I'm 100% on the road, but I'm in Denver. I used to live in Dallas, and saying so I'd probably use MUPs as much as possible, thank you very much Texas drivers

Does that mean I shouldn't ride my MTB in Kansas?

I misread the poll and meant to write "90% on path, 10% on road" rather than "10% on path, 90% on road".

A dedicated bike path that doesn't cross the road is ideal. One path I'm on run beside the road, which runs beside the river so you can get on the road but never have to cross it. Another actually goes through a tunnel under the road - you can get onto the road from the path, but don't have to.

The bike trails are also plowed by the city in the winter.

If it were feasible, I think the above would be ideal. The "safest" paths are either wide and in a good area of town, or along the street (but not crossing the street). Even under the most considerate of conditions, any time bikes mix with traffic someone will eventually get hit (cars hit each other, they'll end up hitting bikers to). But a trail that's narrow and through the woods in a sketchy part of town isn't anything you want to ride at night for more "pedestrian" safety reasons.

I voted 100% because the MUPs around here are useless and dangerous, and they end about 1/3 of the way to work. There is one that goes almost right by my house, but it is across the major throughway and there is no way to get to it without jumping a curb and riding across the grass.

Still, there are people here who swear by them and will follow the MUP out of their way to the major 4-lane and then ride through ditches and cut through fields in order to avoid riding in the street. To each his own.

Given this I will advocate and support any effort to increase bicycling around here, even though it pains me to see tax money getting spent on what I see as essentially useless (to me) infrastructure. Oh well. I guess that's how some old people feel about school bond issues.

Not to be critical, or anything, but that seems like a pretty good excuse to never do anything. People die for all sorts of reasons. I don't see anyone giving up cars, despite the multitude of death stories on the news. Or giving up houses, even knowing they can burst into flames. Or giving up flying...OK maybe a few people give up flying, but certainly not everyone.

If it works for you, fine, but imagine if everyone thought that way. It'd be like "I Am Legend" but without the Will Smith character.

I prefer the MUP to get across the highways and get up the next hill, but then I cross the same street and ride on the road the rest of the way in.

On the way home I'll take the MUP most of the way. It is flat and I can keep my pace up.

Wow, some nasty answers. tate65, I appreciate your efforts.

BTW, I think it's a question with decent application to general US locales, since the typical city council/transportation department knows jack about bicycle transportation and would happily use public money to build glorified sidewalks to nowhere.

Anyway, 100% of my commute in Irving, Texas is on the streets.

tcs

Not sure if I follow your last analogy - if people didn't bike on the streets we'd turn into depraved, man-eating fast moving zombies?

I live and work in the Oak Cliff area. My entire commute is on the streets.
Ernest

You're right. Maybe that's a good thing.

Maybe 33%. I ride the road until I reach the MUP, then get on the road again once it starts heading past campus, then ride the road until I reach the sidewalk. The roads are by far my least favorite parts, simply due to cars. Overall, though, most of the ride is stress-free, being on the MUP.

I could take a very serviceable bike path for 80% of my commute every day but some days I choose the streets for the following reasons:

1) It's shorter (and I'm in a hurry).

2) The MUP is not plowed.

3) The MUP is too crowded with joggers/walkers/slow cyclists.

So I put 50%. Since that's how it probably averages out over the year. I'm also a transportation cyclist- for everything from grocery shopping to visiting friends and family cross state or even out of state. At those times I am primarily on streets and roads.

For recreational purposes I tend to ride on roads or MTB off-road on single track and fire roads. I do occasionally include sections of bike path/MUP on some long tours and recreational loops when they serve me.

Mine's 5.4 mi one way, about .5 mi of which is on a path (but only because the University of Illinois campus gets in my way).

Part of this is to be able to inform the city councils (Irving, Dallas, Famers Branch, Grapevine, Arlington, and a few others) of the number of people on the roads rather then MUPS, most know that we would like good MUPS, but here in Tx most cities never considered them for commuting so there is no way to go back and put them in now. I am working with several cities on new transportation plans that include cycling in the mix. We are looking at places like Austin, and Ft Worth who have done a good job of not only including cycling, they make it a priority.

Gahh! Those campus bike paths are what convinced me to switch to a scooter. I wasn't a street rider, then, so I thought I "belonged" on the paths. Problem was, too many people walking across the path without looking, or newbs and visitors walking along the "sidewalk" and wondering why it had a centerline. Couple of flying leaps over the handlebars was enough for me.

I'd like to ride trails, but they just don't go where I need to. Streets are it.

Same here- my commute is all street.

I am from Flower Mound but have been to irving all the time. The bike infrastructure is non existant in Flower Mound There aren't any bike lanes or shoulders or sidewalks on 85% of the on the main roads and people normally are going 50 mph or better. Regardless I used to ride on the shoulder until they got rid of it on the north part of 2499 to the stores. I just don't feel safe how people treat me on the roads there so I resort to the sidewalks when possible. Plus there is always a lot of traffic and I would probably be given ticket for obstructing traffic.

Personally I ride the roads here in College Station(there are bike lanes usualy and I stay in them normally intersections where I take the lane for my safety and that of others or when passing) except on campus and I ride what roads I can so I don't have to worry about running into people as much but they seem to jay walk sometimes anyways and when going 20 mph(speed limit) it is hard to stop super fast and they can't seem to get that they would be hurt just as bad almost as if a car hit them. I say when I can since everything is off of pedestrian streets now as the former roads are now converted into huge sidewalks with names in spots.

I checked 100%, but on some afternoons when it's nice out and I have time, I'll cruise the MUP a while before heading home. But that's a joy ride, not a commute.

Come out to Fort Worth some time. My office is less than a mile from the Trinity Trail. My alternate ride home follows it for a few miles. It's slightly out of my way, but not that much. In the next year or three I hope to sell our home and buy another; my new home will probably be much closer to the trail. The southwest portion of the Trinity Trail is lined with apartment buildings that are either right on the trail or just off it. The trail itself converges from several different directions in Downtown Fort Worth.

Mine is about 80% roads, and that is not by choice. I used to live in Scottsdale, AZ, and 95% of the commute was on an MUP. These days, I get a couple of miles up that old MUP, and I really enjoy those moments. I really miss it. I could go 2-3 miles with no intersections at all. Much of it goes under and over the big streets. My goal is to live there again someday. I just couldn't afford a house there at this time. ...A big part of the real estate value in Scottsdale is access to the MUP and the multiple connecting parks. When lived there, I had no need for a car. In the desert, property near that MUP is as close as one can get to "beach-front property." Take that to your city planners.

I am surprised by the number of people here who rail against the MUP's. I use them all the time. I find that they make for a smoother ride than a road, and I have no trouble pedaling as fast as I am physically able to on them. Other users are not a problem, except (maybe) on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the height of summer, when they do tend to daydream and walk in your path.

Around here, they are convenient, in that they do go to places -- albeit not in a straight line -- and sit alongside houses and businesses. Because of the occasional longer distances, like when you need to ride a "Z" instead of a straight line, traveling the MUP is not quit as quick as taking the roads. But, I find it much more pleasant.

^ Yup. Given the choice, I'd take a parallel MUP over the road 100% of the time, as would everyone I know not on BF.

Funny, here in Boston as I ride down Commonwealth Avenue, which passes by Boston University for a mile or two, the students treat this busy street like a promenade. Walking aimlessly across it, ignoring traffic signals, never using crosswalks, stepping off the curb into the bike lane without looking (which is new-they did this before there was a bike lane, too). It's tough to warn them that you're there because 90% are on I-pods or cellphones as they walk or are so engaged in some conversation with a pack of other students that nothing exists outside of their own personal bubble.

Anyone thinking this kind of behavior is confined to, or worse yet, because of bike paths is sorely mistaken.

I wouldn't assume that the folks who post on BF would actually not ride a decent MUP if the alternative were obviously the better choice. Just like many of them would probably not "take the lane" in absolutely every circumstance as many of them claim. Or fearlessly ride any road, any where, at any time. What one posts in BF and how and where people actually ride is probably as accurate as the average speeds, distances, hill grades and pedal rpm's that are sometimes posted here.

After all, as is oft quoted in BF: "MUP is for wussy."

Well, I am proudly a wuss for 50% of my commuting hours and miles every year.*

*and I have no idea of how accurate that 50% is! I just know that depending on time, circumstances, my mood, the weather or one of a million different reasons I sometimes prefer the MUP or vice versa.

ditto