Thanks for the greater explanation - I now see what you mean.
I recall riding in and around Incline Village at Lake Tahoe in Nevada. There are places along Lakeshore Blvd where the trail crosses back and forth over the road, sometimes very frequently so that if anyone ever tried to ride a bike on it, they would constantly be crossing the street. It probably made some sense when the road had lighter traffic and most people used the trail for walking, but it was ridiculous for cycling. Now, all that being said, my brother lives there and was complaining to me one time about cyclists who refused to ride on the bike path...
Originally Posted by
ianbrettcooper
I am certainly not trying to suggest that riding 'on trails' is in itself dangerous. The problem is more complex than that. Some accidents do happen on the trails themselves, often due to poor signage, inadequate trail width, mixed use, etc. But these are usually minor accidents. The things that make trails incredibly dangerous compared with even sidewalk riding are the points at which they intersect with roads. Unfortunately the folks who design trails have yet to learn that a trail is not a pedestrian way, so we get trails that end on the sidewalk whenever an intersection occurs. Most serious trail accidents happen at these crossing points, because often the trail entrance is hidden from drivers - essentially they are blind driveways. Trails could be made safe if only their intersection points were treated as road junctions, with a light like many traffic junctions. The fact that trail designers have a pedestrian mentality ends up killing cyclists.
One thing is certain, adding more of the same poor quality trails that are usually implemented will not improve conditions for cyclists. If trail planners are serious about making trails safe, they will have to do some serious thinking about how to make them safer. Simply dropping a 4ft wide strip of concrete from one sidewalk to the next will never cut it.
And that's not even getting to my earlier point, which is that most cycling is done on roads. Even if you live in a place like DC, with a vast network of trails, the reality is that most commuting is done off-trail. Many trails don't even attempt to serve commuters - they are for recreation. If trails are to become safe and widely useful, there needs to be a quantum shift in how and why trails are planned and implemented. I just don't see that happening now, and I see no impetus to change because the powers that be have so beaten down cyclists that most of them are just happy to see anything done in the name of cycling, no matter whether it makes sense or not.
London is about the only place in the English speaking world making a concerted effort to install commuter trails, and even there they still have this outdated 'pedestrian' view of cycling, so even the London bike highways, which are so forward-thinking in some ways, are still going to be dangerous places to cycle.