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‘‘This will provide an opportunity to not use a car ... and to me, that is a good effort at ‘greening’ our city,” Mayor W. Jeff Holtzinger (R) said. ‘‘It’s as good an effort as any other.”

In his proposed fiscal 2008 budget, Holtzinger has included $100,000 to continue implementing the city’s shared-use path plan, created in 2002.

With help from state funds as well as from developers, the city is looking to dedicate $1.7 million as part of the $3.3 million dollar endeavor. The city is also pledging $1.5 million to the ‘‘Rails to Trails” program that turns former railroad tracks into recreational paths.

Transportation planner Tim Davis said the funds would apply along East Street from Carroll Creek to the northern city limits at Monocacy Boulevard.

‘‘I think these are important things to keep our eyes on,” Holtzinger said. ‘‘They provide opportunities to get out of the car, to exercise and [are] a good family activity.”

Roelkey Myers, city director of parks and recreation, said the city is in the beginning stages of the 2002 path plan to create more spaces for bicycles and walkers to loop around the city. The paths can also be connected to Frederick County paths to extend rides.

In addition to adding new paths, current paths — such as those at Baker Park — will also be widened to promote biking and provide an alternative to using city streets.

The city’s chief of comprehensive planning, Joe Adkins, called creating the 30-plus miles of paths an ‘‘ambitious project” for the city, but one with lots of benefits.

Since the plan was created, he said, the city has been putting small amounts of money aside for park improvements. Now with road improvements on Monocacy Boulevard and the U.S. Route 15 interchange in the city’s construction budget, the paths are moving forward.

By connecting current and smaller paths to one another, Adkins said, the city can bring pedestrian traffic from one end of the city to the other.

‘‘What the city needs to do is look at the easy links and do that first, then go after the mammoth projects,” he said.

However, Adkins notes that in the eyes of bicyclists, it may be not so great as it ‘‘forces them off-road” and along stream routes rather than directly on city streets.

Bill Smith, past president of the Frederick Pedalers Bicycle Club, agreed with Adkins’ assessment.

‘‘...The problems with paths is that you can only do so many ... and they don’t go where you want them to go,” he said.

Smith called the shared-use plan a ‘‘double-edged sword,” with the positive being that it will be great for children and families, but would create the view that paths are the only places for bicycles.

‘‘With motorists and the general public, they will see us and say ‘What are you doing on [city] roads?’” he said. ‘‘I feel that we can have unfettered access everywhere.”