Cycle tracks.... what do you think?

[OakLeaf]

I'm totally with you, Eden.

Yes, there need to be parks where children can learn to ride and disabled people can have recreation. Conflating those parks with transportation thoroughfares is a Very Bad Idea. We don't let children learn to ride motorcycles on public streets, and yes it's unfortunate how expensive the trails are if they don't have access to property, but that doesn't mean we *should* let them learn to ride on public streets.

There will never be enough funding to create segregated facilities that go everywhere, and so the default will be roads accessible to cars. Then what? People assume that all those businesses and homes are not accessible by bicycle.

Another aspect of segregated facilities that doesn't get much, if any, thought, is that if adults get used to riding in segregated facilities, then where there are no segregated facilities but there are pedestrian facilities, they will ride on those. Even when it's illegal. Even when the streets are exceedingly safe for cycling.

I can't tell you how many times, while I've been running on sidewalks, that people on bicycles have run me off the sidewalk and into car traffic. That is the natural and predictable consequence of segregated bicycle facilities, as far as I'm concerned, and it's extraordinarily dangerous. Last year (shortly after the injury I'm still rehabbing, where someone on a bicycle on the sidewalk was a contributing factor), I called someone out on this when I caught up to them on a drawbridge. They proceeded to argue with me about whether or not it was legal for them to be riding on the sidewalk. Like, dangerous and rude isn't enough??? They're going to do it unless someone outlaws it, no matter how dangerous it is to themselves and other sidewalk users?