I call these as “Boorondara-style” bike paths because that’s the only place I’ve seen them for any great length (which probably just reflects my limited travels). The drawback on these is that you can still get that nasty drop-off at the edges, but where I’ve seen them recently installed they are generally pretty good. I think it is also a promising indication that a council laying such paths is serious about building and maintaining good paths.

It’s true that one of the problems with concrete paths (especially older ones) is that they can sometimes be laid at the same width as a standard footpath on the street, which is not nearly wide enough.

I agree with eccles about the Scotchman’s Creek trail—I’ve started avoiding that stretch too. But I don’t share that prediction on the Yarra Trail—having ridden the section between St Kev’s and MacRobertsons Bridge while it was being relaid, I can say that to my unqualified eye it looked very much like a road being laid: it was excavated to allow for proper foundations and several layers of bitumen were poured. This doesn’t mean it won’t eventually crack, but I think it will be a long time before that particular path will be described as “lumpy”. (And let’s not forget what it was like before!)

However, my preferred option is concrete. I find asphalt slowly warps, leaving you with bumps and dips that just seem to kill all your forward momentum. It also seems to do this within a year. I’m betting the new tracks along Yarra Boulevard are just as crap as the old ones within a year or two, and I’ll ride up and down hills and along peak hour roads rather than along the bits of Scotchman’s creek between Oakleigh and Mt Waverley.

Whereas concrete often breaks in a single spot, leaving you with one bump rather than 10 small ones. It seems to last longer, with less overall wear.

Although gravel can be good, it is my least favourite as it can go bad really quickly. One time I rode down the Maribyrnong River was a week or two after a lot of rain, it ranged between jarring over large rocks to very soft drifts of sand.

Also, I can think of a narrow concrete path and that is the upper section of the Plenty River trail which is only about a metre wide.