Originally Posted by
CliffordK
As others have mentioned, if you are "taking the lane", then one or two wide doesn't make any difference. It would be tight to pass a cyclist riding along the edge.
Exactly, though this is non-obvious to many, and that's the issue. I can't even say I necessarily see it as immediately looking at the picture, as I'd feel it if I were trying to ride there.
To me, this is a case of poor municipal design. With the convoluted neighborhood roads, it funnels everyone onto the main roads. And, the main roads aren't made bike friendly.
Yes - that's likely the root of it though they were likely intentionally not wanting to make neighborhood streets car shortcuts. Some sort of bike-only connectors could be interesting, but they'd need to have good sightlines and not be chokepoints that create their own hazards.
One thing that would help would be to put bike routes through all greenways, and along all rivers and streams. Plus bridges as necessary. The city seems to have some, but not a lot.
These help a lot for casual cyclists and family rides. Though cities where the roads are so bad that the greenways are also the only place where roadies can go for an intense ride tend to see a lot of mode conflict between users of the paths there. Really, road rides work better on road like things than path like things.