Plainville Greenway Alliance

The National Rails to Trails Conservancy has launched a petition drive to the incoming Obama administration urging them to include trail construction in any economic stimulus infrastructure package. Click the link to sign the petition. http://support.railstotrails.org/recovery

For all of us who are waiting patiently for our portion of the East Coast Greenway/New Haven to Northampton Trail to be complete here in Plainville, take heart in the fact that vision and hope do  pay off. At the bottom of this post, there is a link to a website that tells the story of the Illinois Prairie Path, which I have ridden many times. As you will read, it was the vision of one woman, but is now enjoyed by 800,000 people every year. Imagine that happening here, although it has already begun with 100,000 documented users annually on the completed section through Avon and Simsbury, CT.  I have ridden the Prairie Path from the central access point in Wheaton west to Geneva past the huge Fermi Lab cyclotron. I have ridden it east to the outskirts of Chicago on my way to several rides along Lake Michigan. It is mostly built of stone dust, so it is not suitable for roller bladers. But for that one drawback it is a great resource for the region and I heartily recommend it to anyone cy

You may have read recent press about the recommendation from Governor Rell to fix the CT DOT by creating not one, but two separate departments, one for roads, the other for everything else. Cyclists and pedestrians would likely fall under roads, which already gets the lion's share of the available funding, but for new roads, not trails or bike lanes, so you can imagine how well we would fare. I have been arguing, with any and all who would listen, that the start of any "fix" should begin with changing the "culture" of the DOT that has grown over the years to see it's primary mission as building wider, straighter and faster roads to serve cars and trucks. Well, New York City has begun to explore a different approach, and it all began at the top, when Mayor Bloomberg selected a new head for the DOT there. The accompanying article has further details (just click on it to enlarge for easier reading), but if you agree that the culture change must happen from the