I was thinking more of the bike paths I use here, along the river and along the UM bus route. In the first case, the pedestrians and cyclists are usually separated, with two lanes each, and the asphalt is pretty good, so you can zip along pretty well. In the second case, along the bus route, cars are prohibited, and there are very few pedestrians on the bike path, as this route was constructed specifically to connect the St. Paul and Minneapolis campuses of the University of Minnesota. It would be a long walk, but a pretty easy bike ride, and a very fast bus commute.
I remember in parts of Germany the bike paths connecting towns became sidewalks once in the towns or villages, so you had to share them with pedestrians, and the paths were often narrow, like you say they are in Holland. When I got off the ferry in Denmark, however, I was pleased to see how well laid out the paths were, with lots of posted directions and distance indicators to many different destinations. Scandinavia in general was decent biking country--very courteous drivers for the most part.
Anyway, the older I get, the more risk-adverse I become. Plus I don't like riding with a helmet.
Yeah in the cities here its separated as well, once you get outside of them they become more multi use paths. The good thing is there are paths everywhere you want to go and are not terribly busy, I was exaggerating earlier. It's nothing like wash park in Denver where there are people everywhere. Just the one that I ride on my commute home rides along a lake and it has these dips across the pass from erosion that are quite jarring on my road bike. The good thing is the road is very quiet, maybe one or two cars pass me on the ride. In fact there are more bikers on the road than cars. If those dips weren't there I would definitely be on the path. Also If its was busy I would prefer the path, no matter how courteous drivers are, there are always situations that arise that are dangerous.
Ha you really don't wear a helmet? I am amazed at how few people wear them out here. Road and mountain bikers too. My rule is >10mph, or anytime on my road or mountain bike and I wear one. After that crash earlier this year when I split a helmet, I am now hyper risk adverse.
By the way, because of this thread my knee was hurting on my run this morning too. I think we need to change it to "at least I now have 50+ more years of barefoot hiking and biking"