Riding Dedicated Bicycle Paths
 

I did a 50 mile ride with a couple of people today who agreed to give me a "tour" of the bicycle paths in Irvine, California. Since I was new to the group, they put me in the back of their group. Although the group was cruising along around a couple of MPH slower than I would like, I wanted to do the tour. Plus, it was nice to relax most of the time and protected from the wind.

Irvine, CA is a rather large city that contains a downtown area, a fairly wide open undeveloped area, and very busy suburban centers all around. It's not a city like NY or San Francisco, it is more like a very large suburb. But the city is lined with perfectly paved bicycle paths with beautifuly manicured landscaping along some areas. The paths take you all around the city and it is used by a lot of cyclists. It falls under the term Multi-Use path but it really is a de-facto bicycle path because most of the people in it were on bicycles. This is due to the size of the city and the fact that the paths sometimes went on and on so it really encourages mobility on a set of big wheels. I saw some runners. There were some families with kids on bikes. But most of the riders I saw looked like regular riders including dedicated roadies riding in groups in a paceline. Unlike in my city, I didn't see any annoying dog walkers with their dogs loose or on a mile long leash that required you to tiptoe around them (and occasional get chased). The people I saw seem very aware that these paths are dominated by bicyclists so walking a dog with a long leash is probably not the best idea. Plus, the riders I encountered were fast. The Paths themselves were wide open most of the time so there was plenty of room for everyone. The width was about the size of a large lane or two narrow lanes of car traffic.

It was truely a refreshing experience to see this well organized labyrinth of paths dedicated to bicycle mobility. You could ride for miles and miles at speed and not stop for signal ligths, pedestrians listening to music and oblivious to your presence, cars, or any other obstruction to speed. There were no constant rush of annoying cars and trucks or extremely loud and obnoxious motorcycles buzzing by you. Sure, you had to slow down to pass larger groups but for the most part, it was a great place to really ride. The paths were all relatively flat so there were no challenging hills. The hills are in my city! Of course when it was time to leave the path, you could "exit" into a public park to use restrooms, or ride along Irvine's supersmooth asphalts with bicycle lanes on the roads to the nearest watering hole.

I think if large cities across the USA had similar, very organized mazes of bicycle paths that were well maintained, safe, and had easy access across many parts of the city, more people would actually get off their cars and ride their bicycle. What was that statement? "If you build it, they will come". My city could learn a few lessons from Irvine, California.

Edited to add, another bonus to riding dedicated bicycle paths is that people didn't stare at you. One of the things that kind of make my roll my eyes when riding around my city, which already has a lot of roadies on the road, is that car drivers love to ogle. Women, men, kids, dogs, everyone just loves to stare and occassionaly holler something as they whizzed by. On the bike paths, everyone was a biker so you didn't feel like you were in a fishbowl.

Peace.

I used to ride an early version of those paths in the '70s when I lived in Santa Monica and dated a girl in Laguna Beach. Haven't seen them in 10 or 12 years, but she's still down there (we're both married to other people, but have stayed in touch) and rides them with her family...
In a weird geezer moment, I just realized that both of us have kids older than we were then.
I love the idea of the paths, and wish more cities had 'em. Even as an enthusiastic cyclist, though, I wonder if it makes economic sense. Budgets are so tight and bikes are so marginalized in most places that it's a hard idea to sell.

Economically, it makes little sense. But for the sake of fitness and overall mobility around a city, it makes perfect sense.

The city of Long Beach wants to be one of the best bicycle cities in the nation and has put a large effort into building lots of bicycle paths. I truely believe bicycle paths are the if-you-build-it-they-will-come kind of creations. Who doesn't like riding bicycles? Reasons why people don't like riding bikes is the traffic, the road hazards, etc. Few people are incapable of having fun on a bike.

In any case, once you've tried dedicated bicycle paths, it's kind of a bummer to go back to stopping at red lights, watching out for morons in cars, and sucking on exhaust fumes.

But yeah. It's a tough thing to sell to cities that have limited budgets. The city of Irvine, CA has a huge budget. They have a large business sector, tons of well to do homeowners as a tax base, they even have their own dedicated Police Force with a multitude of services from car patrol, to SWAT teams, helicopter squad, animals services, accident investigators, etc. Yup. Their rich compared to other cities. I lived there from 1986-1991 and I really loved the organized planning by the city and the stalwarth protection of their police. I live in Mission Viejo now and I have it pretty good too. But most cities around me are more dedicated to automobile traffic control than providing bicyclists with a proper venue for safe riding.

Here in Western MA, a few of the smaller cities will have bike lanes, basically a wide marked shoulder big enough for one bike. We also have a network of MUPs built on old railroad beds. As far as I know they are built and maintained by private organizations. The one near me is OK for a fat tire jaunt but I can't ride it on my road bike. There's too many holes, frost heaves, and tree roots poking up, too much traffic, and someone decided to used recycled glass in the pavement. You can see the shards sticking up and glistening in the sunlight. State roads that have been resurfaced in the last decade generally have been widened with 3' shoulders and aren't too bad to ride on.

There was a guy in the late 80s, hit a puddle and slid and crumped his brain on the bike path in Newport Beach. An insurance-industry guy, USC grad, got $3 million from NB's citizens for an unreasonable hazard. You can find iit in the Pilot and LA Times/OC archives, this is a true story.

Watch those puddles on the OC MUPs. The money isn't worth it.

Newport Beach is adjacent to Irvine, CA but it has nowhere near the organization that Irvine has. Sure, they have extremely rich (insanely rich) residents but all those people do is accumulate their wealth and finance further development of dwindling Orange County/California land. They don't give a damn about the city's residents as long as they don't cramp their rich and famous lifestyles. Irvine however, and to some extent other cities around them (mine included), do care about their whole city and the residents.

The Irvine bicycle paths I rode in were all super clean, smoothly paved, with clearly posted signs for any hazards along the way. I could see some access gates could be locked if there were any dangers to riders. In my experience in living out here, they have the best bike paths around.

My city and other adjacent cities also have bicycle lanes on every major artery. But there are few bicycle paths, if any. Riding a bicycle lane is most definitely better than not having it. Don't get me wrong, I'm very appreciative of what I have in my city. But sucking on exhaust fumes and hearing all the loud exhausts get old after riding really good bicycle paths.

In any case, I will trust my eyes and look ahead no matter where I'm riding. :thumb:

Irvine is one of those places where everything has to look just right. There are laws about how you must keep up your yard and where you can park your cars and what kind of vehicles can be in the driveway (no pickup trucks!) and what color you can paint your house and all that stuff. The example we used to hear was that although the corporate headquarters for Taco Bell were in Irvine, the company could never get the approval to have one of their restaurants in the city! In other words, I'm not surprised that their bike paths are well kept!

You are referring to the CC&R's that every resident must adhere to. "CC&R" stands for Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions. Every community with an Association has this and it does restrict what you can and can't do to your home and around it. While I don't like being told what to do, I fully understand and appreciate having the CC&R because it is there to protect everyone from each other. Everything you said about it is true, except for the Pick Up truck. You CAN park a P'up in front of your home/driveway, just don't leave it there for months on end and not drive it! That's an eyesore. Ever had neighbors that park their junk, non-running car in front of their driveway or the sidewalk and just leave it there for years and years? That's an eyesore.

Having had bad neighbors myself (in Irvine no less), neighbors that don't maintain their lawn, neighbors that park their motorhome in front of your home, leaking oil, and blocking your view as you back up your car from your driveway, or neighbors that put chicken-wire fencing, basketball court on their driveway and play into the night, etc., etc., I have come to like the CC&R. It gives you a venue to stop them from lowering your property value. Think of it as ride rules..... :)

I live in a North american city that is slowly evolving a vast network or bike only lanes that connect transit, ferries, airports and different municipalities.

It's not patchwork either. It all connects virtually seamlessly. And bicycles are using them - a lot.

As a current Irvine resident for the past 18 years would you please be so kind as to direct me to the downtown area? ;)

As far as everything having to look perfect, bahhhhh. We hear that crap all the time. We also hear that it's great it you're a white couple with two kids because there is no diversity.

My direct neighbors are Mexican, Persian, Chinese, Indian and Caucasian. It's the MOST diverse city there is!

I grew up in the sticks. I live for the CC&Rs. No more BS. Everybody just follows the rules and lives harmoniously. And if you hate that kind of crap, the more power to you! Move to an area of Riverside with no CC&Rs and a bunch of other people that think just like you do.

Whatever floats your boat.

And yes, the bike paths are pristine. So are the roads. Huge bike paths with freshly swept streets means 2300 miles and one flat for me. I did 57 miles today, the majority on the Santa Ana River Trail and the Mountains to the Sea trail. The bike path backs up to our housing development so I literally go from my garage to the bike path in about one minute. It's awesome for me, maybe not so awesome for you.

Oh yeah, we ride 12 out of 12 months! ;)

Dedicated bicycle paths? What?

I'd love to have my bike paths swept. For all the glorious kms we have of bike paths everywhere they are ridiculously pebbled and glass filled. A reflective white line of generous berth does not make a dedicated bike path.

Every ride I wish glass bottles were banned. Or lazy people would stop chucking them from cars.

Me too.

Ride 12 out of 12 here too (but tends to be a bit less in the super hot super, 37C and humid today)

Ah, bike paths without the pedestrians doing critical mass. That really brings back memories. It has been a while since I lived in a place with a large percentage of educated people. I miss civilization, but not enough to return to the smog.

i miss progressive/liberal eugene, even if only 2% of the transportation budget go towards multi-use paths. etc... @ least the local government has a clue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=388KpCzlex4
http://blogs.eugeneweekly.com/eugene...ation-spending

the terrain in austin is way more intense, but you end up sucking up more exhaust and heat than any pac northwest hippie could fathom.

I noticed that too. He must mean those high rises that are spread out along the 405 between Jamboree and John Wayne. Maybe a "suburban downtown."

Little Rock has some decent bike trails, but most of them are just along the river on the east end of town, so they're not all that useful for getting anywhere. They're working on extending the path out west though, it'll be something like a 30-or-40-mile loop when it's all done, very cool.

In shorts and short sleeve jerseys. ;)

Hey, Riverside has CC&Rs. They have to have some way to limit the number of meth labs per block.

A little off-topic, but I have to agree. I get tired of hearing comments from those living in LA county that OC (and Irvine to be specific) is not diverse. The ethnic diversity in Irvine is pretty amazing possibly rivaling many cities in LA county where ethnic diversity is usually means 80% Hispanic or Black, etc.

As for the state of bike paths here. At one point in time, I complained that the off-street paths were useless for more than just recreational riding. But the more I've explored them, the more I realize how many of the "city centers" are connected by them. I pull a Burley trailer with my road bike and I use the bike paths to drop my kid off at daycare, go to the bank, go to the doctor, etc. If I have a choice between taking my bike to run and errand vs. driving my car, the choice is clear - bike all the way!!

Well, I live in Hollywood, an area which is so far away from having bike lanes....heck there are not enough lanes to direct local traffic. Which leaves me with having to pack my bike on the rack, and drive further north to Burbank, or to one of the beaches. I wish there was a way to just get on the bike and go places, rather than having to drive and bike.

Very cool! Back in the early 1990's I lived in Seattle and the path around Lake Washington, particularly the east side, was a MUP but it was so long that peds rarely used it. That just left bikes and the rare skater. It was awesome. The only problem was it was Washington state where cops gave out tickets like candy. Every once in awhile I'd be cruising at twenty...uh hmm...fifteen mph and there'd be a motorcycle cop with a radar gun hiding in the bushes. I knew where those places were so I'd slow but it was really annoying because there was literally maybe 30 cyclists along a 15 mile stretch.

que the HTFU.

Irvine does have a "downtown", which I really meant to say was a business center, with tall buildings, hotels, and even an airport (John Wayne Domestic Airport). Irvine is the business center of Orange County. Other cities also have a business district but it's nothing like Irvine. It really is a great place to ride a bicycle whether you are on the road or on the paths. During the weekend, you can pretty much ride the business districts all to yourself. I mean, there are rarely any cars there during the weekends so you can do your intervals, "laps" around a chosen city block etc., without so much as a few cars going by. Just make sure you don't blow through any lights! :lol:

Now having said all that about Irvine, the city's layout does spoil the bicyclist into thinking he's super fit, because Irvine actually has few hills to challenge riders The Turtle Rock area is hilly but it's not THAT hilly. The hills are the territory of Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, and that conceited, self-absorbed city called Newport Beach.

:lol: