Plans are most welcome for a hiking-and-biking trail that would connect the Recreation Center property and its well-used pedestrian and bike path to the “rail trail” that runs from the edge of the village to the outskirts of Branchville.
Even more welcome is word from First Selectman Rudy Marconi this week that Connecticut Light & Power has agreed to lift the restriction on bicyclists using Ridgefield’s rail trail, if the town will assume a share of the liability.
May the details and formalities be worked out soon and an agreement be approved by the Board of Selectmen.
Almost anywhere there are rail trails — and there are a lot of them — they’re open to and widely used by bicyclists, as well as hikers, joggers, runners, dog-walkers and other varieties of pedestrians.
The Ridgefield restriction against bicyclists dates back to the creation of the rail trail by CL&P after the discovery of arsenic along the old railroad route it had obtained years before as a right-of-way for power lines.
The arsenic is believed to be a heritage of herbicide use during the route’s 94 years as an active railroad. Obligated to deal with it once the poison was discovered, CL&P made lemonade from its environmental lemon by adding the recreation trail as a top layer on the “cap” it put on the old railroad bed to contain the contamination.
The free amenity for the town was opposed by some residents along the route. The restriction against bicycles was then offered as a concession to the opponents — who among other objections had raised the specter of thieves robbing their homes and making their escape by bicycling off along the trail.
It was unfortunate, given the town’s great need for safer places than the roads to ride bikes.
Ridgefielders should welcome all steps toward trail connections between the rec center with its popular pathway and the rail trail to Branchville — where planners envision an eventual connection to the planned 38-mile Norwalk River Valley Trail between Norwalk and Danbury.
And it’s hard to imagine a more welcome step than an agreement to lift the rail trail’s unfortunate bike ban.