Description

It appears that a truck did travel the bike path in Cambridge during the snow storm because there are deep tire ruts in the bullet-proof ice. They must have been trying to clear the snow and slush from the bike path to make the path safe for people to walk, bike, wheel-chair, etc. I am seriously worried about the training and expectations set up by the public works department leadership because the only goal that was achieved was "truck drove down bike path; maybe plowed; checked box; done; it's raining so I don't need to use salt; and no need to return after this freezes up." The extent of the city's failure to make a safe ADA-compliant public way is beyond words -- and this is truly an annual issue. I think my message will only get the box unchecked so that another truck returns and hopefully spreads a lot of salt (see Somerville section of same bike path for a nice example), but really I want the a manager, supervisor, elected official, or other caring soul to escalate this persistent annual issue to the people training the snow removal crew. This is completely unacceptable and in fact it is negligent. A well-funded town who expects to have freezing temperatures and mixed precipitation every year needs to have better training and higher expectations for every level of employee -- particularly because Cambridge applauds itself for being bike-friendly. This comment applies from town line near Linear Park to town line near Fitchburg Cutoff -- and specifically a policy change is required for the short section near Alewife along Concord Tpk which goes by the pond -- it seems Cambridge thinks this is MBTA responsibility and MBTA thinks this is Cambridge responsibility, and there are not even deep tire ruts in the ice there.