FOXBORO - Bucking a local trend, selectmen won't let a popular cancer bike-a-thon erect permanent bike route signs directing cyclists onto Lakeview Avenue.

Following their highway chief's recommendation that the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge signs would promote year-round cycling in an unsafe area, selectmen declined to approve the request.

Wrentham, Plainville, North Attleboro and Attleboro officials have approved the signs for the PMC, which travels through 46 Massachusetts communities every August.

More than 5,500 cyclists are expected to ride in this year's 29th annual PMC, scheduled for Aug. 1-3, a fundraiser for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The Legislature in 2006 approved funding for permanent metal signs marking the PMC route, Founder/Executive Director Billy Starr told Foxboro selectmen in a Feb. 14 letter. Local highway departments help install the signs. Previously, PMC volunteers made signs and posted them along the route during the weekend of the ride.

Part of the route in Foxboro is Lakeview Avenue, a street Selectman Robert Hickey characterized as "very narrow."

Approving the permanent signs "might give the appearance we have a sanctioned bike route," he said.