Approaching cycling with the wrong mentality

[johnnyb47]

Got to say I'm not a fan of thinking you need a cycling mentality. To encourage more people into cycling there needs to be the infrastructure to make cycling the sensible option.

My wife doesn't have a "driving mentality" but she drives everywhere because the cycling infrastructure is rubbish and there is free parking everywhere. She stopped cycling to work because they treat cyclists like inconvenient pariahs but have a huge car park.

Especially in this lovely weather cycling is a more pleasant way to travel than a hot sticky car. But still I choose to cycle because I really like cycling, and don't care for driving. If I was nonplussed about either there is nothing to not make cycling a clearly unloved second class option.

That's not to have a go at the OP, it's great if people get sucked in. But I've realised it is slightly pointless trying to convince colleagues to cycle at the moment when it remains objectively a less pleasant way to travel.

That's a real good point you make buddy. I too prefer to take the bike and leave the car at home. I would also happily cycle to work which is around 16 miles each way, but the only road that I can realistically use is way to dangerous to commute on..It's only an A road, but early in the morning when there's virtually no police patrols along it, the cars absolutely hammer down there. Some of them come past me whilst I'm driving like lunatics and must be traveling in excess of 80/90mph.
There's no way I would find cycling along there at 5 in the morning a pleasurable experience. I'm sure if a dedicated cycle path was built it would be used quite a lot because buses are few and far between in this part of Wales where I live.
All to best to you buddy :-)

 

[Gravity Aided]

Cycle Paths are great. I have one a block away that can take me to the train, uptown, the grocery store and clinic and movie theater, the last three being in a shopping center with a trail built off the main trail just to offer access to the shopping center. They started an initiative in 1986 to take over an old railroad line, and as there were two disused lines through town, it all has added up to about 45 miles of trail by now, a linear park and greenspace. Happened over time, just like planning, and that all the major buildings on main thoroughfares in the town must be of red brick.

 

[Gravity Aided]

PDF Map of the trail
https://www.normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/1353/Constitution-Trail-Map?bidId=

 

[Deleted member 26715]

PDF Map of the trail

Yes you Doodles do know how to do trails, rode quite a few in Florida, but then again you have the space

 

[Gravity Aided]

Space is the problem. On a bicycle over here in ruraland, you can ride for an hour or two between small towns, which can be a bit daunting. Medium sized cities are about 30 miles apart, so if you run flat or something, you might have a ways to go to get a tube or tire if you don't have 2 or three with you. Harder to build infrastructure like passenger railroads as well. Just too few people per square mile. I'll take pictures when I run to the grocery store at Trail Centre.

 

[Gravity Aided]

About a block from home, trail should be more noticeable than it is.

Rather abruptly, the trail appears between a home and a stream.

Following a curve through the corn, which is about 8 feet high or so.

A solitary bench.

Next to the road, climbing a ridge to the main trail.

The main trail, connecting all the component parts.

Heavy foliage grown in since the railroad left in 1984.

Under the Interstate. The government would not pay for the trail to have its own underpass as it had following the railroad, so when the old bridge for the Interstate was phased out, the trail got moved a few hundred feet to the east to utilize this underpass.

Pull off for the Constitution Trail Centre, with sign.

Outpatient clinic.(Order of St. Francis of Assisi)

Schnucks' Grocery Store.

26" tourer made from an old Raleigh city bike, very useful for trails and touring, with a stuffed pannier.
About 90F and humid when these pictures were taken.

 

[nickAKA]

View attachment 418980

About a block from home, trail should be more noticeable than it is.
View attachment 418981


Rather abruptly, the trail appears between a home and a stream.

View attachment 418982

Following a curve through the corn, which is about 8 feet high or so.

View attachment 418983

A solitary bench.

View attachment 418984

Next to the road, climbing a ridge to the main trail.

View attachment 418985

The main trail, connecting all the component parts.

View attachment 418986

Heavy foliage grown in since the railroad left in 1984.

View attachment 418987

Under the Interstate. The government would not pay for the trail to have its own underpass as it had following the railroad, so when the old bridge for the Interstate was phased out, the trail got moved a few hundred feet to the east to utilize this underpass.


View attachment 418988

Pull off for the Constitution Trail Centre, with sign.


View attachment 418989

Outpatient clinic.(Order of St. Francis of Assisi)


View attachment 418990

Schnucks' Grocery Store.


View attachment 418991

26" tourer made from an old Raleigh city bike, very useful for trails and touring, with a stuffed pannier.
About 90F and humid when these pictures were taken.

You're a lucky man... most of the cycle lanes local to me are a meter wide (if you're lucky), pot-holed, broken glass & dog-s**t strewn assault courses. I'd rather take my chances in the traffic!

 

[OneArmedBandit]

Very nice, looks a really pleasant route.

The ones here have a rubbish surface and stinging nettles and overhanging trees right up to the edges. I know the Sustrans minimum standard is 2m tarmac. I never know if it just means councils say **** it and just lay down some leftover gravel and say job done.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Some towns and some whole states have just gravel trails, like Missouri's KATY Trail (So named for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad) but those cover great distances. The new Route 66 Trail has infrastructure like this, at least in the County McLean, it's all paved. Progress is slow, but so is money. I do have to say I live in a town(not a city) that does not allow deficit spending. Taxes are higher, as well as services like water and garbage, but the bills are paid, and we can raise bonds for such things. Frugal lot I live among. Mostly German American and Irish-American, with a good many Scots-Americans thrown in as well.