jefnvk

I've always appreciated people like that! If I went with this, I'd have to do some landscaping to actually take bikes to the trail (I stopped by and did some quick poking around, no one currently lives in the house and we don;t see it til the weekend) but there didn't seem to be any path built to access it from the house. If I were to build a trail, I'd probably stick a bench out there, or something else nice to mark "mine"

Ah, dogs are a good point I hadn't considered. We don't own pets, but I don't like others letting theirs run loose.

Heh, there is an option on a golf course I want to consider, but it is about #4 or #5 on the list. I wouldn';t mind a course and a bar and grill in my back yard either, but I can't fathom people chipping out of my backyard!

Yeah, that unfortunately goes on here as well.

Rootman

As long as it's in the back then it's cool. the Razorback Greenway in NW Arkansas runs through a crappy part of town in Springdale, the literally stole 8 feet of a row of houses' front lawn. This makes it miserable for them, their driveways are now too short and it's bad for riders too because they often park ON the MUP. On the other hand thee are uppity neighborhoods around that have houses on or near it, there it's mostly great. I've heard of a few people who still gripe about it, and even the fact the MUP exists.

UniChris

That might be worth some real contemplation - if you've already got some woods as buffer, having to go a block or two out of the way to get on the MUP yourself at an existing entrance might be worthwhile to maintain the privacy.

I have relatives who are across the street from an overgrown unofficial MUP entrance; there's been idle talk of clearing the brush and rebuilding a failed 3-foot creek bridge, but they seem content to go two very low traffic blocks further to get on it and actually for short dog/family walks mostly use the part on the other side of an intersecting street than the part that runs back by them. When they pull the bikes out - one kid now independent, the other on a trailer tandem it's no issue to get to the path in either direction.

Korina

We're in that process too; the city is planning to build a network of trails to connect various parts of the city so folks can get to work and shopping without having to own a car or walk along/across some scary busy roads. The section in process passes by an elementary school, so the NIMBYs immediately started hollering that the trail would be a "homeless highway" and would give pedophiles easy access to our precious children, because of course pedophiles don't know how roads work.

Every time, every time a trail goes in the neighbors holler 'over my dead body!' A couple years later, if you offer to take the trail out, the response is 'over my dead body!' Every single time. It's kind of hilarious.

Korina

Heck, if you don't want it, I'll take it!

(Not really, mid-western weather weenie.)

Darth Lefty 

Troul 

if i'm thinking of the right house, it seems like a good location that shouldn't take a dump in the next 5ish years.

shrtdstncrdr

We have a mup a house and street on the other side of that house, away. When we moved here that street was a dirt road with a sizable hump where a stream passed underneath. Now it's a beautifully well lit mup running the length of the street and most of the way down the half mile to the Mississippi. At the other end of our block is a golf course with a decent driving range I used to walk to. These certainly upped the value of the area. At least the snow is melted off the street. A few more days and we should see the lawn again as well. Which, right there, is one reason (of several) I'll be moving from here in the next two-ish years.

downhillmaster

jefnvk

Well, we didn't buy the house on the MUP. That said, we bought a house less than a mile down a lightly traveled dirt road from a nice MTB trailhead. Guess I gotta expand my fleet variety and riding style a bit

trailangel

You wanna live on a MUP... come on out to Los Angeles.... it's free!

MoAlpha

It's not how you feel about the trail, but how the market feels when you sell.

chas58

I would do it. No cars, no neighbors in your back yard.

If it is near downtown Pontiac - well that is where the homeless live (near the Home depot specifically)
If it is near downtown Rochester - that is like a MUP highway.

Anything else would be great.

Ask for a discount. Every time we try to put in or extend a bike path around here, it gets canceled or postponed because the neighborhood gets up in arms about the idea of people riding a bicycle down their street (really???).

We had 3 sites for velodromes - and the backlash was ape-sh*t against having people on bicycles near by. The funniest one was in an near abandoned area of Detroit. Empty fields, crack houses, liquor stores everywhere (Gratiot in the D). Heaven forbid we put a velodrome in the neighborhood - that would really drive housing prices down and ruin the neighborhood. They were successful in cancelling the planned development.

tagaproject6

I thought this was one of those "MUP Gripes 2019"

MikeyMK

We have a total infrastructure in my town, all 300,000 of us live within a quarter mile of an MUP, most live within 200yds of one.

It's called the redway system and I only have to cross the street outside my flat to get on it. I can go anywhere in the city without riding on a road. It's not always ideal for 1in tyres though - it helps to adapt. Road bikes are for roads. They're not popular here at all.

honcho

Houses along the main MUPs in our area are very expensive. Recently a cluster of small homes went in on an odd-shaped piece of land next to one MUP and they were priced at about $750k USD. Back in 2001 when I bought my home which is not near a MUP, I tried to buy one near the MUP but it sold for for well over the asking price (and my budget). I long to live in an area where I could conduct most of my daily business by cycling or walking. Being on a MUP that actually goes somewhere would be useful toward that goal. As I look around the country for potential spots to live, I find that many MUP , often rail-trails, go nowhere. They are nice recreational paths but little more.

UniChris

Train tracks have long been associated with less desirable parts of town, so yes, many rail trail rides end up being a tour of industrial lots and the backsides of strip malls. But those are also presumably someone's workplace, and they may run between towns and within a few blocks of housing.

The NYC end of "my" 49 mile MUP has connectivity issues but there are parts further up that go places - saw a high school kid hop off the school bus and start up a section of it for example. Granted that was at Yorktown Heights, somewhat uniquely a spot where it really goes through the center of a village rather than skirts it. It also picks up one town library (former train station), two town pools, one large supermarket, two bike shops and just misses some big box stores.

My recollection of the Minuteman northwest of Boston is of it tying together some nice areas, both the central business area of Arlington and a lot of residential areas further out.

While I'm yet to ride the Farmington Canal trail in CT I know from memory of the area it passes a block behind the main Street in Simsbury and on a map looks to pass through some possible housing areas.

The three trails that meet in Northampton MA go a lot of interesting places including town centers, housing, outside of downtown shopping, etc.

Also I think sometimes it's not immediately clear what a trail goes near unless you look on a map - railroad surveyors threaded between the hills that later uses built on or on the far side of, woods have been allowed to grow back up as privacy screening, and of course interstate highways tend to segregate parcels of land, though trails are often ways over or under them. Catching a ride on the interstate somewhat paralleling my MUP through lower Westchester was eye opening as I saw all the nearby commercial development hidden by the hills and trees.

honcho

I have good friends that live not far off one of the Northampton trails and have bicycled the area several times. As you wrote above, proximity to the MUPs in that area are desirable areas to live due to their linking the college towns along with business districts and even close to strip malls housing big box stores like Wal-Mart. It seems to come closest to the type of area I desire to live in for being able to accomplish a great deal of life via bike or as a pedestrian without being a large city.

hokiefyd 

We actually bought in the neighborhood we did because of its proximity to a number of MUPs. Our house itself isn't on the MUP, but the MUP is across the road from our neighborhood entrance. We did look at a house which backed up to the MUP, but didn't buy it for unrelated reasons. The area directly across from our neighborhood entrance is owned by the county, and is part of a multi-hundred acre county park. It's currently being developed as part of the park's master plan, which includes a parking area, a bath house, and an outdoor gym (asphalt loop with exercise stations I presume). Future plans include a few dog parks and other facilities which would supplement the rest of the park, which is a mix of developed areas with ball fields and soccer fields, and undeveloped areas through which a lot of unpaved trails pass, with a fishing lake, etc. The MUP across from our neighborhood connects us to all of that by bicycle, and the continued focus on this county park resource should continue to drive interest in this area (home values).