Of all the reasons to love living in Snohomish County, the Centennial Trail is at the top. But like America’s amazing national parks, it’s on the verge of being loved to death.
A growing population and the advent of electric bikes is making the park less safe. E-bikes make up nearly half the bikes on the trail now. And half of the e-bikers are on the trail because they were too obese for human-powered bikes. They are often 350-pound. projectiles going 20 MPH.
This is not a huge issue until one mixes in the danger of unskilled and unsupervised children. If a child cannot be kept to the right or they aren’t capable of not unpredictably wandering from one side of the trail to the other, they shouldn’t be there. The trail is the worst place to teach a child how to ride a bike. The dangers of concussions, broken hips in the elderly or even the unimaginable are getting to the point where I’m sure many are beginning to find safer hobbies or limiting their use of this gem to off hours.
As I just said, I’m pleading mostly with the parents of youngsters. The Centennial Trail is just as dangerous as the highway in many ways and it calls for more diligence and attention than is commonly perceived by a growing number of parents.
Rick Walker
Snohomish
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