How many skaters, walkers and runners are there in the US and world?
• If runners, walkers, skaters and cyclists are to share a trail, would be the best way to manage/design it? Ideally, trails should have separated corridors in which the faster users (bicyclists) are separated from the slower users (walkers, joggers, and skaters). This is the practice in the Netherlands and Denmark in which the bicyclists have their own corridor and the other users have theirs. In the U.S., bicyclists have always had to share a corridor with others including cars, trucks, and buses on roads or pedestrians/dog walkers/joggers/skaters on shared use paths. In contrast, vehicles have had their own corridors including roads, in particular highways, and pedestrians have had their own corridors, in particular sidewalks on which other users such as bicyclists are banned. If we wish to increase the numbers of bicyclists, we should provide space dedicated for the bicyclists. Therefore, the best design for trails is a split path unless the trail is rural and not highly frequented
