Community group linking bike path to Green Line extension

By Danielle Dreilinger, Globe Correspondent

Shivering Somerville commuters can comfort themselves with the thought that soon, they might have not only a new MBTA line but a new bike path.

In a Jan. 7 letter to the state's environmental review board, the
Friends of the Community Path asked the Department of Transportation to promise that "the Green Line and Community Path extensions will be funded and constructed together as a single project."

Friends of the Community Path

The start of the proposed trail on Cedar Street.

The Community Path currently runs from the Davis Square station to Cedar Street. As currently envisioned, the completed route would follow the Green Line extension all the way to Boston via Lechmere. Building the two lines together "will be more cost-effective," said Friends cofounder Lynn Weissman."We believe that the Community Path is good for the Green Line and the Green Line is good for the Community Path."

While state processes tick on, the city may soon proceed with the path's nearest link, thanks to the demolition of the former MaxPak factory buildings. That area, running from Cedar to Lowell Street, is "about as simple as a rail-trail conversion gets," said Friends' cofounder Joel Bennett. (Plenty of people walk along that stretch as is, legal or not.)

Advocates are meeting with the city later this month. Although MaxPak developer KSS Realty Partners hasn't committed to help build the path, Bennett said, their website boasts the path as an amenity for their 199 future condos.

Learn more at pathfriends.org/scp.