I’ve been cycling down Cowley Road for nearly 10 years. Yet, last month though was the first time, I used a cycle path that was running parallel to it. I really enjoyed it because Cowley Road is one of those intense roads where you feel almost claustrophobic squeezing in between buses, parked cars and impatient drivers. I often go out for long training rides without incident and then get nicely cut up several times on Cowley Road.
The drawback of the cycle path is that it is shared with pedestrians so progress is slower; it’s not a place to speed but, it makes a nice gentle warm-up, warm down for a training ride.
Related
I had much the same experience when I discovered the Newtownabbey Way cycle path that runs parallel to the busy Doagh Road that I sometimes use. It’s a quiet, picturesque tarmac path that runs past a river, under some railway viaducts and through a short forested area and hardly sees any pedestrian traffic. Or cycle traffic, for that matter.
http://www.rainmiles.com/archives/the-newtownabbey-way.html