[exabrial]

I think one think urban planners [and HNers] get wrong about bike usage is bike lanes and mixing bikes with cars. That works in overcrowded coastal cities, but for the vast majority of the country, a different approach is likely optimal.

Bentonville, AR I think has cracked the puzzle. They built mountain bike trails... literally everywhere. You're hanging out with your buddies north of town and want to grab a pizza for lunch? Awesome, hit this rad piece of singeltrack and shred your way to to za and beer. They even replaced a bunch of sidewalks with singletrack. This is not only better for the environment (it's literally just tamped dirt), but easier to maintain (a tamping machine and water truck vs a fossil fuel burning asphalt paver).

Another success that's been less explosive, but worthy mention is streamway buffer trails. Rather than tossing bikes into traffic, which intimidates casual riders, and probably isn't safe where bike culture isn't a thing... municipalities put asphalt trails next to watersheds that need erosion control. The benefit is two fold, a shorcut throughway that's dedicated for pedestrian and bike traffic, plus civil engineers can use the bike pathway itself as a durable flood zone.

[martyvis]

If a large population is going to "shred" a track to get around its going to end up a muddy rut in no time, or only works for able 15-55 year olds.

[exabrial]

That was the initial concern. It turns out, a diverse population turns out to turn up. Let me see if I can find their study.

EDIT: ARGH. I can't find the study I was reading during the summer. But from what I remember, roughly 25% of people were 35-45, 25% were 46-55, and probably the most amazing is the 56-65 group was around 20%!

[petre]

The 55-65 group will just use e-MTBs.

[saagarjha]

Right, but then you have to ride a mountain bike around. Which isn't really the best for longer distances of casual transportation…

[petre]

For longer distances you just get a gravel or touring bike. Works on singletrack most of the time as well.

[exabrial]

Bentonville has no mountains :)

[fnord77]

this sounds amazing. I love to bicycle and want to bike everywhere in my city, but it's too nerve wracking, noisy and unpleasant sharing the road with cars, even when the bike lane is separated.