About 110 cyclists registered for the South Coast Bikeway Alliance’s seventh annual Pedal for the Path on Sunday, August 30. They set out from Running Brook Vineyard for 21- and 35-mile rides through Dartmouth.
The annual ride raises money and awareness for a much longer journey: completing a multi-use South Coast Bikeway stretching from Swansea to Wareham.
Sections of the bikeway have already been completed in Fall River, New Bedford, and Fairhaven. In the Tri-Town area, the Mattapoisett and Marion connections remain in progress. (Rochester is not part of the South Coast Bikeway.)
The Alliance describes its larger vision as creating “connected communities” through bicycle and walking paths, with routes ranging from wooded trails to quiet neighborhood roads that can connect residents with schools, libraries, stores and other destinations.
Mattapoisett already provides one of the Alliance’s examples of that vision.
The Shining Tides section of the Mattapoisett Rail Trail, completed in 2023, is the most recent segment of the South
Coast Bikeway. The path, which links directly with the 4.5-mile paved Phoenix Bike Trail in Fairhaven, features elevated wooden boardwalks that wind along Mattapoisett Harbor, and offers views of the Mattapoisett River and tidal salt marshes.
The Alliance describes the path as a meeting place for people of all ages. It points to Mattapoisett, Fairhaven, New Bedford and Fall River as communities where completed paths have created demand for additional connections.
The Mattapoisett portion, however, is not yet complete. Phase 2A would fill a gap between Depot Street and North Street, while Phase 2B would continue the route along Industrial Drive. At the end of Industrial Drive, a 0.64-mile segment called the “Connector,” already complete, is intended to connect Mattapoisett to Marion’s future rail trail and includes a parking area. Completing those sections is part of the effort to create a continuous connection from Fairhaven through Mattapoisett and eventually into Marion.
To the east, Marion plans to begin construction of its 3.8-mile route sometime in 2027. From the Mattapoisett town line, the route follows portions of the former Old Colony Railroad corridor toward Point Road through conservation lands, cranberry bogs and remnants of the historic Marconi radio towers to Spring Street, through the town’s park and on to Wareham.
The result is a bikeway being assembled not as one construction project, but town by town and section by section.
This year’s Pedal for the Path raised funds to advance work identified in the Closing the Gap feasibility study, which is helping Dartmouth, New Bedford and Westport move toward completing their portions of the regional route.
But Sunday morning also offered a glimpse of the challenges involved in connecting those individual sections.
As cyclists gathered at Running Brook Vineyard, opposition to one proposed section of the bikeway was difficult to miss. Signs reading “No Off-Road Path Here” had been placed in front of homes along Old Fall River Road, where residents are opposing plans for an off-road path.
Several residents gathered near the vineyard carrying signs urging planners to “seek alternate route.” They said they support the regional bikeway but object to an off-road path along Old Fall River Road, citing concerns about private property, wells, historic homes and stone walls, the rural landscape and traffic safety.
“We’re not against the bike path,” one resident said. “We are against the off-road [path], the taking of private property.”
South Coast Bikeway Alliance President Sandy Medeiros said some of the information residents have received about the proposal is incorrect. Final designs have not been completed.
The disagreement illustrates one of the challenges facing a bikeway that crosses multiple municipal boundaries and depends on individual communities to plan, fund and build their portions.
The Alliance acknowledges that completing the regional network requires more than enthusiasm for bicycling. Transportation funding and local support are necessary for communities to move projects from planning through design and construction.
Randy Salzman, a former transportation writer and journalism professor who participated in Sunday’s event, said communities benefit when residents have transportation alternatives to automobiles.
“When you build this, you actually get less congestion because there are other alternatives,” Salzman said.
For now, more than 100 cyclists pedaled away from Running Brook Vineyard Sunday morning along the South Coast roads that advocates hope will eventually become part of a connected route from Swansea to Wareham.
By Jeanne Hopkins