Plainville Greenway Alliance

Come join us for an evening of remembering what we accomplished last year, and of dreaming about what we hope to accomplish next year. Food and drink is available, at our own expense (Steve says the beer is great, and the pasta is made fresh daily). It is meant to be an informal gathering of friends with cycling on their minds. Hope to see you on the longest night of the year.

It was a cloudy, cool day, but the showers stayed away until the 100 riders, walkers and Segway users had a good time enjoying the 0n-road portion of the proposed trail. It was thrilling to see people on bikes riding through the center of town and to the end points at Norton Park or Cronk Rd.. Some were seen to relax afterwards on the new benches in the center (and perhaps dream of the day when there will be bike racks there). Two of our police officers were patrolling the route on bikes for the duration of the ride and did a great job of setting out traffic cones at key intersections to make the route safer for cyclists and motorists. We got some great feedback on the ballots about what folks liked or did not like about the route, and we will make that information available to the designers during the next phase of the planning. We had lots of volunteers and several donors to make this success possible. Our donors were AMP Radio, Walgreens, Tim Horton's and TD Bank. Our volunteers...

Remember when you were here (either as the child or the parent)? This brings so many memories to mind: the sense of freedom that comes with that first successful solo journey as a child, or the satisfaction as a parent at seeing your child begin to master the joy of cycling. This wonderful sculpture is located on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City, MI, one of my favorite places on earth. I biked here a few years ago on a trip around the upper part of Lake Michigan, and then visited a few years later while staying on the Leelenau Peninsula, home of wineries, cherry orchards and a big time bike race (Tour de Leelenau). The city is home to Horizon Books, a well established, traditional bookstore that is also a gathering space for people and groups functioning as a "great good place" for this community. The main street has loaner bicycles scattered about so that if you drove to Horizon Books, but wanted to pay a visit to the Cherry Republic store, you could grab a ...

By any measure, this event was a great success. 700 participants from bike shops to bike trails and to bike friendly communities sharing their accomplishments and their disappointments. We were agog over Google's neat new map application that allows a cyclist to choose routes best for cycling. Try it at the link included below. We were treated to some great presentations, and some not so great. We met with our Congressional Delegation from CT (well, with one face to face; the other meetings were with aides), but Congressman Chris Murphy (D, CT 5th) said he had never received such a large group of constituents to advocate for one issue. For me a great highlight was seeing all these folks walking between and through the Capitol and the various Senate and House office buildings wearing these lapel pins. Various staff members admired them and recognized them as being part of the Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) effort to make the entire country more bike friendly, starting with Co...

It did not look like this as we biked the short distance (4.5 mi from Renaissance Cyclery) to New Britain Museum of American Art. We had a leisurely snack and chatted in the cafe before viewing this Maxfield Parrish painting among the other treasures on display at this jewel of a museum. There is a great exhibition about the Shakers, and a must see painting in memory of the events at the WTC of 11 SEP 2001. We wish you could have joined us, but keep looking for other rides and events as we post them here on the blog. And, please, feel free to add your own posts.

PLAINVILLE, CT MULTI-USE TRAIL DESIGN STUDY - REPORT SUMMARY - JANUARY 2010 In November 2009, a Preliminary Design Study for the Multi Use trail through Plainville was completed by the trail design/engineering firm of Milone & MacBroom. Initially they explored various routes suggested by local bicycle advocates and the Regional Planning Agency, including the ideal of the trail alongside active rail for almost the entire length of the town (3 miles). The conclusion from this exploration was that the existing railroad right-of-way was unsuitable for a rail-with-trail from the town Center south due to many encroachment and drainage problems. They examined other proposed routes, suggesting a few of their own after soliciting input from town residents at several public forums. What emerged as the most likely route has some very interesting components. The North and South Sections are envisioned as a combination of off-road trails and on-road routes utilizing low-volume, lo...