Bike Trail Question Answered on Quora
I love all the great web 2.0 sites out there that allow users to answer each other’s questions. Recently I posed a bike trail question on Quora. I asked: “On most websites, biking is broken into two categories: road biking & mountain biking. What about bike trails that aren’t mountain bike trails. What is the generic name for trails like rail-trails, urban trails, paved trails, etc.?”
If it’s not mountain biking or road biking, what is it?
shared-use path
In the “add more information” box, I provided the following details: “When you visit websites to look for biking venues, you’re often given only the choices of mountain biking & road biking. This seems to fly in the face of reason since the vast majority of people are either not inclined or not able to partake in these two forms of biking due to safety, strength, age, or ability. Similarly, bikers are often put into the same categories of mountain bikers and road bikers (even here on Quora) when that doesn’t describe even half the bikers out there. This issue has been brought up numerous times on the Trailsnet.com blog, but rarely gets many comments. Hopefully Quora users can provide an answer to what we call the largest group of bikers/biking.”
Generic Trail Name Provided by Quora User & Government Website
Thanks to Jonathan Rabinowitz for providing the following answer to the bike trail query: “The generic name for the thoroughfare is a shared-use path, although many people like multi-use path as well. See this U.S. government webpage:” http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/sidewalk2/sidewalks214.cfm
Bicycle & Pedestrian Website
A quick visit to the website provides some helpful information about sidewalk design and trail access. According to the Bicycle & Pedestrian Program Website, “A shared-use path serves as part of a transportation circulation system and supports multiple recreation opportunities, such as walking, bicycling, and inline skating. A shared-use path typically has a surface that is asphalt, concrete, or firmly packed crushed aggregate.”
Rail-trails a Type of Shared-Use Path
The Bicycle & Pedestrian Path web page goes on to describe shared-use paths in more detail as well as to provide some diagrams. It was nice to read that all newly designed and built shared-use paths must provide accessibility for handicapped trail users. It was also enlightening to learn that rail-trails fall into the category of shared-use trails.
