the selfish herd

[Barry Gaudet]

It's an article of faith hereabouts to be bicycle boosters but I wonder. It being the long weekend
the trails up at the lake were clogged. Fortunately my work schedule allows me the opportunity to do
rides at off-peak times but maybe cycling can be too popular.

I'm thinking there is a sweet spot of popularity that makes the creation and maintenance of
facilities/trails/amenities viable but not so popular that one feels almost as bad as a an
auto-dweller stuck in traffic.

*!shudder!*

--
'They paved paradise And put up a parking lot' -Joni Mitchell

 

[Luigi De Guzman]

Barry Gaudet <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> It's an article of faith hereabouts to be bicycle boosters but I wonder. It being the long weekend
> the trails up at the lake were clogged. Fortunately my work schedule allows me the opportunity to
> do rides at off-peak times but maybe cycling can be too popular.
>
> I'm thinking there is a sweet spot of popularity that makes the creation and maintenance of
> facilities/trails/amenities viable but not so popular that one feels almost as bad as a an
> auto-dweller stuck in traffic.

Probably. However, since I ventur 90 percent of the cyclists you saw on the trails never touch their
bikes unless it's sunny and a long weekend--and only ride on recreational trails, your vision of
fender-to-fender cycle traffic might have been a bit distorted...

What you were seeing was a concentration of the maximum available number of bicycles on the "only
suitable" surface for them during the "only acceptable" time to ride them. Congestion would be down
if more people rode on the roads, or found alternative rides--but since, again, most of the sunshine
cyclists would never go so far as to put a knobby tire on dirt or share a roadway, you get traffic.

Hope the ride went well, though.

-Luigi

 

[Mike Kruger]

"Barry Gaudet" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> It's an article of faith hereabouts to be bicycle boosters but I wonder. It being the long weekend
> the trails up at the lake were clogged. Fortunately my work schedule allows me the opportunity to
> do rides at off-peak times but maybe cycling can be too popular.
>
> I'm thinking there is a sweet spot of popularity that makes the creation and maintenance of
> facilities/trails/amenities viable but not so popular that one feels almost as bad as a an
> auto-dweller stuck in traffic.

Look at it this way: it's crowded facilities that create the political pressure for more facilities.

If more people rode on the roads, there would probably be more wide curb lanes, too. (Catch 22 here)

Just be thankful for your work schedule. (around here, I'm thankful for Chicago winters for the
same reason.)