Select Board backs U.S. Bicycle Route 1 designation through Bellingham

Adventure Cycling volunteers asked the Bellingham Select Board on Aug. 3 to endorse U.S. Bicycle Route 1 as it passes through town, and the board voted to provide that support.

The presenter, introduced to the board as Ferry Ians of the Adventure Cycling Association, said the corridor would be co-designated with the East Coast Greenway and would run through town on Mendon/Bellingham Street, Bates Street, North Street, South Main Street, Center Street, Fox Run Road, the Southern New England Trunk Line Trail and then onto Harpin and Elm streets. "This is all about generating bicycle tourism on a national level," he said. Ians told the board the designation is a mapping process that places no engineering or design constraints on municipalities and that "the answer is nothing" when asked about cost to the town.

Ians said MassDOT requires local agency support and that 22 jurisdictions have signed on so far. After brief board discussion, a member moved "that the select board approve the resolution of support for USBR 1 through Bellingham," the motion was seconded and the board voted in favor. Ians later thanked the board, calling the meeting approval "the quickest we've ever been through one of these in the state of Massachusetts."