Usa need covered bike path?

Question

for transporation, work close to home; yes or no?

Answer 1

Wait, wait, wait!!!  I like my bike paths uncovered.  Those vinyl covers get mighty slick when they get wet and it's just asking for trouble.  I guess your just looking to have all those bike commuters and weekend bikers wipe out.

Answer 2

Yes,I agree more bike paths would be great!

Answer 3

I don't think it would serve to substantially boost the number of people riding bikes, so it doesn't seem cost effective.  

But the U.S. does need more Class I bike paths.  Having a safe and secure path to get to work or school would truly encourage people to cycle more often.

Answer 4

Bike travel in a covered bike path would be asking people who drive cars and ride the bus or train to pay for your ride, unless bike path riders can get together to raise the cost of building and maintaining it.

This is a major obstacle, considering that when you count noses we have a very solid majority of voters who do not plan to use the covered bike path. So how do we get them to agree to pick up the cost?

Communities might tolerate a covered bike path system if the bike riders could find a way to pay for it themselves, even perhaps with some subsidy for not using the streets so much. But let's be practical, while such a system is being deployed, for a long time, we would have more bikes  on the streets, people beyond the end of the path, people diverging from the path, people trying to navigate wet, snowy and icy streets  with the cars and buses.

We would reduce slightly our need for car parking spaces, but seeing what happens today we would expect a lot of people trying to park bikes in cities that are not well designed to handle that function.

So, this has to be a major effort that will take a lifetime to get USA back to the bike. It is not a task to be started without a solid intent to persevere.