Biking the Boston 'Burbs (Trails, MDC, & Towns beyond Hubway area)

Advocates are raising alarm bells over Gervais Volkswagen in Lowell expanding their parking lot, which would threaten a future trail along the River Meadow Brook between the Concord River Greenway and the Bruce Freeman Trail.

I’m not sure I completely understand the geography, but this appears to be the former railroad right of way on the south bank of the River Meadow Brook eyed as an extension of the Bruce Freeman Trail. The VW dealership is on the south bank, and Lowell’s counterproposal to allow the VW expansion and route the trail on the north bank failed. Now it reads like it’s an either/or choice for the Lowell city council between the VW expansion or the south side bank.

Map: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.615181,-71.3217012,217m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e3

News article: http://www.thevalleydispatch.com/ci...rt-resolve-lowell-rezoning-issue-unsuccessful

Petition: https://www.change.org/p/the-lowell-city-council-keep-the-massachusetts-bay-circuit-trail-alive
 
Just signed the petition. Everyone on here should too.
 
Belmont's decades-long Community Path process continues on, and a Concord Street sidepath option is not just still on the table, but is now ranked higher than the rail-with-trail option: http://bloggingbelmont.com/2016/11/safety-must-come-first-on-the-community-path/

PathOptions.png


I think calling the Concord Avenue option "insane" is a stretch, but it would be a poor recreational trail to be used by children and novices when compared to the rail-with-trail option. It's odd that the consultant's scoring system ranked it so highly.
 
Scipio said:
Belmont's decades-long Community Path process continues on, and a Concord Street sidepath option is not just still on the table, but is now ranked higher than the rail-with-trail option: http://bloggingbelmont.com/2016/11/safety-must-come-first-on-the-community-path/

PathOptions.png


I think calling the Concord Avenue option "insane" is a stretch, but it would be a poor recreational trail to be used by children and novices when compared to the rail-with-trail option. It's odd that the consultant's scoring system ranked it so highly.
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Well, Belmont did put that bike 'lane' in and narrowed Leonard St. right before it enters under the commuter rail bridge going southbound and onto Concord Ave. Naturally, every morning there's simply a line of cars driving over and blocking the bike lane and the BUS lettering as cars are turning right onto Common st. So that just tells me Belmont doesn't really know and care what they're doing with bike lanes.

Also, there are plenty of people both passing and driving in the bike lanes on Concord Ave, going in both directions. The passing happens mostly in the morning. The stretch of road they're considering for the path, by the gas station and post office - you get cars darting out of there all the time as well. Not a very safe alternative, in my opinion.

I have a feeling that Belmont NIMBYism is the leading reason why this Concord Ave alternative is ranked higher. It's all those drug dealers on bikes the abutters don't want in their back yards.
 
Scipio said:
Advocates are raising alarm bells over Gervais Volkswagen in Lowell expanding their parking lot, which would threaten a future trail along the River Meadow Brook between the Concord River Greenway and the Bruce Freeman Trail.

I’m not sure I completely understand the geography, but this appears to be the former railroad right of way on the south bank of the River Meadow Brook eyed as an extension of the Bruce Freeman Trail. The VW dealership is on the south bank, and Lowell’s counterproposal to allow the VW expansion and route the trail on the north bank failed. Now it reads like it’s an either/or choice for the Lowell city council between the VW expansion or the south side bank.

Map: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.615181,-71.3217012,217m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e3

News article: http://www.thevalleydispatch.com/ci...rt-resolve-lowell-rezoning-issue-unsuccessful

Petition: https://www.change.org/p/the-lowell-city-council-keep-the-massachusetts-bay-circuit-trail-alive
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I'd missed this. Wow. Just signed the petition.

In other news for Scipio's log:

Note that there are two projects ongoing in Arlington:

1)Arlington Center Safe Travel Project (Minuteman Trail @ Mass Ave) is under construction now for the addition of bike lane connectivity between the "inner" and "outer" sections.

2) Mystic St Reconstruction (a block beyond the project above, as US3 goes toward Winchester) About 3 blocks worth of US 3 have been reconstructed (mostly utility work, it seems) with bike lanes added around the intersection of Summer St, Mystic St (US 3), and the branch of the Mystic Valley Parkway.
 
Scipio said:
The Lowell City Council approved the Volkswagen dealership: http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_30637496/lowell-city-council-oks-gervais-lot-expansion

There are some soft commitments to keeping trail options open, and the City Manager says he is confident that a rail trail will still work out even with the parking lot expansion. But I don't see anything firm.
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They can't block the ROW anyway. Pan Am hasn't sold it to the state yet because they are under the misguided impression that they can get a king's ransom for 1-1/4 measly stinking stub-end miles. And it hosts adjacent power lines all the way down to Industrial Ave. at end-of-track, so it can't be encroached even if Pan Am were to act in bad faith with granting the dealership an easement that effs over the trail.


It's low motivation for the city because 8 years of dealing with Pan Am has been an absolute waste of everyone's time, and things are probably not going to change until Pan Am gets bought out by somebody else who has no use for extracurricular spite games of this sort.
 
Here's a list of the suburban bike infrastructure I can recall opening this year. Not that many, I'm sure I missed a few bike lane installations somewhere.

New or improved infrastructure that opened in 2016

• Northern suburban projects: A couple more segments of repaved Minuteman Bikeway in Bedford and Lexington, Mystic Valley Parkway wide shoulder (DCR), Swampscott waterfront bike lanes, Mystic Street bike lanes in Arlington

• Western suburban projects: Trapelo Road bike lanes, Belmont Center bike lanes

• Southern suburban projects: Unquity road shoulders (DCR), separated bike lanes on Weymouth's Patriot Parkway, Quincy Center bike lanes, buffered bike lanes on part of Quincy's Southern Artery, Newton Falls Greenway stub, Needham Greenway stub


Infrastructure that seems like it still has a chance to open in 2016

• Arlington Center Safe Travel Project (*Path extension installed and street repaved and striped with bike lanes, signals will only be installed if the weather cooperates.*)


Ongoing projects that started construction before 2016, are still under construction, but aren't opening until 2017 or later:

• Bruce Freeman rail trail extension south to Concord (*Lots of ongoing construction work with a 2019 phase also in planning. 2017 opening?*)

• Silver Line path in Chelsea (*Silver Line has a mid-2017 opening, not sure if the path opens at the same time. Some path work has been finished but no paving yet.)

• New Route 16 bridges with multiuse paths between Medford/Everett (*Work on bridge approaches underway, adds paths on and around bridges to close a huge gap in bikeway network. Finished in 2020.*)
 
I wish there was a team of anthropologists or history majors or someone to record suburban neighbor's opinions of bike paths before (when they turn out as NIMBYs) and after (when they are believers).

This is appropos of Dedham's consideration of a multi-use path on a RR ROW.

For the record, I lived in a two-family that backed onto the Minuteman in Arlington, 2001 - 2005. It was interesting meeting long-time neighbors. They *all* had comments that went like this (reconstructed quote) from a neighbor who lived 3 doors down in a larger house with more frontage (backage, actually) on the Minuteman in East Arlington:
When they were planning it, we were worried about it, that it might bring crime or noise or people. Now we see how great it is for the neighborhood, the kids, the walkers. It is really nice. I'm glad they built it.
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If I were a PhD candidate or paid advocate, I'd look up every opponent quoted in a hearing or newspaper and go back for an "after" comment.

Note, however, some nuggets buried in there:
1) In referring to "people", I feel they were saying "people strange to me", which, sure, could always be minorities (for white NIMBYs) but as a practical matter, income, age, & education are also powerful sources of strangeness.

2) That's a pretty deep admission of being wrong...about as deep as you'll get from an ordinary person in a public forum. Sadly, it does not seem to come with a sense that "it'd be good for our polity if I shared my change of heart" or "I'd be willing to talk to NIMBYs elsewhere"

3) To NIMBYs elsewhere, even a long-time, quiet, secretarial, resident of Arlington is strange. Even if offered, I doubt NIMBYs elsewhere would be moved much by her story.
 
^ New, strange, different = scary, not from my tribe, so "Bad", "Dangerous"

Humans are hardwired that way. It takes real effort to develop empathy for "other" tribes.

And the difference can be something as simple as "They ride bicycles; I don't ride bicycles" -- therefore they are "scary, different, bad... (not like me)"
 
If I lived on an abandoned rail right of way, I would definitely not want it to be converted to a rail trail. Why? I wouldn't want my backyard to become public property, traversed by the public, be they from my tribe or no. Would I fight to oppose it and be a true NIMBY? Not sure. I probably would not, since in principle I support this sort of thing. But I totally understand people who don't like the idea of it when they live in close proximity. And for me, it's not about more crime or minorities or any of those things that everyone gets bent out of shape about these horrible suburban close minded people supposedly fearing - it's the conversion of empty and essentially private land into fullblown public land.

Anyway... I'm not surprised at all that direct neighbors oppose these things. The opposition of an entire town to something like this is another matter altogether… that I definitely DONT get.
 
FK4 said:
If I lived on an abandoned rail right of way, I would definitely not want it to be converted to a rail trail. Why? I wouldn't want my backyard to become public property, traversed by the public, be they from my tribe or no. Would I fight to oppose it and be a true NIMBY? Not sure. I probably would not, since in principle I support this sort of thing. But I totally understand people who don't like the idea of it when they live in close proximity. And for me, it's not about more crime or minorities or any of those things that everyone gets bent out of shape about these horrible suburban close minded people supposedly fearing - it's the conversion of empty and essentially private land into fullblown public land.

Anyway... I'm not surprised at all that direct neighbors oppose these things. The opposition of an entire town to something like this is another matter altogether… that I definitely DONT get.
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Well said.

I think we all on this forum have to do a bit more of putting ourselves in the shoes of those who oppose the projects we generally support. Humans tend to both act in their own rational self interest and to favor the known current state of affairs over uncertain changes. This explains about 99% of "NIMBY" opposition, and frequently even when we don't agree with it we should be able to see that it is coming from a rational place. Just because a bike path or an apartment tower or whatever may be a net win for the greater good, that doesn't mean that it is necessarily a win for neighbors / abutters who have their quiet backyard / sightlines / parking space / whatever disturbed.
 
JumboBuc said:
Well said.

I think we all on this forum have to do a bit more of putting ourselves in the shoes of those who oppose the projects we generally support. Humans tend to both act in their own rational self interest and to favor the known current state of affairs over uncertain changes. This explains about 99% of "NIMBY" opposition, and frequently even when we don't agree with it we should be able to see that it is coming from a rational place. Just because a bike path or an apartment tower or whatever may be a net win for the greater good, that doesn't mean that it is necessarily a win for neighbors / abutters who have their quiet backyard / sightlines / parking space / whatever disturbed.
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But, I would point out that those abutters never paid for the "open space" of the right of way. They have enjoyed the benefits of the right of way being there, without ever paying for the cost of keeping the space open.

If they really want the right of way to stay undeveloped, they should buy an easement on the right of way to block the path development. Otherwise they are taking a free ride at the general community's expense.

It is no different than a downtown NIMBY trying to block the new tall tower next door because it will change/block their view. Unless you own an air rights easement over the surrounding properties, you don't own the view (as you don't own the rail right of way).
 
We were talking about perspective taking, though... not the legal principles... two very different things.
 
FK4 said:
We were talking about perspective taking, though... not the legal principles... two very different things.
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Agreed. And abutters are going to feel like something is being taken away, even if it wasn't legally theirs in the first place. I understand that.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Agreed. And abutters are going to feel like something is being taken away, even if it wasn't legally theirs in the first place. I understand that.
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As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr put it in 1897:
A thing which you have enjoyed and used as your own for a long time, whether property or an opinion, takes root in your being and cannot be torn away without your resenting the act and trying to defend yourself, however you came by it.
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(emphasis mine, but it was a case of trespass vs adverse possession he was discussing) The NIMBY's enjoyment of the empty ROW behind their house takes root pretty quickly. It is even natural to feel entitled to infrequent trains (as happened on the Grand Junction through Cambridge when they rebelled against Tim Murray's plan for Worcester-North Station trains.
 
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Genuine question... is this entitlement response more common with suburban homeowners, or does it happen in urban settings as well (not referring to the train frequency response which is much more negative/disruptive, but rather rail trail conversions on unused right-of-ways.)

Was there NIMBY objection by abutters for the Somerville Community Path or the East Boston Greenway -- those were both abandoned rail right-of-way conversions (I believe)?
 
JeffDowntown said:
Genuine question... is this entitlement response more common with suburban homeowners, or does it happen in urban settings as well
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I've seen city folks grow entitled to which side of an intersection a bus stop is on, while out in Virginia Hunt Country they demand that entire square miles of other people's land be kept as pasture in their "viewshed."

Holmes rule feels to me like he's describing the human condition.

I'd guess it's like Dunbar's Number: if a thing is near the 50 ~ 150 person social group we consider "near neighbors", we're likely to "adopt" the thing as ours. "my street, my sidewalk, my mailbox, my shoveled spot, my street trees" and and another degree of entitlement to "my post office, my coffee shop, my dry cleaner".

If neighbors are close, the objects are close. If neighbors are far the objects are far. All that'd be different in city, burb, exurb, & rural would be the physical distance between the objects.
 
Makes a lot of sense that "near" is a relative concept, and hence quite different in the urban, versus suburban, versus exurban setting. (my building, my block, my neighborhood, my county...)
 
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