The city's proposal to create a bike path alongside Highway 99 from Mud Creek to Southgate Avenue poses a twofold challenge.

The first is: Where do you build it? The second is, if you build it, will the bicyclists come?

The city should have thought about this project 50 years ago when the freeway was still in the planning stages and before suburban sprawl began to hit Chico bigtime.

Back then, of course, people made plans for freeways and major thoroughfares, but they weren't thinking about bicyclists. Bicycle City USA? What's that?

And, indeed, Chico is as car-friendly as any city in California, except for the "obstacle" of Bidwell Park. In most parts of Chico, it's way too late to find enough open space to create separate bike paths. And a lot of the existing streets near the freeway are either too congested or too fragmented (cul-de-sacs galore) to function as bike lanes.

But here (slightly above and to your right) is a spot where a bike path could be built. This is where an existing path peters out behind Kohl's department store and turns into a rough trail that passes through Teichert Ponds. This trail could be paved and somehow be linked up with an existing bike path that runs between Humboldt Road and Little Chico Creek. The west end of it passes underneath the freeway.

Here's an example of how hard it is for the city to be attempting to create bike paths at this late date. A beautiful path runs through a stand of oak trees between the Mission Ranch subdivision and Lindo Channel. Because this is a fairly new development and had been open land until the 1990s, the city was able to establish a bike path here.

When you cross Holly Avenue, the path continues to the west. It looks enticing. You look ahead, see a bend and wonder what lies beyond it, only to discover that it comes to a dead end at a fence. From this point to the railroad tracks, the Lindo Channel frontage property is full of house. The path has nowhere to go.

Despite having to backpedal -- so to speak -- and create projects well after most of the suitable land was already occupied, the city has been ingenious about making do with what was still available.

This bike path, which starts at 20th Street and follows Park Avenue and the Midway halfway to Durham, was part of a street improvement project. East Eighth Street between Highway 99 and the deer pen at Bidwell Park, was recently given a similar treatment. Paths like this follow streets, but they are entirely separate from the roadway.

The great northern escape for bicyclists follows an old railroad bed from Lindo Channel to Chico Municipal Airport. This part of Chico isn't a bit bike-friendly, so this route is a godsend. What I don't like about this path is that it doesn't connect to a lot of streets. As you walk along it, you feel fenced in.

One of Chico's best bike paths follows Little Chico Creek from Highway 99 to Bruce Road. It has a spur that crosses a bridge and runs by Marsh Junior High School. It passes right next to the front doors of a new apartment complex.

The farther away from the freeway you are, the better the bike paths. That's not surprising. Not only is open land scarce next to the freeway, but paths and freeway interchanges don't mix well.

A bicyclist approaching the freeway on 20th, Ninth and Eighth streets, First and East avenues and Cohasset Road, may find it a frightening experience. It may not be a good idea to put more bicyclists in that area.

The city argues that this is where most of the city's most popular destinations are, so building a path would cut down on the number of drivers, but these are primarily shopping destinations. I can't foresee a time when any but the most intrepid bicyclists would abandon their vehicles to do major shopping. We can't overlook the clear advantage of cars for hauling stuff.

As the city grows and crime increases, bicycle paths may no longer seem like friendly stretches of open space. They may one day become perceived as dangerous and full of unsavory characters. Growth is inevitable, but it can sure have its downsides. A diminishing sense of safety is one of them. The fact that people have recently been beaten up and robbed on bike paths is bound to prey on our imaginations.