The Hemlock Burn single track bike trail soon to be under construction is an accident in waiting. Bikers, especially downhill racers, and other park users do not belong on the same trail. Radically differing approaches to movement put all users at risk. Add dogs, on leash or not, to the mix, and someone will get hurt. Add young children to the mix and someone will get hurt. Add older people with slower reflexes and someone will get hurt.
Restrict the use of the trail to bikes and trust hikers to stay on existing trails, and someone will get hurt at the intersections. Engineering approaches to slow the bikers at intersections will simply increase the degree of technical difficulty and hence the challenge to some bikers. Better to treat such intersections as one would railway crossings on busy highways. Level crossings are not a safe option.
The trail was intended as multi-use when first proposed. Limited information provided at the trailhead states this still. Multi-use was not stressed in the recent ADN article announcing its imminent construction. Labeling a single track as single-use would be more honest and more realistic. It simply recognizes the risk inherent in mixing uses with such differing tools, goals, attitudes and abilities.
Building this trail with one user group in mind using federal funds strongly suggests any previous planning document, environmental assessment or risk assessment is out of date and does not reflect the trail as it will be built. This applies to the entire trail, not just the section near Prospect that has not been previously considered or assessed.
This project needs to be reconsidered. If it is a multi-use trail, it needs to be designed accordingly. If it is a single-use trail, it needs public discussion and possible reconsideration. The availability of short-term federal money should not drive the timing of this undertaking.
Logan Hovis
Anchorage
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