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Bicyclists poised to invade Sudbury
By Chris on Sun, 07/06/2008 - 2:28am
Sudburians along a proposed bike path decry bicycle cult, suggest that they do their thing in the lovely confines of the local gym.
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Comments
Yay, NIMBY!
Hey, Sudbury, go screw yourselves.
I mean, the attitudes in that article are unbelievable. It's no wonder we can't have nice things. People like that are just astounding.
Maybe not Weston
I see from the town site and several online histories of the rail trails that Sudbury is not nearly as bad as mine-not-yours Weston. While some in each zoo for the wealthiest fear rampaging herds of inner-city hoodlums, Sudbury is much cooler about it. The town still has the funding in its plan for 2009 and has been advancing it.
Jeepers...
Let me respond bit by bit:
1.
"Opponents of the "rail trail" say the path would draw hundreds of thousands of bicyclists who would bring with them noise and other disruptions into what is now a pristine landscape."
Oh my goodness. Bikes and their riders make SO much noise. Way louder than the cars speeding by in front of your house and the trains that would have floated by had the tracks been in order.
2.
"Hordes of bikers, walkers, and rollerbladers would scare away wildlife, they say, and invite crime from trespassing to vandalism and assault."
What is the basis for this argument? Is this supported by the assumption that trespass, vandalism, and assault would be far more likely to occur on a bike path than an abandoned train track? I think if you rode the Minuteman Trail, and compared it to any wall accessible to pedestrians on abandoned tracks, you'd find much less vandalism.
3.
"We don't have neighbors nearby," said Marianne Maurer, whose family's tree farm is bisected by the proposed bike trail. "If something happened, no one would hear us yelling."
What the...?!! So you'd be better off having the tracks remain empty than to have your most-feared trespassers vandalizing the tracks so there actually is someone to hear you yelling? And the crime in Sudbury is so bad that you'd actually become a victim?
I could go on, but I'm sick of griping about this. Moronic Sudbury residents: have fun paying $4.00 a gallon as you make your way through stuck traffic in your SUVs. Just let us bikers be.
if no one is around
who is the trail going to bother? even if the bikers are yelling - they won't be bothering anyone - sounds perfect.
"We don't have neighbors nearby," said Marianne Maurer, whose family's tree farm is bisected by the proposed bike trail. "If something happened, no one would hear us yelling."
Counterproductive arguments
When I hear someone like Ms. Maurer present arguments like that, it really is counterproductive to her cause. It really just makes her sound like a totally clueless idiot. And when someone makes these types of arguments, you really don't want to hear anything else they have to say.
This one is a classic:
"If something happened, no one would hear us yelling."
What would happen now if something happened? Nothing, I assume. So, what's different?
I know what you mean
I know what you mean. Her grammar makes her assertion ambiguous and imprecise, and that imprecision makes her seem stupid. But if instead, you focus on her intended meeting, then you can continue the conversation.
What she means is, she is isolated and introducing strangers is something she perceives as a threat. Now, I don't know if that makes her seem less ignorant or just more fearful.
Hilarious
It sounds like a good movie plot. Outlaw bikers invade a sleepy town, terrorizing the hapless locals. Johnny Strabler leads his gang on a ten-speed with the drop bars upside down.
Oh, the humanity!
Isn't that what Footloose is
Isn't that what Footloose is about?
Huh?
"My whole theory is: Go to the gym that you got the membership for and that you know you are not using," - Mauer
No, just because you were stupid and bought a gym membership and don't use it doesn't me that's what bikers do.
The Boston Globe is really desperately trying to lower itself to the level of the Boston Herald with this garbage.
"If the trail is built, some said, they will sell their land to developers who want to build dense clusters of affordable units."
So to protest the invasion of the bike trail into this scenic undisturbed landscape you're going to sell your land to develops to build on?
WTF, these people are clearly just plain not smart, and I'm being nice.
Don't throw me in that briar patch
"If the trail is built, some said, they will sell their land to developers who want to build dense clusters of affordable units."
Please, please, anything but that!
why they're so terrified
Look at the end-points; Framingham and Lowell. Basically, they're afraid of Latinos/Hispanics (who, *of course*, are all loud, obnoxious, assaultin' types) coming through their privledged White Bread sanctuary (seriously, in all those towns, the cops park on the town lines, and it ain't to keep people from stealing the Welcome signs.)
So?
The very popular Minuteman bike trail connects rich Bedford and Lexington to not-so-affluent North Cambridge and Somerville. Hasn't caused any problems that I've ever heard of.
It truly amazes me the extents the anti-bike people go
I mean, we're talking bicyclists here, not exactly your lowest form of life. Scare wildlife? Crime? Vandalism? Please.
Frankly, I don't see why a town vote would decide whether a bike path goes somewhere, The Weston vote really pissed me off a few years ago. This is something that could benefit a lot of people, and it isn't town land.
OK fine, you don't want a bike trail, we'll put in another train.
And Ms. Maurer really has her head up her ass. "Go to the gym". She simply does not get it
That's why
These projects should probably be undertaken by the state. If individual towns had to decide whether to allow Route 128, the Mass Pike or the Commuter Rail, etc to run through, there would be chaos.
These people should know the consequences of owning property on a rail line, whether active or dormant, and should be thankful that CSX and/or the MBTA don't decide to resume freight or passenger service on it.
marauding bicyclists, or lack thereof
I actually think the article did a decent job of presenting their case while subtly making these people out to be the overprivileged snobs they are. Though it would be kind of hard to not make them sound like overprivileged snobs. I mean, if someone's going to break into their 8000sf McMansions to steal their 48" plasma TVs, they're sure not going to do it on a bicycle.
The Minuteman is such a selling point for houses abutting it that the realtors make sure to put a for-sale sign on the path as well as out front.
Brilliant
I'll go even farther. I think the article was a brilliant send-up of NIMBY attitude. Think Ms. Maurer wouldn't like to take back the
let them eat cakego to the gym line?Hypocrites is what the people opposing the bike path are:
It's rather disgusting, yet not surprising that residents of that particular part of Sudbury oppose the bike path. It's the all-too-familiar NIMBY attitude that occurs in so many of those wealthy suburban towns west of the city. It's one reason that I'm glad I moved out of the 'burbs and into the city.