Dear Mayor and members of the Concord City Council: As a bicyclist and Concord resident (moved here in 1967), I am concerned by a recent story in the Concord Monitor about a new business that sells $80-per-person rides that require participants to pedal a contraption on railroad rails.
The rails are leased for several years, and I would like to know your thoughts on whether this business jeopardizes or delays the years-long effort to bring a rail trail for bicyclists to the capital city of New Hampshire.
I’m 78 years old and tired of having to go to Derry or Nashua or Windham or Salem or Massachusetts to get on motor vehicle-free trails safe from distracted, deadly drivers. My wife (Marguerite Orazi) and I have been looking forward to a rail trail in Concord for years (supposed to be a bicycle friendly city? Yes?). I hope you as the city fathers and mothers will help make it so that we are able to cycle on a Concord trail before we are too feeble or dead.
ADOLPHE BERNOTAS
Concord
(The writer is the co-author of “30 Bicycle Tours in New Hampshire.”)