Let's visit the bike path !

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Zipp2001

Veteran
Well it's nice to have the temps slowly rising and seeing that I wasn't going to stay on the raceway called route 140. It's best to get off this road and away from the steel bulls because it gets real crazy once it turns to two lanes. So it was off for my first visit to the bike path this year, it's not long with a tad over 6 miles in 3 sections. But something is always better than nothing and it's always good to see people out and about on it.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sGLidFNV-k
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Nice but your highway traffic is light!
 
We have some similar routes in the UK, as with your route often there are sections where we have to join the motorised traffic, and rare that pedestrians have their own section so some times you have to be careful with children also using same path. As byegad says in some areas the route is open for use with bikes, but not really suitable, so at Chirk I joined the tow path of the Shropshire Union canal (better known as Llangollen canal) until it joins the Montgomery canal (Lower Frankton) when I followed the Montgomery to a nice little Pub (Queens Head) in West Felton where I was to join my wife for a meal.

Well to start with it was a macadam surface (not tar) but solid and easy to ride on, and this in some sections turned into a concrete road, but as I reached St Martin's Moor the tow path got worse and worse, with wooden pegs in the track so not safe to ride, or one could get rather wet if you fell into the cut, the A5 goes in same direction but extremely busy, and by time I reached A495 only a stone throw from Montgomery canal, and not sure what it would be like.

Once on the Montgomery canal the tow path was very good, not tarmac but a good macadam surface. And last mile or so there is a B road parallel to the canal to the Queens head so I joined the road.

I had done from Queens head onwards towards Welsh-pool on another day, and it is a good track all the way to the B4396, however from that point the towpath was closed where they were rebuilding the canal, (it may be open now) the alternative route was the A483 which was not really cycle friendly. So I went in other direction into Knockin where some one it seems had stolen the sign from the Knockin Shop.

I am very lucky living in Shotton on the North East corner of Wales as the cycle tracks are tarmac or board walks well maintained and one can in the main select circular routes, to Wirral, Chester and Ellesmere Port, the Shropshire Union canal between Chester and Ellesmere Port is not really good enough for racing cycles, but fine for most normal cycles, only the cobbles under the bridges are likely to cause any problem. I have also cycled out of Chester toward Waverton and again the tow path is good.

I fancy doing whole of Shropshire Union canal and Montgomery canal, I may well do the latter, told where repaired the tow path is really good, it's only the narrow boats that have a problem where hump back bridges have been removed and now it needs pairs of locks to drop canal level to get under road. But the Shropshire Union canal from Llangollen to Chirk except where it goes through tunnel maybe, but the Cheshire bit unlikely.
 
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Zipp2001

Zipp2001

Veteran
What's with this parking along the highway? Mind, in Illinois, we weren't allowed to ride a bike on highway until last year, though.

It's not really a highway, but that's what we refer to it as, because a little past the bike path entrance it goes to two lanes and cars will buzz you at 70 mph.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
My brother lives in Michigan and says he doesn't dare road cycle as you are too likely to be knocked off the road by a redneck in a pick-up truck or mown down by a texting mum driving her SUV to collect the kids. His words not mine.
 
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Out of interest what is a highway? I thought USA had blanket 55 MPH limit, however you say 70 MPH so it seems I am wrong.

In UK what we call a motorway is for motor vehicles only, no bikes, horses, or pedestrians, or slow moving things like tractors, other roads can have restrictions, but there needs to be a route where walkers can continue walk even if they would be silly walking down the road, so only new roads are no bikes or pedestrians.

Although both sides of the pond we speak English, there are slight differences, in the main we watch enough USA TV to know what things mean, but not all, so we have motorways with two or more lanes in each directions and hard shoulder, and in the main a central reservation, we have A roads which can be nearly as good as motorways often called trunk roads, or can be quite narrow, but still a reasonable major route, so called A road, then we have B roads which tend not to be as wide, however where a new by-pass is built often old road reclassified as B road so some of them are quite good. And we have unclassified which may not even have tarmac surface.

Odd a street can be an A road or unclassified mainly historic, so lanes, streets, byways, highways, all seem to get mixed up, bridal way for horses, motorway we have 70 MPH for cars and coaches 60 for wagons, duel carriageway also 70 MPH for cars, otherwise 60 MPH, although many roads are restricted further, unless there is a sign saying otherwise if there is road lighting it is 30 MPH in some places even down to 20 MPH.
 
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Zipp2001

Zipp2001

Veteran
Out of interest what is a highway? I thought USA had blanket 55 MPH limit, however you say 70 MPH so it seems I am wrong.

In UK what we call a motorway is for motor vehicles only, no bikes, horses, or pedestrians, or slow moving things like tractors, other roads can have restrictions, but there needs to be a route where walkers can continue walk even if they would be silly walking down the road, so only new roads are no bikes or pedestrians.

Although both sides of the pond we speak English, there are slight differences, in the main we watch enough USA TV to know what things mean, but not all, so we have motorways with two or more lanes in each directions and hard shoulder, and in the main a central reservation, we have A roads which can be nearly as good as motorways often called trunk roads, or can be quite narrow, but still a reasonable major route, so called A road, then we have B roads which tend not to be as wide, however where a new by-pass is built often old road reclassified as B road so some of them are quite good. And we have unclassified which may not even have tarmac surface.

Odd a street can be an A road or unclassified mainly historic, so lanes, streets, byways, highways, all seem to get mixed up, bridal way for horses, motorway we have 70 MPH for cars and coaches 60 for wagons, duel carriageway also 70 MPH for cars, otherwise 60 MPH, although many roads are restricted further, unless there is a sign saying otherwise if there is road lighting it is 30 MPH in some places even down to 20 MPH.

Sorry for the confusion but this is a standard road that bikes are allowed on. On the highway there are no bikes allowed where I live that I know of, we just refer to this road as a highway because of the speeds that cars are traveling at. The speed limit is 50 mph on this section of road, but if your doing that everyone is flying by you like your standing still.
 
Same here, speed limit may be 60 MPH but people do far more, they did try speed cameras but people soon worked out where they were, and even mobile cameras they park in regular spots, the average speed cameras do seem to be working a bit better, but not so many of them.

So is Highway in USA what we call Motorway in the UK?
 
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Zipp2001

Zipp2001

Veteran
Same here, speed limit may be 60 MPH but people do far more, they did try speed cameras but people soon worked out where they were, and even mobile cameras they park in regular spots, the average speed cameras do seem to be working a bit better, but not so many of them.

So is Highway in USA what we call Motorway in the UK?

Yes.
 
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