Can you imagine riding your bicycle in the future along this corridor where these railroad tracks run today? I can.

This is a very short stretch of a 47-mile railroad right-of-way that runs north-south about two miles from my home in the growing communities just east of Seattle.

The current owner, the BNSF Railway, wants to sell the 100-foot right-of-way. A deal currently in the works calls for the Port of Seattle to buy it for $100 million to $180 million and turn it over to King County along with the funds to build a bike and hike trail on it. In return, the Port gets the King County-owned 625-acre airfield just south of Seattle.

If the land swap deal happens -- we'll probably know next year -- the old rail line could become the backbone for a network of existing bike trails. ...   more »

The University at Buffalo is urging people not to travel alone on bicycle paths in western New York after a recent homicide was linked to the so-called "bike path rapist."

The warning was issued after police linked the late September killing of Joan Diver, 45, to the unknown man responsible for nine sexual assaults, including two homicides, against women between 1986 and 1994. ...   more »

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy website has some cool suggestions from its staff on which rail-trails have the best fall color.

Up here in the Pacific Northwest, the big-leaf maples are blazing right now, although recent rains have knocked down a lot of leaves. Here's a scene along the Lake Washington bicycle path earlier this week.

Not all of the trails on rails-to-trails list are accessible to bicycles. And I'm sure some of their suggestions from the northern tier have played out (the piece has been up for a month; unfortunately I just noticed it this week).

The website links to fall foliage forecasts in all the states mentioned. Here are some bike trails that might still be colorful ...   more »

A murder on a bike path in Georgia and an assault and separate gun-pointing incidents on an Indiana bicycle trail show the need for cyclists to consider personal safety when out for a ride.

I don't want to be an alarmist about this. Bike trails aren't dangerous places. I've stumbled across these news stories in the past couple of months, and they may represent the only incidents of violence across the thousands of miles of bike trails used by millions of people during that time period.

Even so, it's probably worth repeating some words of caution.

Update: The University at Buffalo issued a warning Nov. 17, 2006, that people shouldn't travel alone on the Ellicott Creek bike path, or pathways in western New York.