List of San Diego bike paths

The following is a list of bike paths starting from the Baja California border and ending where the wikipedia article List of Los Angeles bike paths picks up.

Bikeways in California are divided into "classes":

* Class 1 Bikeway - "Bike Path" - Completely separate from traffic.
* Class 2 Bikeway - "Bike Lane" - Space on the road (almost always at the edge) separated by a 6" wide solid (except at some intersection approaches where it is dashed) stripe set aside on city streets primarily for bikes. California traffic laws state that cars may only pull into a bike lane when within 200 feet of making a right turn, and are required to do so before making the turn. On streets with onstreet parallel parking, bike lanes are painted at least partially in the door zone of parked cars, the sudden opening of which is a common cause of injuries to cyclists. The most common cause of injuries in these lanes is from automobiles making a right turn in front of a cyclist after passing the cyclist. This is due to motorists not being accustomed to watching for traffic on their right when they are in the "slow lane", and due to bicyclists not being accustomed to looking back and merging left to avoid going straight from the right side of the road.
* Class 3 Bikeway - Bike Route - Allegedly "bike friendly" city streets connected into a means of getting from one place to another on a bike.

It should be noted that when riding on these bike paths (Class I) you will be completely uncovered by any warranties as regards their fitness for safe cycling. In other words, if there is a dangerous hazard as a result of the construction standard of the bikepath and you are injured you cannot sue the City or Council of San Diego to cover your medical expenses. This is in direct contrast to ordinary city streets. There are two pieces of case law which establish this clearly, one of them being Prokoff vs City of L.A.

In California, when mounted and riding on the road, cyclists are required to "act like drivers of vehicles" when it comes to obeying signals, signage, lane restrictions and the rules of the road (see the [http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/driver_handbook_toc.htm "California Driver Handbook"] for details). In brief: Riders are to ride with traffic, yielding to faster traffic unobtrusively to the right when practicable, merging with a "true lane" of traffic when faster traffic is not present, the lane is too narrow to be safely shared, or when preparing for turning left.

Paths

The following is a list of links to more information about San Diego and North County bicycle paths created by the people who visit this site. Upon adding a bike path to the list, please include what class the bike path is (see above) and a link to a webpage including a map of the route, directions to the route, a brief description of the route, the length of the route, an approximation of elevation gain/loss on the route, and preferably pictures of the route.

* For a free map of all officially recognized San Dieogo bike paths call 1-800-COMMUTE and select option 3 to request a copy, or request one from the Ridelink website at [http://www.ridelink.org/about/contact_us.asp http://www.ridelink.org]
* Mission Bay bike path near SeaWorld
* San Luis Rey River bike path in Oceanside
* Silver Strand bikeway, a.k.a. "Bayshore bikeway", formerly Bayshore bike route, locally known as "Coronado" or "Coronado to Imperial Beach"
* Camp Pendleton Bike Route in San Diego County: Class 1 while south of the campgrounds at San Onofre State Park. Class 2/3 elsewhere.

References

* [http://www.sunset.com/sunset/Premium/Travel/1999/09-Sep/Bike0999/Bike0999.html "The West's best bike rides"] article from Sunset.com
* Locally available information and maps
* [http://traillink.com/TL_Active_Pages/TrailSearch/default.asp Rails to Trails Conservancy compound search page]
* [http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/driver_handbook_toc.htm California Driver Handbook]
* http://efgh.com/bike/redroute.htm
* Ridelink's San Diego Region bike map

ee also

* List of cycleways
* List of Los Angeles bike paths

External links

* [http://www.efgh.com/bike/redroute.htm 25 Red Routes in San Diego County]
* [http://www.bikemetro.com/route/routehome.asp Bike Route Planning w/Map and Elevation change calculated]
* [http://www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/ Bicycle Friendly Community]
* [http://www.railtrails.org/ Rails-to-Trails Conservancy]
* [http://sports.dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/1600067439 "sports.dir.groups.yahoo.com Cycling"] Yahoo! groups directory
* [http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/driver_handbook_toc.htm "California Driver Handbook"]
* [http://traillink.com/TL_Active_Pages/TrailSearch/default.asp?12%3A56%3A14+PM "6 SD Paths"] Traillink.com's 6 San Diego/North County search results