A recent column described bike trails as active transportation, a vague term at best (“Maine Voices: Make active transportation safe from the capital to the coast,” June 20). In this time of electric bikes, electric scooters and skateboards, snowmobiles and ATVs, one can only imagine the congestion on the trails on the weekends. In truth, how many people will be commuting 20 or 30 miles on a bicycle or other exposed transit modes in the snow, rain or ice? Who will maintain the trail? Who will police the trail? These questions seem to be ignored.
Before tearing up tracks and closing off the most efficient form of transportation available, we should think about the future.
Before destroying transit options, visualize using the existing rail system that allows expansion of commuter and tourist growth without adding to highway congestion. Trails are great for getting around once you get to the destination, but rail transit (with room to take your bike) is real transportation. One model for park trails is in Lisbon and from Gardiner to Augusta, where planners were able to maintain the tracks while adding a bike trail.
L.D. 406 is a rail-use vision plan that does not destroy options before making decisions. Maine needs viable and practical transportation options.
Peter Cole
Topsham
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