Originally Posted by Zeuser
Personally, i don't understand why cyclists who ***** about not having bicycle friendly roads don't use the paths when they are provided for the safety of the cyclist.
First, I really have no clue about MUPs as we don't have them around here. All we have are recreation trails which don't go anywhere and aren't suitable for transportation. My feeling is that many (most?) of the cyclists already in the road have no desire to ride on a path. Maybe I'm alone on this though.
It
seems like paths, and many times bike lanes, are advocated by people who will not be using them on a daily basis. Things that are nice for a Saturday morning stroll with the kids often don't work so well on a Monday morning commute.
I know there are exceptions to the rules, and I am mainly speaking from a local perspective. If I were forced off my commute into a problematic bike lane or path I would resent it. What I am personally in favor of, however, are straight-line paths that parallel roads inaccessible to bicycles. For example, if there were a bike path along the main highways (interstate and beltlines) I could ride my bike to the major business park situation between several larger cities in my region. Without it, a car is the only way I could get to work in that area.