NY - The bike path thing again (Buffalo)

[SST]

An article appeared in the Buffalo News http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20 ... 027257.asp about bike paths really gaining popularity. I enjoyed the article until it mentioned the rebel who is blocking the most important rr line around here. The Peanut. She says, "The reality is the towns don't want to maintain them as they should," said Bogdan, the homeowner who helped lead opposition to the trail. She said she has done research that shows that bike paths around the country are magnets for rapists, vandals and people who engage in indecent activity. "

Well, if bike paths are magnets for these problems then we'd better close down all the malls. Come to think about it, we'd better close the drive-in movies because of the indecent activity that goes on with movie goers. We'd better close down the whole East side of Buffalo with just about every crime imaginable going on there. We'd better shut down all the airlines because....well you know...9/11. We'd better close all the college campuses with all the drinking and other unmentionables.

I haven't heard of any crime related stuff on any bike path around here. Her paranoia is blocking a great piece of the line. I rode this un-improved section from Sweet Home Rd east to Hopkins Rd. I don't know what this lady is complaining about. No one is going to climb a 20 or 30 foot embackment with a wide screen tv from someones living room. The line is so over grown in spots that if illegal activities are taking place, you'd never know it! The converted trail would actually expose those places of concern. I also haven't heard of any complaints from people east of Transit Rd [78].

Well, I'm sure nothing will get done and a great asset will go to waste.

[SimTrains]

No one is going to climb a 20 or 30 foot embackment with a wide screen tv from someones living room.

LOL, I agree, this women is just some nut who beleaves it is her dutie to reply or makes comments about these stories. Ya know, every news article has one! She never really did any research, she probably read in USA today a few years ago about how someone was raped in central park in NYC, so now she is the authority on crime. LOL

[stilson4283]

You got to realize that the NIMBYs still haven't gotten a chance to grip about these. Then you can hear the same things that were said when they wanted light rail out to Tonawanda.

" No it will bring bad people into our neighborhood that will rape our children and steal our TVs. Then they will take the light rail....oh wait I mean Bike path....back."

Got to love the NIMBYs

Chris

[MarkT]

I don't know.............I can see the NIMBY's point of view. You buy your house and property, biggest inventment you have, and now the conditions are going to dramatically change. Where as you had nothing behind your house & backyard, now you'll have dozens of people crossing through daily. Maybe not much in crime would happen, but what about your privacy you previously enjoyed? It's gone. A lot of these trails are open in the winter to snowmobiling too. From an earlier thread, you guys aren't ATV fans I know. I wouldn't like this if it was my property.

The townships may not be on board with these trails as they require regular maintenance and insurance too. Most towns are trying to avoid extra costs these days so as to keep taxes reasonable

Couple years back in Salamanca, an old Pennsy grade now a jogging trail, a woman out for a run was raped and murdered there. So it DOES happen

[b&m617]

There were a few incidents on the rail trail around Goshen and Chester NY in the past few years, someone from a homeless shelter near chester attacked someone , and some drunk in a car ran somebody over near goshen...guess this goes with the territory. And being in new york the politicians are too busy wasting out tax dollars than to provide some police presence here..I can sure understand why folks might balk at having a trail in their back yard.Should have just left the rails in, less trouble....

Derail

[bwparker1]

I can guarnatee you that there is no scientific evidence that a rape, murder, etc. is going be any more likely on a Rail Trail than a street, Mall, parking lot or any other public area. Her argument is pure CR%P. If NIMBY's could put 1/10th of their negative energy into something useful and productive, such as volunteering for anything positive, our country would be a better place. Instead, they sit on their A$$'s while society contiues to fail in many respects until some miniscule issue may affect THEM, and they are out of the woodwork spewing venemous posion regarding the project, and 95% of their "facts" are completely baseless and false. In fact, there is correlative evidence that would suggest a finshed rail trail would increase property values, as opposed to lower them. I'd love to bash her some more, but I'll stop, get off my box, leave my 2 cents and hope that I never meet this woman personally.

Brooks

[WANF-11--->Chaser]

I think there are a lot worse things that the trail could be used for. Say a highway or interstate.

There are many other people that live near or next to a lot worse things thats for sure.

I wouldnt mind a trail behind my house, easy and convenient access to a walking path safe from automobile traffic (other than at crossings).

[MarkT]

Why not have bicylers register their bikes with NYS and pay an annual registration fee. That fee money could then be used to fund the trails. This would then insure that the users of this benefit are also supporting it. These funds would be used for maintenance and security

[Ron Newman]

An abandoned, un-maintained, overgrown and generally neglected right-of-way is much more likely to attract crime than a well-used, landscaped, paved trail.

Here in Somerville, Mass., we have a half-mile of paved trail followed by a quarter-mile of abandoned right-of-way. Guess where you find people drinking, setting off firecrackers, and engaging in other undesirable activities.

[Ken W2KB]

NIMBY's thrive on misinformation. A recent non-rail example:

About a week ago a small plane crashed on takeoff from an airport a few miles from me. It 'landed' in a tree on the front lawn of a home, in a development built long after the airport's start in 1935. The residents are now campaigning to close the airport. (same thing happens with rail lines whenever there is a derailment).

One of the 'proofs' the NIMBY offered was that the airport recently trimmed some trees at the end of the runway so planes now fly lower over the homes so are more dangerous. The truth is exactly the opposite - the cutting the trees made it safer (why else would the airport do it, duh) since the planes can now land and take off at a less steep angle, no longer needing to clear the trees, so even though they may be slightly lower over the homes, the probability of an accident is reduced. But people reading the publicity will believe the untruth.

[Agent at Clicquot]

Its amazing how a small group singular of purpose can delay high budget public works projects (thinking of the MBTA's Greenbush and New Bedford/Fall River lines).

I would think that a restored, patronized rail trail would be the last place a criminal would want to go. Trail users (and the cell phones they carry) could show up at nearly any time of day.

If there was need, I would think a paved or stone-dust trail would permit Police or Fire units access to areas they previously couldn't. This would be especially true if the Police Dept in question had a mounted (horse/cycle/motor) unit that could respond to any point of the trail without removing barriers first.

As for the abutters concerns over privacy, I think it's overblown. I've logged many rides on MA's Minute Man and RI's East Bay trails. Several of these rides have been at night. Not once have I seen anyone stopped to look in yards or peek in windows. (For that matter, I also have yet to see a mountain bike roll by with panniers stuffed with VCR's, cameras or jewelry.)

Given the fitness craze of late, I would think abutting a rail trail would be a selling feature ... especially for family with small children. A place to (learn to) bike, roller blade, etc that's devoid of auto traffic.

Personally, I'd be thrilled if I could commute to work along a rail trail. Double points if that was a rails-with-trail.

* JB *

[German]

NIMBYs are never concerened with facts. They are motivated by a specific agenda, and use whatever they can lay their hands on, even if they have to exaggerate or missinterpret. It's ironic that some NIMBYs in my area have banded together to form a pro-rail trail coalition! It seems the town, which owns the ROW there, would like to build a road to relieve congestion on the nearby main road. So the folks who live next to the ROW see a trail as a much better alternative to the road. I guess everything's relative!