On Designing Bike Lanes

Peter Merholz has a post (warning, big images) about the phenomenon, common on university campuses, of people turning lawns into dirt paths where they actually want to walk, and how they will blithely ignore barriers in this process. In a similar vein, I am looking with dismay at the bike lane construction project just outside our house. As far as I can tell, they are building the bike path so that it veers to the right off of the road where it descends from the levee on the south side of Putah Creek. Why any cyclist going over 10 MPH will opt to take the bike path rather than picking up a little speed continuing straight down the road is beyond me. Time for some civil engineers to read A Pattern Language, perhaps?