Originally Posted by
Digital_Cowboy
Will those protected bike paths go everywhere that cyclists want/need to go? Here in St. Pete/Pinellas County we have the Pinellas Trail that pretty much goes from one end of the county to the other. BUT it does NOT go everywhere that we want/need to go.
Also how is the city/county/state suppose to secure the property to build these protected paths? Property owners are not going to want to give up part of their property, and using imminent domain to seize the property is just going to piss them off.
As has been said before within city limits we need to slow down the speed of the roads, we also need to have those speed limits strictly enforced. And motorists need to be encouraged to car pool, use public transportation (demand more public transportation) and ride bicycles.
As it is because there are still so few of us on the road on bikes we are seen as someone that drivers can ignore.
The city/county/state actually owns lots of property. No additional land needs to be purchased. Plenty enough for bikes, and it goes everywhere. It's just that as of now the vast majority is being used to move motor vehicles instead of bikes. If we took 15% of that and used it for protected cycle tracks, along with slowing down traffic on a number of other streets, we could have a top notch bike infrastructure without spending outrageous amounts of money.