To the Editor:
Some people, including some Tisbury town officials, are missing the entire point of the proposed so-called hybrid-hybrid-Tristan plan [Oct. 8, “Selectmen change course on Beach Road design”]. Tristan Israel states that this SUP (shared-use path) is a vital link to the SUP transportation network on Martha’s Vineyard, and that is the reason he voted for it.
What network is he talking about? The plan was to have this link by a direct route, through the Tisbury Marketplace to a SUP on Skiff Lane that would connect to the SUP on Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road. Well, I was involved with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) plan to try to put in a SUP on Skiff Avenue, and it fell through. There is none. There never will be one.
As a cyclist, once you reach the top of Skiff Avenue to the Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, you would expect to be on a safe and protected SUP or better yet, protected bike lanes on both sides of the road. But there is only a ride on the shoulder going toward Vineyard Haven, and going toward Edgartown riders share a paper SUP with parked cars, and buses pulling in and out of that space, and no buffer zones for quite a distance.
As to avoiding Five Corners, which is the plan for the SUP going through the Marketplace, well, maybe it would be useful in the event that Five Corners is blocked off due to a fire or perhaps nuclear contamination, but other than that, the route goes around several businesses before exiting on Lagoon Pond Road, then up around Memorial Park to Cumberland Farms, crosses Beach Street, and then goes up Cromwell Lane. All of this brings a cyclist to the junction of the rear of Stop and Shop, and cyclists then proceed past delivery trucks, Dumpsters, shoppers with shopping carts, and out to Water Street, where they cross for a third time. The feedback from MassBike, which inspected this route, was that cyclists rarely take a route that is very much longer than a direct route. This is very, very much longer, and has complications.
There are many other issues with this hybrid-hybrid-Tristan plan, but here I simply want to address the reason that Tristan voted for it — the idea that it is a vital link. It is not. It never will be. The SUP through the Tisbury Marketplace is not in place; it may not even be built. We do not know, but if it is, it will not work. This plan is deeply flawed on so many levels. This is just one, but an important one. It is the most important one. Linking up to other viable SUPs would perhaps justify one that was so insufficient; however, there are no SUPs that are in place, nor are there likely to ever be, that would justify this plan.
Far better in every way would be the symmetrical plan. The Tristan option is deeply flawed and less safe, more intrusive than the symmetrical, requires serious land takings, will trigger lawsuits; it is disruptive to shade trees, to businesses, and will increase the problems with flooding. And it looks like it could possibly be built. The town of Tisbury would presumably be on the hook for part or all of the costs of the Marketplace SUP — which in essence goes to nowhere that would justify either its cost, or the SUP on Beach Road, which would essentially create another traffic-interfering intersection at the Shell station.
Frank Brunelle
Tisbury
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