Is cycling supported in your area with trails, lanes, racks, etc.?

In Chicago itself, it is well supported. In the new Millennium Park, they even installed a bike garage that is really cool. There are designated lanes all over the city, and the lakefront path is truly amazing. In neighborhoods, there are bike racks all over. The Chicago Bicycling Federation is really strong and has made a lot of this happen.

However, we actually live outside of the city. I'm lucky that I can ride to a recreation trail four miles away, which they are working to connect to others in the area. There are a number of trails, paved and limestone, within an hour or two away for nice daylong rides.

However, within the towns themselves, it sucks. The drivers do NOT like to share the road and there are very few bike racks. I had plans to start using my hybrid for a lot of errands because I'm within 5 or 10 miles of everything I need, but then I started to scope out where I would lock my bike and found little or nothing. It seems everywhere I could attach my bike, it would run the risk of getting rammed.

So, what's the cycling climate in your neck of the woods?

The trails are usually clogged with people who are walking side-by-side and don't know what "ON YER LEFT!" means, people pushing those double side-by-side prams, and the trail requires a stop at each and every driveway or side-street that it crosses. Good for kids. The ones who still use training wheels.

The bike lanes are a joke. Choked with the sand and grit that they put down in the winter (still there in August) and trash and busted glass.

I never ride in town, but out in the sticks, the farmers are more than happy to give you a wide berth when they pass you. And they wave, too. Just wish the pavement was smoother....

they have tons of bike racks and nice bike lanes for about 1.5 miles down one of the main roads. But other than that, bike lanes are hard to find, and bike racks are scarce.

That is about as good as it gets. The parkway and multipurpose trails in the metroparks make a suitable and safe bike route. However, it is circumferential and does not take you where the action is. In my area, traffic funnels down to several main roads that have entrances to the freeway. Those roads are quite busy and there is often no alternate route. I don't use my bicycle to get places and of late I don't even have time to ride. wah

There are several hundred miles of well maintained, paved bicycle paths, along with dedicated bicycle lanes in downtown.
There are several "limited access bicycle commuter paths" which are remarkable. Some of the commuter paths even have "Emergency Call Phones" every 1/2 mile. It is possible to ride from south of St. Paul through Minneapolis without ever sharing the road with an automobile. There are some road crossings, but they are remarkably few.

I am putting together a pictorial essay on the bicycle paths in Minnesota which should be posted here in a couple of weeks.

The only problem with bicycles in Minnesota is WINTER. I'm considering studded tires and riding through Winter this year.
(I had a GREAT bicycle Summer. I quit my job and rode daily. I lost over 25 pounds and have never felt better.)

How were they able to accomplish this? Where did the support and funding come from? Do a lot of people take advantage of it?

There are plenty of places to ride, and traffic isn't too bad, but you do have to get used to having no sympathy from the cell-phone yakking SUV driving public. The roads could be better, there could be more bike lanes, but overall it's still better than some places. The local bus system has been trying to encourage commuting by bike, so they installed bike racks on all the buses, and over the summer they even were giving out free bikes for people to use. I think the momentum is here to improve, it just hasn't happened yet.

Just had an old RR track turned into bike lanes which runs from one side of town to the other, and a 15-year "master plan" from city council that will create class 2 (road-shared) bike lanes on many city streets.

Outside of the City of Pittsburgh you have wide support, the reason being is the huge number of old Coal railroads that can be used and connected. Examples of these are the following:

Montour/Great Allegheny Passage/Panhandle trail (372 Miles without side trails, some parts are NOT finished yet, but most of the trial is up and bikable)):

Montour Trail (49 miles Between McKeesport PA and Neville Island Pa, with Cecil Pa at about the 25 miles mark.
http://www.montourtrail.org/

Panhandle Trail (Between Cecil Pa and Weirton WV, 29 miles):
http://www.montourtrail.org/panhandle.html

Great Allegheny Passage (318 Miles between McKeesport PA and Washington DC):
http://www.atatrail.org/

Other Trails (Still a work in progress more than a Completed trail):
West Penn Trail (East and North of Pittsburgh):
http://home1.gte.net/lennoxx0458/westpenn.html
http://www.conemaughvalleyconservancy.org/

Allegheny River Trail:
http://eagle.clarion.edu/~grads/avta/ART.html

Ghost Town and Hoodlebug Trails (Indiana and Cambria County also referred to as the Tri-County Trail for it will connect the County seats of Indiana, Cambria and Blair County).
http://www.indianacountyparks.org/parks/gtt/gtt.html
http://www.indianacountyparks.org/parks/ht/ht.html

The above is the good news, the Bad news is the City of Pittsburgh while adopting a "bike plan" have NOT done anything to implement it nor do anything to make Pittsburgh more bike Friendly. Thus Pittsburgh holds its place as the Second worse (Second to New York city) for biking:
Various Pittsburgh Plans for Bikes:
http://www.portauthority.org/pdf/RRR.pdf#search='Pittsburgh%20bike%20Trail%20plan'
http://pittsburgh.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.city.pittsburgh.pa.us%2Fcp%2Fhtml%2Fbicycling_plan.html
http://www.bike-pgh.org/index.html

And finally if you believe bike trails are to narrow, what to try a four lane bike trail? It is only 8.5 miles long and has two two lane tunnels. It is the old Pa Turnpike, built in 1940 bypassed in the 1960s and now (or soon will be) a four lane bike trail:
http://www.pike2bike.com/history.htm

For more Pennsylvania Bike Trials:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/railtrails/default.aspx

Some drivers are jerks, but I outrun them in the Downtown anyway.

There are cyclists everywhere, lots of trails, lanes, and racks, and the best part is that every city bus mounts a two-bike rack in the front.



Not so much in Manassas VA. Lots of moderately used sidewalkes and excellent long-distance bike trails, but not as openly and thoroughly supported. It's impossible to take a bike on the Omniride.