Bike trails offer comfort and convenience

Trails are completely separated from roads and used only by bicycles and pedestrians. In Minneapolis, the trails around Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, Lake Nokomis and the Kenilworth and Cedar Lake trails fall into this category.

Ideally, these types of trails provide both a good place to bike and walk for recreation, as well as practical connections. Few options offer the expedience and comfort of well-placed trails. Most trails in Minneapolis offer a bit of a natural escape for city-dwellers as well.

While this is perhaps the most convenient and most comfortable type of bikeway for bicyclists, constructing new bike trails requires a continuous stretch of publicly owned land on which to build them. In order to encourage the most use, trails must be placed in areas that would carry users to other local destinations. Because Minneapolis is almost completely built out, this means there are only a few places where the construction of new bike trails is possible.

Why trails are great for everyone: No car traffic and few intersections with roads means trails offer unparelled comfort and convenience.