I would never ride on a bike path, especially a multi use one. There are just too many opportunities for accidents. One of the rides I do crosses a heavily used path on the road. There are zillions of little kids and people walking slowly. The only time I have been on a path is early in the morning (6AM) and on Cape Cod in the off-season.
Recently, I have had problems with walkers (with dogs) walking 3 or more abreast on the road. While, this has been in the car, I think it would be scarier on a bike. They refuse to move over and when I lightly blew my horn, they ran all over the street, like I was going to hit them. It's like they "own" the road when they refuse to walk single file. I know there's cyclists who refuse to ride in a single line and they always get bad publicity around here. I understand how motorists feel because of these ladies who think they can just take up the whole road.

Robyn