To The Editor:
I walk. I run. I bike. I drive. I live in Fayston. I think having a safe pedestrian path through Waitsfield Village is wonderful for our health and safety. But it is a sad day for those who also bicycle this route. Our safety has been measurably compromised.
Despite the new signs and stenciled markings, there is no bike path on Route 100 through Waitsfield. There is a terribly paved, narrow shoulder full of debris. Hard curbs recently installed trap yet more debris and trap bicyclists.
And what's with the curbs that abut only grassy areas? They serve no function and are an obstacle for bicyclists.
But wait, after several hundred yards of the newly declared bike lane, driving north toward Bridge Street, another new sign declares that the bike lane ends! Drivers cannot even see the sign due to one of those errant utility poles in the path and hanging tree branches. Who authorized these signs?
Finally, the several feet wide shoulder that used to exist in this same spot where the bike lane ends, next to the Bridge Street Marketplace, has been taken up by the new path. I am sure every walker in Waitsfield would have been happy to have a path half as wide and saved some of the shoulder to give bikers a little more space.
The only solution at this point is to remove the unnecessary curbs, take away the signs indicating bike lanes and bike lane endings and put up signs for bikers and motorists both north and southbound that the "road narrows" and "share the road" as you approach the Bridge Street area of Route100.
Please give us all a chance to be healthy and safe!
Laurie Hurowitz
Fayston
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