Tale of a very early rail trail

By -

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 cycling in the Chicagoland area.
So, we need your continued and appreciate your past support helping us to make our Central Connecticut version of the Illinois Prairie Path a reality. When we build it, they will come.
Jim Cassidy.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trail Route Discussion in New Haven

By -
Image
Here's a bold new idea for routing the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail through downtown New Haven. If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see a space between the tracks and the open area sloping down from the abutment along State St.. That's a service drive that Friends of the New Haven Farmington Canal Greenway are proposing to the City. But the City is nearing completion of engineering work on a completely different route that must be built or risk losing existing (and hard to come by) funding. Read more about it here . This is one of those situations that could be "lose/lose". If the City stops completion of engineering documents so that construction bidding and contracting cannot begin by 31 AUG 2013, they lose the $7.6 Million in funding earmarked for completion of the trail from Hillhouse Ave./Temple St. to Long Wharf. As the article states, the route proposed by FNHFCG is fraught with uncertainty: will the USPS agree to grant an easement t...
Read more

Please contact CT DOT about this!

By -
Image
  This is a sketch of how an on-road bike lane should intersect with a railroad track crossing the road at a severe angle, as is the case on the proposed route of the multi-use trail at East Main St. (CT Rte. 372) here in Plainville. Such a feature allows the cyclist to cross the tracks at, or nearly at, a right angle with two important benefits: prevents the cyclist from having to swerve into the travel lane to make the crossing. prevents the possibility of getting a front wheel caught between the rail and the pavement if riding straight across and being thrown from the bicycle (this happened to me a few years ago, fortunately when the road was not very busy, because I wound up in the travel portion where cars would normally be on a busy day). This sketch has been shared with the Town Engineering staff, but they have no jurisdiction over a State road, so it was suggested that this be brought to the attention of CT Department of Transportation (CTDOT). I did this recentl...
Read more

Is it OK to kill cyclists?

By -
Now that I have your attention, this really is the title of a recent article in the NYTimes about how motorists get away with murder, literally. But, before your blood pressure gets too high thinking about this sorry fact, read the article right through to the end; especially the end (click  here ). We cyclists bear great responsibility in how others perceive us. We are often our own worst enemy, blowing through stop signs and red lights with reckless abandon. So, if we want motorists and police to respect us and take us seriously as road users, we need to "ride different".
Read more