And now for something completely different....

This video rocks, check it out at the Feral Irishman

Bikes are free to ride where they want. Bike lanes are nice, but not necessary. In my neighborhood they start and then peter out so randomly I tend to ignore them. They tend to be in the straightaways, and then at intersections or busy throughways where they would be the most useful, they don't exist.

My wife's cousins in Germany, however, have bike and pedestrian only "roads" between villages that are completely separate and sometimes faster than the paved roads and highways. I've been over there twice and each time I was able to ride my bicycle I had rented between the two villages and the small city where her cousins lived without ever using the car roads. Now thats what I call bike lanes.