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Shared-Use Path

LOC-SUP-13
Recommended Local

Shared-Use Path

An off-street path physically separated from the roadway, shared by pedestrians and bicyclists under roughly equal priority, connecting local-scale destinations.

Related Media

The items below come from outside the Commonway System, external videos, podcasts, and articles related to this page's topic, not part of the guidebook itself.

Aligned

The Reason Our Streets Switched to Cul-De-Sacs

City Beautiful

Traces the postwar shift from connected grid networks to tree-shaped cul-de-sac subdivisions, then covers the same shared-use-path connector strategy CS's Network Reconnection retrofit recommends for stitching disconnected cul-de-sacs back into the surrounding network.

Typical at: Suburban Compact Urban Core

Undeveloped and Rural contexts are unlikely to carry a purpose-built shared-use path.

Modal hierarchy

Pedestrian= Bicycle
Pedestrian and Bicycle share top priority under this pattern's own equal-priority definition, no ranking between the two. Transit, Vehicle, and Freight do not apply off-street; Design Speed & Speed Limits doesn't apply here, since this pattern excludes automobiles entirely.

Design notes

Width should accommodate two-way pedestrian and bicycle travel without forcing conflict, with connections back to the street network at logical, safe, visible points rather than incidental gaps.1 Distinct from Bicycle Boulevard / Neighborhood Greenway (LOC-BBG-12), which shares an on-street roadway rather than separating off-street, and from Multi-Use Trail / Greenway (COL-MUT-06), which is longer-distance and destination-scale rather than local-connector scale.

Getting there: Retrofit path options

Barrier-crossing / network reconnection retrofit (RFT-NET-03) commonly takes this form where it crosses a highway, rail line, or disconnected cul-de-sac pattern.

References

  1. Legal / regulatory AASHTO, Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities, 5th Edition, 2024.