Hey Frank
Are you my alter ego?
Having said that…I want to say that I am in love with the trail. I ride it almost every day. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas when I think about the rest of the “paving” that is going to be done in this precious “little” corridor within the national park.
I hope the families who were forced, I mean coerced out of their homes can smile at the thought of their fellow Americans using the trail as a gateway into exploring the natural beauty of this great nation.
But, there is a safety problem in the making, and that combined with the legitimate concerns of local residents regarding an inordinately large amount of senior citizens, families with children, and other assorted carbonless pedestrians spewing out hither and there in this community must be addressed.
I happen to believe that it is not the trail and it’s users per se that the community needs to worry about. In fact I believe that the initial reaction to the trail is no different than the reaction of the public to a new restaurant opening.
The first six months are always the busiest, then you settle down into a more realistic flow of traffic, and the heady days of being new turn into a long slow slog of trying to attract new business.
The problem that Glen Arbor faces is not bicycles, it is automobiles and the regulation of the kinetic force they are capable of inflicting.
The township needs to work with the state on dramatically reducing and enforcing slower speed limits in all of Glen Arbor township.
This is a township that is for better or worse stuck in the middle of a national park with growing world wide notoriety as a must visit place for tourists.
The gates have been opened, the speed bumps need to be constructed.
This is what was done in the Hamptons. If you go over 25 mph in any village, you are going to regret it.
Stop blaming the Heritage Trail people. It’s nothing but a path in the woods.
As far as directional signs pointing trail users away from downtown and spitting them out north of the Homestead…it won’t work, and a perfect example of government going against the will of the people.
Why would anyone in this community want trail riders congesting their neighborhood streets when a direct path through town would put the riders in closer proximity to a place to rest, have a meal, and turn around or keep on going after leisurely exploring for a while.
Have any of the people objecting to the trail ever gone on vacation somewhere else and cancelled their plans because they felt the locals didn’t want them there, or did they leave because there was a disproportionate amount of bikers verses horses?
I think not.
Get over it. The trail is here. It’s not going anywhere, and this is the heart of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Get off your high horses and ride a bike or take a hike.
