I posted about cycling to work, and uploaded a video to YouTube a while ago – 10 seconds into the clip you’ll see the “before” shot of the photo pictured above, “live”:

That route was one that was a little illegal, I have to say; but not anymore.
At the beginning of September, the new cycling / walk path combo was opened to the public. (Well- it was open all along, but a bit of a mess during construction.)

The Fear
There was a little controversy about opening this path for cyclists. Old folks, dog walkers and parents of small children all worried about the sudden onslaught of cycle racers, apparently.

The Result
What happened was a route that was routinely used by leisurely cyclists, continued to be used by leisurely cyclists. The only difference is now cyclists are cardonned to one side, and pedestrians to another. On paper anyways, and in street paint, too – but in practice; it is business as usual. Cyclists and pedestrians figured out how to co-exist a long time ago. Leisurely this side of the lake – speedy commute on the other side of the lake – along the road, with the rest of the traffic. Not a nice ride, if you ask me.

The “new” path IS prettier, more organized.. and the small pebbles strewn on the pedestrian side are quite the nice audible addition to the route. But it is funny how the government is really just making something that was being used illegally, without problems; legal. Good for them, really, for catching up with the people.

Good for me too. Now I can ride with a more clear conscience.

Here’s my route from a while back :

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Diggin' Design, Homestuffs, Müsli Musings + Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.