Andrew Manuse of the Metrowest Daily News telephoned me the other day, and asked me for my opinion on rail trails, so I thought I’d reprint what I wrote some time ago. (no sense in rewriting the book, as I’ve linked to it several times)
I like the idea of open space through an urban area, for exercise, and just plain fun. In addition, it would look nice. The rail trail idea has it’s charm. And maybe it could serve a more important function, as a way to relieve the traffic problems on our roads. So I thought I’d do a little investigation, and think about the details of what Natick will be making a choice on in the near future. First, the climate. How does commuter bicycling work in an area with a winter? This is what I learned.
Minneapolis is the top city in the country for bicycling commuters, according to their own city web site on bicycle paths. The city has 56 miles of off street and 34 miles of on street bicycle roadways and designated lanes. Much of the off street are paved rail trails. Their rating comes from a figure of just under 3 percent of commuters biking. The numbers come from their own web site which promotes bicycling. There are 382,000 people or 162,000 households living in Minneapolis.
If we translate the numbers to Natick’s population, we find that considering climate similarities, the possibility exists that 1000 commuters would use a bike path if one were built from the Cochituate Rail Trail in Saxonville, to join Natick and run to the downtown. Certainly a healthy number, if the trail were maintained, plowed, lighted, and paved. (And wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise if the projection held true, for it would require a major culture change, behavior modification and massive public relations in order to attain the lofty plateau.)
Bicycling to work at Boston Scientific, the Mall, downtown Natick, or the office parks on Old Connecticut park would benefit some who live within bicycling distance of the trail. If they’re headed to the railroad station to shift onto the train, we would probably need to accomodate bicycles downtown. Key consideration would be the ancillary roads, where people live. How suited to bicycle use are they? How far would one expect to ride a bike to get to the trail’s various entrance points? Where are those key entrance spots? Are the roads leading to them safe for bicycling during the rush hours?
To get started on the hard costs, how much would paving a rail trail to make it suitable for bicycling commuters be? What would the annual maintenance budget be for such a trail? What would it cost to install lighting, and what would the electrical figure be? How would landsaping needs be budgeted? What are the safety concerns, such as police protection?
From the rail trail’s own web sites, we see pictures of the land being unpaved stretches of walking path cut through woodland. As such, they are wonderful for a leisure activity on a Saturday or Sunday for younger, healthy people. However, unpaved rail trails aren’t useful to elderly and infirmed, and certainly not pleasant at any age during rainy, or snowy seasons, or when it’s just plain cold and icy.
So maybe the idea wouldn’t be primarily for commuters, but just for fun! Looking at Natick’s demographics, there are just under 4000 families with school age children. What would you rather see your tax dollars cover? Certainly the money it would cost to maintain a trail would be enough to relieve those families of bus fees, if the choice were made that way. And if the taxpayers had a choice between spending a few million dollars to aquire the land from CSX, vs a portion of the building of a new High School, what would they prefer to do? Would residents rather spend the money on improved roads, relieving congestion at key intersections with better turnoff lanes, and traffic signals? Would they like to use tax dollars for operations, in order to avoid a tax override? And last but not least, what town department would like to incur the increased cost of a trail?
Keep in mind, that a similar choice in how to spend money was made a few years ago, and it was on land already owned by the town. In this case, buying the land might be the cheapest part of the whole idea.
Town Meeting was convinced that they should invest similar amounts of money to satisy a handful of people with a special interest in a golf course. It’s time for reasoned evaluation, rather than emotional interest in something that might just be another operational expense, serving a handful of interested parties.
Let’s not make a hasty emotional decision on how our tax dollars are used. Instead, trail proponents should come up with a plan on how volunteerism could make the idea practical for all.
If you right click on the picture, and choose view image, you’ll see the full width.