earth2pete

I used to ride almost exclusively on the road because the "bike facilities" in my area were inconvenient or unusable.
Then I moved to Denver, Colorado.

Cherry Creek Trail is accessible practically from my back door and it goes all the way downtown with only ONE traffic light. All other possible intersections with the street are met with bridges so you never have to stop.

Right now, however, it is being upgraded and construction has forced another traffic light into the picture for the moment, due to a temporary detour.

I am very impressed. I will never again say that bike facilities are inferior to the road.

I'll probably head downtown today! 😊

Gyro

I have a some what similar type of situation from my front door. 340 miles east to west. West being around 80 miles in length, one way. The problem, boring as hell. I still spend most of my time on the streets.

Riveting

I moved to (southwestern metro) Denver 5 years ago BECAUSE of the trail/path infrastructure. Not only does the Cherry Creek Trail go from Parker/CastleRock up to Denver with almost zero road crossings, there are also LOTS more trail systems (another ~250 miles of major trails/MUP/paths, and probably 200 more of secondary connectors) that ultimately interconnect to the central Cherry Creek Trail, and all with very minimal road crossings, if any at all: MaryCarter/S.Platte, 470, Highline Canal (easy gravel), East/West (tougher gravel), High Plains, Bear Creek, Clear Creek, Sand Creek, Little Dry Creek, US-36 Bikeway, and lots of other little ones that help connect them all together. I've never seen the official total, but it's got to be 500-600+ miles worth in metro Denver between Castle Rock and Boulder/Longmont.

Here's map showing the ALL the paths, and realize that the brown ones are off-street segregated trails: https://experience.arcgis.com/experi...fc705bcc256ad4

Is there another region in the world that rivals the Denver system of off-road paths? If so, I'd like to see a map of it.

Riveting

What region of the world are you in? I'd like to see a bike path map of the area.

genec

By ”off road paths,” you mean bike paths, not bike lanes (the latter which are no more than painted lines on the street).

There are probably lots of areas with great bike paths... But few of them are in America... Davis California is probably one example in the US, but areas like Oulo Finland, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, to name a few would likely rival Denver.

Iride01 

Yeah earth2pete , rub it in!

My youngest son lives in Centennial now and I've been out there several times with my bike. I'm very green with envy for the cycling infrastructure they've built out there. Not the perfect world for everyone, but it's really close to satisfying my desires.

And then there's a couple 14er's nearby. Mt. Evans and Pikes Peak. I did Mt. Evans this year and hope to do both next year.

Gyro

https://bikeeriecanal.com/erie-canal-map.aspx

Not sure how it will view, you may need to zoom out to see it all or given your location, what it will show at start. Ohhh, not a Goat head to be found.

Riveting

Yup, I'm just talking segregated bike paths, not painted lanes, or any type of lane shared with cars, unless there's a barrier between the two.

I just looked at a bike map of the entire Netherlands and their entire bike path system looks really impressive, as I've always heard, I've just never looked it up on satellite view. Bucket list.

Troul 

it must be nice to have a pipe dream be real. Might get 1/2 mile before the paved pathway has a x-ing or hazard detour.

BobbyG

earth2pete Riveting Thanks for the info on the Cherry Creek Trail. It has emboldened me even more. I have planned to ride from my home in Colorado Springs to my daughter's in downtown Denver for the last three years. I figured out and drove what I feel to be a safe route up to the south end of the Cherry Creek Trail in Parker. Knowing that the CC Trail is mostly protected I am eager to ride up there. I figure it'll be 85 miles. The most I've done is 58, but I think I can! If I start up north at the Colorado Springs/Monument border and ride to where Parker meets Denver, that is only 53 miles, and technically satisfies my desire to ride from Colo Spgs to Denver, but I'd really like to do door to door.

FYI: Colorado Springs' Greenway Trail goes from Downtown Colorado Springs, through the Air Force Academy to Palmer Lake (although I take surface streets usually). There is a county road, which I think is called Spruce Mountain Road. That goes north to Tomah Road (driving I had to detour through Larkspur by the Renaissance Festival and am prepared to bike that if necessary). At Tomah you can cross over to the East side of I-25 to a frontage road with a wide, generous shoulder all the way north to Castle Rock. In Castle Rock there are protected bike lanes and wide shoulders up to Parker and the south end of the Cherry Creek Trail. This avoids riding on shoulderless Hwy 83 which has seen cyclist fatalities over the years, and Hwy 105 which is very scenic, but also lacks a shoulder.

superdex

Yes. Avoid 83. And true, 105 is shoulderless, but it's far less trafficked than 83 and popular enough of a route that peeps are generally pretty agreeable. You can now get from Sedalia to Chatfield Res without getting on Santa Fe, I'm sure Riveting will talk all about it

For what it's worth, you can hop on the Plum Creek Trail now as far south as Crystal Valley Parkway, which will get you off the street all the way north of Castle Rock to either Castle View HS, or you can take a right at Hangmans Gulch trail and head East up and over to Founders/Copper Cloud. Then meander on Autumn Sage St. to Castle Oaks Drive and you can hit the Cherry Creek Trail here. Then it's Cherry Creek Trail to downtown. Cake.

BobbyG

Wow! Now I really have to try it! I'll let you know when it happens.

astrobiker

There's always something new to see while riding on the streets!