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Westchester North/South County Trailway: The "Missing Link"

Today I attended the ribbon cutting of the "missing link" trail, connecting the South and North County Trailways in Westchester County.  This is the final piece in a single, continuous 59km (36.8 mi) long trail following the Old Putnam Railway in Westchester County.

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2017/10/31/final-county-trailway-connection-opens-elmsford/817094001/

This piece consists of a new 1000m (.6 mi) stretch linking the two; previously, we had to detour onto a dangerous 4-lane state highway full of traffic, trucks and gravel/glass-strewn sidewalk.  Really, the worst kind.  Oh yes, the detour also included a warehouse/industrial district, complete with plenty of trucks.  Do you enjoy breathing diesel fumes?  I called it the "Armpit of Westchester."  And now that's all history; we have a nice new path instead; beautiful, landscaped by the Saw Mill River.

The path is short and sweet; and a lot shorter than the older industrial detour.   I will truly appreciate this every time I need to get to Sleepy Hollow.  Like any freeway bypass, as you fly through it you quickly forget how long it used to take on the "local roads."

The usual set of elected officials and engineers were there for the ribbon cutting.  I showed up because --- hey --- they need to know we appreciate it.  Unfortunately, people didn't seem to realize that this is transportation, not just recreation --- in fact, the County Trailway forms the main spine of bicycle transportation in Westchester, and will be a critical link to the new Tappan Zee Bridge shared-use path.

Some random thoughts:

  1. When heading south, new path has a stretch that is straight, then mildly downhill --- before it makes a sharp right turn.  If you miss the turn, you will fall into the river.  There is no guardrail, not even any signage.  This is an obvious dangerous design (or lack thereof), and needs to be fixed immediately, before somebody sues the County.  Believe me, without proper signage and guardrails, this disaster will happen.  I believe / hope appropriate County officials were there and took note.
  2. I learned that the washboard sections of the South County Trail are like that because nobody ever bothered to remove the railroad ties before paving it over.  As they say... "It takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late."
  3. Like almost every other bike trail in the USA, the County Trailway has no signage.  No exit numbers, no cross streets, zilch.  Directions from point A to B therefore read like "go until you see the building on the right with the trucks in the parking lot, then find the sidepath heading out  behind the fence, and take it onto the main road."  I'd much prefer to tell people "head north, then take exit 17."  That won't happen.  But I heard there's an effort to at least install signs of cross streets.  Sigh... again, this is what happens when you think this trail is "recreation," not "transportation."
Unfortunately, what started out as a good bike day turned very bad, with a terrorist attack on the nation's most heavily travelled bikeway, in NYC.  I use it all the time, as does just about everyone else who commutes by bicycle in Manhattan.  My heart goes out to the victims.  Let's hope that NYPD is quick to add bollards everywhere to prevent this from happening again --- as they were recently in Times Square, resulting the newly completed bike lane being turned into a selfie lane.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2017/nov/01/nypd-responds-to-act-of-terror-in-pictures

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