecat

Same. But all MUPs devolve the same way. Been that way since the first MUPs I saw in SoCal in the 1970s. Invariably they're poorly designed with inadequate consultation with actual users -- primarily, too narrow, basically a sidewalk through a park. Like painted lines with cyclist icons, it gives warm fuzzies to cities and lets them brag about being cycling friendly when they bid for deals with major employers and tourist businesses. It's mostly BS.

If you read enough cycling advocacy posts on social media and cussin'/discussin' forums, you'll see a pattern:

• Cyclists who prefer to ride the road griping about motor vehicle drivers not giving them at least 3 feet of passing clearance;
• Wannabe roadies racing on the MUP, passing within mere inches of other cyclists and pedestrians, the sort of behavior that would provoke screams of outrage if it happened so routinely on public streets;
• Cyclists, joggers and pedestrians complaining about free-range dogs in cities, suburbs and rural areas;
• Passive-aggressive dog walkers with 50-yard retractable non-leash tripwires, basically causing the same hazard.

IOW, jerks are gonna jerk, no matter where they are and no matter what their mode of locomotion.

I suspect there are more collisions and injuries on MUPs than we realize, but because there's no mandatory liability insurance law the victims just suck up the expenses for equipment damage and injuries, or pass the expenses along to taxpayers by defaulting on ambulance and ER bills they can't pay. And most aren't fatal, although I know of some painful, serious and expensive injuries to friends on MUPs and "bike lanes", caused by other cyclists and irresponsible dog walkers.

jamesdak 

Yeah, I won't ride our local path either. Too many hazards for me and for others if I'm riding at speed. I wish I could but I really do have to ride the roads and deal with 55 mph traffic passing me. Unfortunately, no real shoulders either so you just deal with it.

puma1552

I wonder if a lot of the people complaining about MUPs are people doing the types of rides that MUPs are not and never were designed for. None of them support all out cycling, nor were they ever intended to in the first place. Some systems are surely better than others and some will support moderate rides better than others, but nobody really trying to go all out should be on an MUP to begin with.

If you're trying to get personal bests, 20+ mph averages, or whatever, MUPs were never the solution. *shrug*

WhyFi

Fify. I thought that this was pretty obvious and didn't need to be said.

And, to be clear, it's really just about relative speed, not effort. The paths are designed for 10-15 mph, hence the speed limits. The more your cruising speed exceeds that, the more it introduces and compounds a number problems. All of the sudden, the paths are a *lot* more crowded, because you're passing people instead of pacing them. When passing, approach/warning times are compressed. Intersections are also more frequent and you start out-pacing your lines of sight at those intersections, which means that you need to slow down much more (relative to slower-moving traffic) to safely navigate them... and then it's more effort to get back up to speed.

CliffordK

Despite pedestrians, dogs, skateboards, etc, I find our local bike path system to be convenient. There are some places where it gets busy, but for the most part it isn't bad.

One of the issues that seems to come up is an issue of scale, so a bike path in a metro area of 100K to 200K may not be adequate in a metro area of 1M to 5M, or more, with people density going from pleasant to too much.

Cities that spend millions of dollars on building paths need to be encouraged to maintain them and keep them clean. How much would it cost to have a street sweeper scaled to the size of the path, and sweep once a month or so?

As a cyclist, I do ignore a lot of stuff... I can't stop for everything, but if I do find something really bad on the path, I'll stop and throw it to the side or remove it.



Sometimes I think I should bring a broom with me to sweep my favorite routes. But, those bottles above were just in a bad spot on the trail, so I stopped, parked my bike partly blocking the glass, and picked it up by hand.

jamesdak 

I totally agree with that, hence why I don't ride my local one. Now try to explain that to all the drivers mad at me for being on THEIR road. You just can't win, LOL!

Iride01 

I don't agree that all mups are going to be useless for road biking. For the most part, I and many others get good use out of the main eleven mile trail that parallels the Natchez Trace. And most runners, walkers and walkers with dogs in tow don't present anymore of a problem to cyclists than the cyclists do to other cyclists.

However I do agree that in the building of trails with the support of self-appointed bicycle advocacy groups giving a skewed view of the people that will ride them, then I think of all the money that could have made the road itself safer for me. Spending money on a separated bike path to appease those that fear cycling with motorists won't leave any funds to help those of us the paths weren't made for.

I was a little timid when I first start riding the roads around here. But I got over it. Just like I was a little timid the first time I drove a car on the road, but I got over that too.