[wideawake]

In my area there is a dedicated bike trail that is newly asphalted and 17 miles long. It runs alongside the highway because it used to be a obsolete light-gauge railroad, but it was resurfaced (and planted with shading trees) specifically to be used for bicycles and joggers.

Yet I routinely see cyclists riding on the highway shoulder anyway when they are 30 feet away from a dedicated, deluxe bikepath.

Also, near where I vacation, there is a sidestreet than runs for about 9 miles that is parallel to and one block over from a heavily trafficked four lane main road.

The sidestreet has only two traffic lanes because it has dedicated bikepaths running along both sides of the street for its entire length.

Yet the main road always seems to have a peloton of Lance Armstrong wannabes who are not interested in cycling on the boring sidestreet but want to weave through traffic.

I once had a very unpleasant incident with one of these geniuses which might have escalated to the level of this article had the offender not been shorter, tubbier and older than myself and smarter than the clown in this article.

[Magnatron]

wideawake wrote: Yet I routinely see cyclists riding on the highway shoulder anyway when they are 30 feet away from a dedicated, deluxe bikepath.

I ride close to 30 miles an hour. Bicycle and jogging paths are not made for cyclists - they're built for leisure riders, kids, and joggers, all of whom don't want high speed riders zooming past them.