I appreciate this post may not be particularly helpful as it is likely not possible for some people to avoid using these shared paths without taking a large detour or using a dangerous road, but I've made the choice to avoid them all together favouring using a busy road that runs parallel - much to the irritation of a couple of motorists.
On my daily commute there are a couple of stretches of busy town road with shared paths on the pavement, I would rather chance my luck with the vehicles after seeing a good few near misses, cars pulling out of driveways across the path, and my own near miss with a pedestrian.
They are inadequate in my opinion, for all but a few cyclists who are happy to plod along at just above walking pace in the daytime. Night time use is a whole other matter.