Portland doesn't have the luxury of decommissioned railways, so uses some different methods that I think accomplish the same thing. Many of the side streets aro

Portland doesn't have the luxury of decommissioned railways, so uses some different methods that I think accomplish the same thing. Many of the side streets around here have been converted to "neighborhood greenways" (they used to be called "bike boulevards" but I agree that that didn't really suggest shared use). All you do is make it inconvenient for cars to drive at high speeds by installing mild speed bumps, turn-only intersections, etc, and remove as many stop signs in the greenway direction as you can. Doing this turns these roads effectively into local-access-only routes for cars and there's very little traffic. My bike "path" to and from work is about 8 miles of 35'-wide, paved road. It's very safe too, since you're not in the "door zone" of parked cars in a bike lane and also not so separated from traffic that you are a surprise at intersections like some new bike lanes that are located on the other side of parked cars. Not to mention the low cost.