Making the case for and against Greenway Measure D

We need a trail that is safe and inviting

If we want to encourage more people to get on their feet, on their bikes, and out of their cars, then we need to build a pedestrian/cycling trail that is safe and inviting. Measure D, the Greenway Initiative, is an important step in that direction.

My wife and I have taken many cycling vacations. I'm comfortable sharing a road with cars, my wife less so, which is why most of our trips have been to locations with dedicated bike trails. Our vacations have been memorable; however, on occasion, we have traveled a long way to a beautiful place, only to find a trail so popular that it is unbikeable. On the Mt. Vernon Trail in Washington, D.C., on our own West Cliff Trail in Santa Cruz, and on too many trails in between, we have been forced off the path and onto adjacent roads because the mixeduse trails were too crowded to bike safely.

Last year our family took our bikes to a newly opened section of trail in Westside Santa Cruz. Our 8-year-old grandson led the way. I was pedaling behind him when a medium-sized dog on a long leash darted from the oncoming lane and ran across our side of the trail. The leash rose like a trip wire in front of our grandson, and he tumbled, not seriously, but a tumble nevertheless. Afterwards he said to me, “Grandpa, I don't think anybody is going to use this trail. It's too crowded.”

In such cases, as in so many previous personal mishaps and near-mishaps, the crashes could have been avoided by separating cyclists from pedestrians. Our trail, when we build it, will be very popular, and that is good, but not if inadequate width and poor bicycle/pedestrian separation make it uncomfortable and, worse, dangerous.

So much for a cyclist's point of view. What about commuters, the people who must endure the stop-and-go traffic on Highway 1? Good question.

If, for a moment, I believed that a commuter train was a solution to our traffic problem, then count me in, but it isn't. We live in a tiny, predominantly rural county. A commuter train makes no sense, either financially or logistically, especially given the existing alternative of a flexible, dispersed network of buses.

Put it all together and the Greenway Initiative makes sense – tremendous sense. Please vote yes on Measure D.

Doug Kaplan and his wife live in Aptos.