The promotion of bike paths is a pretty big problem in my city too. I've been cycling here as my only means of transportation for almost 6 years now, and I'm still discovering new little trails occasionally.

My first bike shop job from 2010-2011 was technically 26.5 miles each way on the straightest possible route. It took me a couple of months to find all of the trails and connections I could link together, but I ended up with around 15 miles of mostly low traffic roads and a total of 33 miles of riding each way. Isolated trails are well worth going out of your way to ride as much as possible. I had to find trails by riding my route with lucky happenstance encounters with another rider that either told me or happened to be entering or exiting an area that made me investigate.

The part that bugs me is that many trails start and end on the same geographical features but never get connected or completed. If parents could raise half decent children that could ride e-bikes without threatening peoples lives with idiotic antics, the trails would probably get built out much better. Around here e-bikes are banned from most trails. Maybe for the better. The little idiots won't last long on the road.

If you are stuck riding concrete like most walking paths around me, you need a super compliant bike.

I think i can't really follow. What's the difference between a cycle path and a cycle trail? A cycle trail is just some recreational route or what?