For Rehoboth, safe route is best route

When it comes to pedestrian and cycling trails - and Delaware's Cape Region is blessed with many - the top concern for users is safety. Cyclists and walkers know that when they collide with cars and trucks, the cars and trucks always win.

In Rehoboth Beach, there has been lots of discussion about making a safe link between the end of the Junction and Breakwater Trail in West Rehoboth and the beginning of the Gordons Pond Trail in Cape Henlopen State Park near North Shores.

Sections of that linking route along Hebron Road and Church Street are relatively safe, as are the sections in Rehoboth Beach along Henlopen and Surf avenues. The very dangerous section of the link is Rehoboth Avenue between Church and Grove streets - including the drawbridge over Lewes-Rehoboth Canal. Rehoboth Avenue funnels traffic from many directions in and out of the resort.

When that traffic comes together, with cyclists and pedestrians trying to make their way through that pinch point, the situation quickly turns dicey.

Throw in a stretch of ridiculously narrow shoulder on the westbound section of the avenue west of the canal, along with uncertainty at the circle with associated crosswalks, particularly near the visitor center, and the traffic storm becomes even more perfect.

Discussion is continuing about how best to link Henlopen Avenue with the drawbridge for cyclists and pedestrians. But there is only one safe, and therefore sensible, route. That route is through Grove Park on the wide and paved perimeter walkway, and behind the Rehoboth Beach Museum. Cyclists may have to slow down, or even walk, to go through the park and share space with park users, but the pathway is already paved and in place.

Most cyclists heading to and from the Gordons Pond Trail, riding the Great Cape Loop with Lewes and Rehoboth Beach at either end, already use the park route. It is the safe route.

Rehoboth officials have generally approved a route that avoids the park, following Rehoboth Avenue's north side on a widened sidewalk to Grove Street.

The Rehoboth Avenue alternative is simply unsafe and irresponsible, not to mention more expensive.