What Went Wrong?

The other day I was down in Olympia with my wife. While she was racing sailboats, I was out exploring the backroads of Olympia via the Chehalis Western Trail. It was actually a very pleasant ride and reminded me very quickly why I truly love to travel via two wheels instead of four, as you get to SEE more, smell the air, feel the wind, get some exercise…

But as I made my way back to our friends house, drifting by some new housing developments, I stopped.

The American Dream?

The reason I stopped was because I was confused. Why? Because it was Saturday and I was the only one riding my bike on these brand new bike paths that snake through all these brand new housing developments. These paths are great resources, why wasn’t anyone using them? Ok, it’s a bit of a rhetorical question but to me illustrates a bit of a paradox. We have these beautiful bike paths outside the city that get relatively little use while inside the city we have to fight just to get three feet of bike lane in an effort to share the road safely.

I’m 100% for more bike-friendly roads (and bike commuting in general), but I also realize there needs to be compromise on both sides.