Dec. 2, 2008 
Dear Members of the Community Preservation Committee: 
Peter Wells makes one good point in his panegyric supporting bike paths on Chappaquiddick. 
"I can tell you from personal experience that riding on a bike path is better than riding on the road," he writes. 
He's absolutely right about that. As a long-time bike rider, I can confirm it -- assuming that by "better" he is not talking about "safer." There are studies showing that it is actually more dangerous to ride on bike paths across intersecting driveways than riding along the side of a road. 
But if Peter means that riding on a bike path is smoother and faster and easier and, well, sexier than riding on the side of a road -- I'd have to agree. Which, of course, is the problem. 
Laying a sleek, smooth asphalt bike path on Chappaquiddick will, in a single stroke, destroy the rural pace of life that makes our little island so different in this frenetic day and age -- and so special. Paved bike paths are magnets. They draw bicyclists like bees to honey. I have nothing against bicyclists, being one myself as mentioned, but do we really want hundreds of them coming to Chappaquiddick every week, racing back and forth to the Trustees reservation, the Fisherman's Parking Lot and South Beach? That's ahead, of course. No one should doubt for a minute that those will be the final destinations of the "demonstration path" being proposed. 
A wider, smoother road for cars, which will be the next step in this process to keep parity with the paths; paving over the few remaining dirt roads for the same reason; faster speed limits for motorists after the roads are "cleared;" a huge influx of sightseers and vacationers on a daily basis; longer lines at both ends of the ferry, and, eventually, portable toilets for the large number of visitors pedaling and jogging and roller skating and skateboarding around the island . . . these are the likely consequences of the seemingly innocuous proposal for a "demonstration bike path" on Chappaquiddick. 
For these reasons, which will change Chappaquiddick forever, I hope everyone will think long and hard before going down this, ah, road. 
Best wishes, 
Tim Leland