A few years ago the town of Fairhaven, MA plowed the bike path after a substantial snow. It was done by a pickup truck with rubber covered blades on the plow. One year they went to Town Meeting and asked for $30K to buy a special snow removal piece of equipment. Town meeting denied the request and from then on those pickup trucks with the rubber blade covering, were too detrimental to the path surface.
A town policeman using a pickup truck with a rubber coated blade, volunteered to plow the path. The DPW superintendent stopped him, saying it’s the DPW’s job. Following that, a member of the DPW board using a pickup truck with a rubber coated blade, took it upon himself to plow the path. He was also stopped by the DPW superintendent. It’s the DPW’s job to plow the path.
Previously there was an incident where an inexperienced employee was sent out to clear the path using a large overkill piece of machinery. He back it into a ditch and that was the end of the DPW’s involvement servicing the people of the town.
Now the excuses are very creative whenever anyone brings up why the “pedestrian and bike route” into town is not plowed.
-The surface is too thin.
-It’s used by a x country skier. (there is an 8ft wide grass abutment to the path for horses and x-country skiers).
-We did it once and an employee almost got killed. (my favorite)
-The pickup trucks with the rubber coated blades will dig up the tar.
-Vehicles on the path are excluded because of their weight. ( Except the two three and four ton trucks that travel the MUP almost daily when there is no snow. And on and on.
There may be other Multi Use Paths not cleared but a search of all the popular paths in the state found that all were plowed. Locally: New Bedford, Falmouth, Cape Cod Canal, Mattapoisett, Cape Cod Rail Trail and all the paths in R.I. are plowed. There is only one not cleared for use by it’s citizens. Fairhaven, MA.
A pickup truck with a rubber coated plow could clear end to end, out and back in 45 minutes. There are town residents with plows, that would comp the job. But it’s the DPW’s job. Which they refuse.
DO YOUR JOB. 45 minutes is all it takes.
A Midnight Rider 
AMEN. But aren’t you preaching to the choir? Did you send this to The Neighborhood News?
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Sounds like the National Park Service in DC. Refused to plow the Mt Vernon Trail for decades. Finally, Arlington County said, “Hold my beer” and did it for them.
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Here the Parks Dept is responsible for paths and Streets for the roads. Since there’s not a lot of parks work in the winter, the plowing is done before I go to work at 6AM. The worst places to ride here are bike lanes at the edges of streets.
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