Old rail routes and canals to be used - Page 3 - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

03-06-2005, 05:48 PM

RonSonic wrote:

> On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 18:11:30 -0500, "Matt O'Toole" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>
> wrote:
>
>> dennis lawson wrote:
>>
>>> "Ken Marcet" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
>>> news:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]...
>>
>>>> Interesting little bit. U.K. could convert some old rail routes and
>>>> canals into bike routes.
>>>> Makes me wonder how many unused rail routes are here in the U.S.
>>>> that could
>>>> be easily converted into bike routes.
>>>> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>>>
>>> There will be more bike routes than car routes in the UK by 2020,
>>> other sites you may be interested in
>>>
>>> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>>> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>>> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>>>
>>> The National Lottery is currently investing £20 Billion ($38
>>> Billion) in building new off-road bike routes.
>>
>> Wow. We'd be lucky to get a tenth that much nationally, and we're
>> six times your population and many more times the land area!
>
> I've got trailheads for about 200 miles of paved and unpaved bike
> trail within 20 miles of me. Probably another few hundred miles
> within 50 miles of me. That's in Tampa. Where ever do you live that
> you've got such a pessimistic outlook on the subject?

That's not pessimistic, it's what's actually being spent by the Feds. In fact
they just demanded all the unspent money back:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Can't afford no bah-sickles this year. People wanna ride bah-sickles, let 'em
pay for 'em their selves!

We do have some nice rail-trails around here, with more on the way. Where you
and I live we're blessed. But some places have none, and horrible roads to
boot -- take Myrtle Beach, for example.

Matt O.

03-07-2005, 06:59 AM

"dennis lawson" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote

> There will be more bike routes than car routes in the UK by 2020,

There already are. I only know the stats for England though.

There are about 170 000 miles of road. Essentially all of them are
bike routes, except for about 2000 miles of motorway, and have been
since their status was clarified in 1883..

There are about 20 000 miles of bridleways - public highways for
horses - on which bikes have been allowed since the 1960s

There are some byways and "RUPPs" (roads used as public paths).
Motor vehicles are losing their right to use these roads, but our
vehicles don't have motors, and will not be affected.

There are about 2000 miles of canal towpath. These are mostly
private property, and not public highway, but bikes are allowed on
most of them, nevertheless. Besides the working canals, there also a
number of disused canals with usable towpaths.

On the 120 000 miles of footpath - public highways for pedestrians -
bikes are not allowed. On the other hand they are not actually
forbidden either; it's up to the landowner.

Sustrans plans announce ever larger figures, but I don't think that
means a great increase in off road routes. Usually it means existing
roads, already perfectly usable by bikes, are designated Sustrans
routes. The core of the Sustrans system is their railway paths, I
think about 2000 miles. They, rather like canal towpaths, tend also
to be usable private property. Sometimes bikes get allowed on
sidewalks/pavements adjacent to the roadway.

There are some forest tracks, also private property, and various
routes in parks etc., usually not public highways even when public
property.

Jeremy Parker