Dear Mass Bike,
I would like to see the Minuteman trail Plowed and salted because it is a important connection to the “T” at Alewife and is used by commuters. It would help free up parking space and provide a car free way to get to Lexington. I have aproached Lexington about this and the responce has been “No way we are going to plow it”. Since the Minuteman was originaly a Railroad and it is railbanked its primary purope is transportation. I believe there is legal grounds to make the town plow it just like they do the roads for the cars.
Can you folks help me here?
I live right near it in arlington and Iv’e never noticed it wasnt plowed
The Lexington DPW is spread so thin that they can barely keep the streets open let along the bikepath. According to Lexington DPW Highway Superintendent he has just told me that Guilford Rail Systems own the right of way and the Town of Lexington maintains it by keeping it clean and grass mowing etc. The cost to have snow removed all winter long has been estimated to be over $ 100,000.00. This is an amount that given the Towns fiscal condition is just not fesible. If a party of group wants to raise the money, then the DPW would be more than happy to provide snow removal servics. The Minuteman Bike Way Committee is in agreement with this.
All so, that from May 1st till October 31st, public safety (fire & police) in Lexington responded to 28 incidents along the bike path. The LPD had a very active Bike Patrol Unit that was out on the path daily, until budget cuts and officer layoffs shelved this program. The motorcyle unit when available did cruise the path from the Arlington Line to the Bedford Line during the summer.
I hope that you find this information useful and informative.
BTW, I work for the Town of Lexington in public safety for the last 26 yrs.
In Clveland we have a Metrpoliton Parks Authority that is flush with cash do to tax leveys
Is there not a autority in boston for the parks like there is a MBTA for transit?
Now heres something, MBTA should plow the path! because it connects with Alewife
Maintenance of the Minuteman Bikeway is governed by agreements between
the
towns of Bedford, Lexington, and Arlington and the MBTA which were made
well
before the trail was opened. Both lighting and plowing were issues,
and the
agreements specifically exclude plowing, theoretically as a sop to
cross-country
skiers, but more as a cost avoidance by the towns. I had occassion to
bike
into Cambridge from Lexington today and checked out the path on the way
from
Route 2A to Alewife. The Lexington end was not very ridable at all,
and I didn’t
see the usual number of pedestrians at 10:15 am. I rode Mass. Ave. to
Arlington Center and took the trail the rest of the way to Alewife. It
was
pretty ridable, but only plowed east of Lake St. (and maybe only
between the
parking lot and Alewife station. I’m not quite sure who to talk to in
Lexington;
check out Harvey Bingham’s Lexington Bike pages at
http://users.rcn.com/hwbingham/lexbike/contents.htm
Arlington has a bike committee which is at least looking into plowing.
There
is contact info at
http://www.abac.arlington.ma.us/
I think that getting the Bedford end plowed is probably hopeless, but
there are
probably a lot more commuters dependent on it now than there were 10
years ago.
You can find Bedford contacts at
http://www.bikebedford.org/
The paths around Alewife station were plowed. It didn’t look like the
City
of Cambridge plowed the Red Line Linear Park path, but the Danehy Park
paths
looked plowed (though melting had totally cleared them by the time I
got there).
I personally thing the path should be plowed all the way from Lexington
Center
to Somerville.
-Doug Mink
MassBike