Bike Trails in Brightwood Park - Permitted Use But Let's be Thoughtful: Here's Why:
Mountain Bike Racing is incompatible with a natural park.
It destroys forest ecosystem, imperils native flora and trees and makes the problem of invasive species worse.
See about the vision for Brightwood Park, invasive species at Brightwood Park and the Rahway River Stewarship for Brightwood Report. Here is also a thoughtful and thorough Review of the Ecological Effect of Mountain Biking.
Other communities agree: see Mountain Bikes Don't Belong In Natural Areas.
It destroys forest ecosystem, imperils native flora and trees and makes the problem of invasive species worse.
See about the vision for Brightwood Park, invasive species at Brightwood Park and the Rahway River Stewarship for Brightwood Report. Here is also a thoughtful and thorough Review of the Ecological Effect of Mountain Biking.
Other communities agree: see Mountain Bikes Don't Belong In Natural Areas.
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Mountain Bike Racing
Mountain bike racing is already taking place in Brightwood. These are images from the Strava leaderboard, a social networking website where mountain bikers data is posted. Competitive biking continues at Brightwood with leading average speeds of 17 MPH. An average speed of 17 miles per hour implies a top speed well in excess of that. These actions will drive walkers and hikers out of the park - it's just too dangerous to co-exist on these trails. Friends of Brightwood Park is not trying to keep bikes out of the park but is opposed to new trails designed for speed sports. |
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Brightwood park is too small to add additional trails - it is already intensively used for a natural area
Union County studied the idea of adding mountain biking to Watchung Reservation and concluded that it was already too intensively used, with 2100 acres and 45 miles of trail, for mountain biking. Brightwood Park has only 44 acres and 1.7 miles of trails - almost twice as heavily used as Watchung Reservation. See the reasons that Union County declined to allow Mountain Biking in Watchung Reservation Also see Mountain Bikes Don't Belong in Natural Areas |