03-29-2017, 09:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-29-2017, 09:47 PM by danbrotherston.)
(03-29-2017, 09:25 PM)Canard Wrote: I now routinely ride here and I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would not be riding on the MUT.
I realize that Canard has blocked me, so he won't see this answer, but I feel the question does deserver an answer, because it is an important one.
Why wouldn't a cyclist want to ride here? Because some cyclists would find the MUT to be very inconvenient. You're forced to stop and yield at all four, (six if you include the mall's access ramps), which is time consuming, commuter or athletic cyclists may prefer not to be forced to yield. Worse, the design of the trail is highly deficient in several places. Some places have poles in the middle of the trail, some crossings have very bumpy curbs and crossings which might be very uncomfortable on a road bike, and there's no bike crossings so, legally, nobody can cycle across the crossings, the crossings are also offset at a sharp angle and designed for pedestrians.
This is visible in this google street view link, just look at the line a cyclist must take through here. It will be very slow and very bumpy. I can average almost 40 km/h on the road, I cannot do that there.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4946753,-...312!8i6656
The sad thing is, that it's entirely possible to design a multi-use trail that doesn't suffer from these problems, which is entirely suitable for a high speed commuter or racing cyclist, but if we don't design it right, some cyclists will still wish to ride on the road.
bicycledutch.wordpress.com has a great deal of information on designing excellent cycling infrastructure that's suitable for all users.