Over 100 years ago California was building a bike highway

[alex808]

A cool/great idea, maybe we were smarter back then?

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/in-1897-a-bicycle-superhighway-was-the-future-of-california-transit

I wish we were doing this in Honolulu, would be perfect since the weather is always good and we rarely have to travel far distances

[michael]

Really cool. Also really strange tone by the author, down-voting a toll on the path. I dont know what $0.15 would be after inflation these days, but I could see a dollar or two to ride a bike highway from San Francisco to San Jose (since I dont live in SoCal)!

[Gerard]

Quebec more or less has this!
http://www.bonjourquebec.com/qc-en/velo0.html

[Joet]

I think the idea is fantastic. There are some paths along scenic routes in california but its more than a little sketchy say along highway 1 for such an endeavor. Heck we just authorized something like an unobtanium 100B or whatever for high-speed rail between like stockton and fulsom [LOL], why cant we have a sweet bike highway say along the coast from SF to LA or something like that. Would be so awesome

[Jamesqf]

I don't know about his conclusion that biking in most cities is a Herculean feat.  Even in the days when I lived in the LA Basin (it's where I bought my first from-an-actual-bike-store bike, and long enough ago that it had only 12 speeds), the only real problem was the air.

Though I try to avoid cities as much as possible, I worked & lived part time in San Jose a few years ago, and had no problems biking around the place, and even over to the coast.

[Joet]

really? what route to the coast from san jose? 17 is murderville, 82 is murderville, you can take say skyline/highway 9 [murderville] and eventually hop off onto various mtbike trails I suppose? I've looked at it in depth and I always end up driving to say skyline on the peninsula or summit road in the santa cruz mountains and then doing a loop from there down to the coast, such as through big basin, etc

is there another way??

[Jamesqf]

Take the bike path that runs along Los Gatos Creek up to Lexington Resevoir, then over the dam and along the east side, then uphil along the back roads that take you around Holy City to Summit Road.  From there I'd go east, on Summit and IIRC take the Soquel-San Jose road, or some of the side roads that wander around the area.  Getting from San Jose to Summit (Skyline east of 17) is actually pretty easy that way, as there is/was next to no traffic on those roads.  I did that a lot more often than the whole way to the coast, which would have been a long day for me.

I did ride a mountain bike rather than a road bike, but IIRC most everything but the Los Gatos Creek path was paved.  And if you do it in summer, there are lots of blackberry bushes along the roadsides.

[Joet]

awesome! the los gatos creek trail is about a mile from me :)
I had no idea they were connected in the east-bound direction to summit road!

[Jamesqf]

Just to be clear, this is all as of maybe 4-5 years ago.  No idea whether anything has changed since.

A map or good sense of direction is useful past Lexington, as there are a lot of roads (narrow but paved) that wind around that area.  I think the route you want is known as the "Old Santa Cruz road".  I was out more for the exercise than having any particular destination, so took a lot of detours.

[sol]

really? what route to the coast from san jose? 17 is murderville, 82 is murderville, you can take say skyline/highway 9 [murderville]

This is CLASSIC car-centric thinking.

"I can't possibly ride my bike, all the of the auto superhighways are full of speeding cars!"

Bicycles can go all sorts of places that cars can't, and they don't care about being "stuck" on residential streets that cars would shun because they're full of pedestrians and unregulated intersections.

[Joet]

sure, tell me about it. I've bike commuted for longer than a decade. Show me the route around hwy 17, we are literally talking about private land, bush/forest, and trails closed to mtbikes. how many weekends have you spent off of skyline blvd mtbiking every trail in existence?

[Jamesqf]

I agree.  I would not want to bike on 17, even aside from the fact that most of it is freeway, and (I think, not up to date on California law) closed to bikes.  I've never been on 9, but I wouldn't really want to bike on Skyline west/north of 17, either.  Lots of ups & downs, blind curves, little if any shoulder, and a good bit more traffic than the other side of 17.

OTOH, from the first place I lived in San Jose, most of my commute route was on Camden Ave, which is a major street, 4-6 lanes and plenty of traffic.

[iamlindoro]

really? what route to the coast from san jose? 17 is murderville, 82 is murderville, you can take say skyline/highway 9 [murderville] and eventually hop off onto various mtbike trails I suppose? I've looked at it in depth and I always end up driving to say skyline on the peninsula or summit road in the santa cruz mountains and then doing a loop from there down to the coast, such as through big basin, etc

is there another way??

The Classic "pesky loop" is Woodside -> Old La Honda -> West Old La Honda -> 84 (OR La Honda Road) which both lead to San Gregorio and Highway 1.  The classic way back is up Tunitas Creek Road, down King's Mountain, and Woodside Road back to Woodside.

If you're riding from San Jose, then Any way you want to get to Foothill, Foothill to Junipero Serra to Alameda de las Pulgas, to Woodside Road, to the above.

Challenging, epic, and fun riding.

[Jamesqf]

But that's quite a long ride from San Jose, especially the south end (Almaden) where I was staying at the time.

[iamlindoro]

That's part of the fun!  Personally I don't think highway 9 is "murderville" at all, either-- I've gone over the hill that way countless times and it's probably one of the most cycled roads in the south bay, so that's an option too.  It's also fantastic if you're looking for a less challenging (although still challenging) way to get over the mountain.  I also frequently do McKean -> Uvas -> Watsonville Road -> up and over Mt. Madonna, which is a geat ride if you're trying to get to somewhere south of Santa Cruz.

It all comes down to where you're trying to go. 

If you're trying to get to San Francisco, I'd do Old La Honda -> 84 -> Hwy 1 -> all the way to SF
If you're trying to get to Santa Cruz or thereabouts, Highway 9-> over the hill and you're there.
If you're trying to go south, McKean -> Uvas -> Watsonville Road -> to Watsonville and then to wherever.

Yes, this means being at least a moderately fit endurance cyclist.  But there didn't seem to be any requirements that it be easy-- just relatively safe.

[Joet]

thanks man, highway 9 is still well outside my comfort zone, but I appreciate the info

the # of weekend racers, sport bike knee draggers, and simple texters with the complete absence of anything resembling a bike lane make me pass. I'll stick to the anti-mustachian mtbike loops that are all over the place in the santa cruz mountains. From the mtbike trails miles away from 9 I can hear the recklessness, no thanks

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=7563196
http://www.goskagit.com/local_news/cyclist-killed-in-highway-crash/article_22b97b72-9716-11e1-adf1-0019bb2963f4.html
http://losgatos.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/a-motorcyclist-who-crashed-saturday-morning-in-saratobbf5dd1a92


that southern route sounds interesting to me tho, I'll check it out, much obliged

[Leisured]

Thank you Alex808 for the original post. I was interested in seeing that the proposed cycle way would be elevated, which would keep cyclists and drivers apart, but makes it difficult to get on and off the cycle way.

Electric bicycles are not expensive, and will be more suitable for journeys of more than just a few kilometres.