How are the trails in your area?
 

I hate riding in the streets!
I got back in to riding bikes to keep in shape & having someone run over me while they are texting is counter productive!

Fortunately we have a nice trail system in Tulsa/Broken Arrow area.
I live 2 miles from the entrance to the Liberty trail & that gives me access to the Creek turnpike trail, Mingo trail, Riverparks East trail, Riverparks West trail, Midland Valley trail, Osage Prairie trail, Katy trail & several shorter trails.
Here is a list of the trails in my area.

My current weekday ride is the Riverside East to Midland to the Osage prairie trail which is a 52 mile round trip of mostly flat riding. This ride does have several road crossings most with lights but has a 1 mile section of road that connects the midland to the Osage trail.
My Weekend ride is the Liberty, Creek & Mingo trails, 33 miles but pretty much all hills with only road crossings.
This means fron the trail entrance 2 miles from my house I have access to around 100 miles of bike trails with only road crossings & a 1 mile stretch of road riding.

I spent 28 years as a Firefighter & have ridden M/C since I was a kid so I know what can happen on the streets & am perfectly happy to stay on the trails!
So how about you? How are the trails in your area?

I hate riding on trails! I have access to mostly rural roads with light traffic that allows me to ride more or less continuously without stopping or slowing. The occasional trails I take in the city have people on them broken pavement from tree roots and are generally unsuitable for training.

The MUPs vary here. Too crowded to hit the downtown action, some of the Springwater is too crowded too.

Marine Drive is usually not so bad.

Plenty of good roads here also.

I hate calling paved surfaces "trails".

If your trails are good, you are lucky.

Our trails are way too dangerous to ride fast. They are full of walkers, people walking their dogs, little kids on bikes/scooters/roller blades, and people will make sudden moves without looking.

I am safer on the road.

The only things that get a workout when I ride a trail are my brakes and my nerves!!

The paved trails (bikeways) in Orange County are very good. However, I prefer to avoid them because they are full of children on tricycles and women pushing baby carriages.

trails are for MUPpets here. I like to get out of the city onto the rural roads. 15 minutes of riding gets me to the good stuff.

I'm glad we have them, as my commute to work is primarily on the trails. But, when I want a hard workout, it's the roads for me.

I live in E. Pa. and like most above have said; full of people, small to large animals of all varieties, kids and the occasional lost wandering soul........................so, instead, I ride a baby bottom smooth tarmac loop in a nice residential area. Its 2.6 miles and usually do it 10X's give or take.
Yes, boring as hell but safe after being hit (not badly) 3 times in traffic streets.
Now a dedicated road bikes only trail approx. 8 feet wide with inclines would be awesome. Posted MPH would be 45-50.

When you said Katy Trail, I thought that you might be near me. Actually there are at least 3 Katy Trails: yours, one in Texas, and the 230 mile long KATY Trail in Missouri. I ride across most of Missouri on that one once a year. It's crushed limestone and well maintained as it's a Missouri State Park.

Near where I live in Illinois, Madison County has over 100 miles of trails most of which are asphalt. I ride on them frequently. My town, Belleville, has about 10 miles worth of bike trails and is building more and more.

Trails? For a road bike? Surely you jest!!!

We have a nice MUP along a river that allows us to to go from the coast to the hills. We get the headwind from the offshore winds in the morning then about 1030 it switches onshore so we can get a headwind on the way home.

Skirting death daily riding on the roads is the one thing that makes me feel truly alive! Ride a MUP? Just shoot me.

Being retired has it's advantages, I ride during the week in the middle of the day when most people are at work/school. The Riverside trail is mostly a 4 lane divided trail so bikes & walkers don't get in each others way, my weekend ride starts in a rural area & it's very hilly & that keeps kids/families/strollers etc off that trail.

I prefer riding on the roads ... quiet country roads (of which there are lots around here) and highways with shoulders. Have you tried riding in the country?

We do have a new rail trail in the area, but you'd want a mtn bike to ride it.

The MUPs around here are pretty decent. One is brand new and fairly wide and concrete but gets too busy to ride at peak hours. Its all flat but he scenery is nice. Its 6 miles down and back. The other has hills but is asphalt that is busted up in a lot of parts.

The best place to ride is around a private lake close to here. Its 26 miles round trip with smooth wide roads and beautiful scenery. Nice hills, decents,and flats. Hardly any cars at certain times and the speed limit is 30 so no one is flying by. The perfect ride IMO.

There are some nice back country roads around too. This is all in east texas

It depends on the day and time. The American River bike trail is a bike highway on weekday mornings, but it is a zoo on the weekends. It's even worse lately with a big charity run club training on it on weekends.

I have a 10 mile mup about 5 miles from my house. On weekdays and weekend mornings you seldom see anything but road bikes FLYING on it. I can't remember the last time I passed or was passed by a cyclist going the same direction. I see probably two or three walk/runners on most visits. Weekend afternoons and evenings are useless to ride though. It's full of moms, kids, pets, and hobos.... Between that and side roads off of it I can get 50 miles with no traffic

We have some great ones in RI, however, at the moment they are under about a foot of snow. :(

I don't know, I live in a rural area but wouldn't consider riding roads the 2 miles to the trail head.
Our roads are narrow, have no curbs & deep ditches.
When I drove a Firetruck people would pull out in front of me, no way am I going to trust car drivers enough to "share the road" with them on a bicycle!

We have a good trail system in my area and I take advantage of it with my 10 year old son to get some safe mileage in. Other than that I'm on the road.

Can you ski them?

And yet, people do it safely every day.

I prefer the roads myself.

Awesome trails in Colorado Springs, and they're going to upgrade them.

I am okay with trails or roads, so long as neither are too crowded. There are a number of nice trails here along Lake Ontario (Burlington, ON up to Toronto). And there are, also, some really beautidul rural roads as well. I like riding on both. Both seem to b every popular among roadies and the trail along the lakeshore is wide enough for there to be no issues with crowds amd that is nice.

Finally - it seems like that city spends next to nothing in publics works projects, except of course construction on I25 :notamused: