Dubious detours
I love spotting insanity captured in sign form. These pictures are just my latest finding.
Imagine you're riding a bicycle down from the East Bay to parts south. You come around the bottom of the bay around Milpitas and start heading west. Fortunately, there are both trails and an assortment of interesting old roads which have been idled by the newer 237 freeway.
Then, without any warning, you come across this:
Okay, so this is awesome. They're taking what was a rather sketchy old path that had a lot of vegetation in the way and they're turning it into a nice wide paved path. But what's this? They aren't done yet. They are adamant about it: "do not enter". At least there's a detour... off to the left somewhere.
What's off to the left, anyway?
Answer: it's a fence with no gaps blocking access to a freeway where traffic whizzes by at 65 MPH. Even if you could get over there, you'd probably be breaking some law about bicycles on freeways, and then you'd be flattened by a car.
Let's say you somehow make it to the exit ramp intact -- you're still in trouble. I've seen ramrods drift their BMWs around the corners on that exit ramp and head up towards the sewage treatment plant on the wrong side of the road. It's really not the kind of thing you want to ride on.
Yep, I'm commenting on and complaining about bike facilities now. Pass the granola!
August 6, 2012: This post has an update.