Shining Sea Bikeway May Be Extended
WASHINGTON, March 24 – Cape Cod bike paths, including the Shining Sea Bikeway’s winding path that dips down along the coastline, may receive $4 million for extensions totaling 8.6 miles..
The bikeway, which was named after the line in Falmouth native Katharine Lee Bates’s “America The Beautiful,” currently winds four miles from Falmouth to Woods Hole along the Vineyard Sound shoreline.
Legislation to extend the bike paths and connect the lower Cape to Wellfleet and the Cape Cod National Seashore passed the House of Representatives as part of the Transportation Equity Act on March 10 by a vote of 417 to 9. The Senate must now pass it before funds can be distributed and changes can be made.
The six-year, $284 billion measure would provide federal funds for highways, highway safety programs and mass transit.
The bill calls for $4 million to link “outer Cape communities and heavily visited national sites” by extending the bike trails.
“This legislation shows again that creativity and perseverance can help make southeastern Massachusetts an even better place in which to live, work and visit,” Rep. William Delahunt said in a statement.
The Massachusetts Democrat secured $1.2 million last year to extend the Cape Cod Rail Trail from Dennis to the National Seashore. That money is being appropriated this fiscal year.
The Shining Sea Bikeway also was extended in 1998 when 0.7 miles were added to the 3.3 miles at the time, stretching the path to Skating Lane.
According to a survey conducted in August 2004 by Falmouth’s Bikeway Committee, the Shining Sea Bikeway is used by about 80 to 100 people per hour in the summer, with cyclists accounting for two-thirds of the users.
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