Plainville Greenway Alliance

As seen in a recent edition of Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine.

'Bicycle Friendly' Designation Gives Towns A Leg Up Pedal Power: South Windsor is state's second bicycle-friendly community November 23, 2012 On a recent Saturday, bicyclists from Simsbury, the state's first Bicycle Friendly Community, rode over to South Windsor to pass a symbolic torch to the second town to win the designation. Good for South Windsor — and why aren't more communities trying for this distinction? The bicycle-friendly designation is awarded by the Washington, D.C.-based League of American Bicyclists to communities — as well as businesses, colleges and entire states — that create a safe environment for cycling and encourage people to bike for transportation and recreation. Communities must apply for the designation and show effort in such areas as bicycling infrastructure, education, enforcement and planning. The awards are given at four tiers: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Both Simsbury and South Windsor broke in at the bron...

I found this graphic in the JUL 2012 issue of Bicycling Magazine and really liked how it spelled out the basics of a Bicycle Friendly Community very simply. Of the 14 things illustrated here, perhaps the most important for Plainville might be (PLEASE NOTE: We already have bike racks on buses): Cyclist friendly cafes (Bolo, Dairy Queen, Central Cafe, J. Timothy's, Starbucks, Saint's, Pagliacci's, Cottage Restaurant, to name a few) Bicycle parking at as many destinations in town as possible (retailers like Gnazzo's, Big Y, and Walgreens; medical and dental offices; corporate employers like GE, Carlingswitch, Wheeler Clinic, among others). Bike boxes at certain major intersections like Routes 10 and 372, Whiting/West Main/East Main Streets, East St. and Woodford Ave., New Britain Ave and Cooke St. "Bicycle Trains" to Wheeler, Toffolon and Linden St. Elementary Schools (with appropriate bicycle racks for storage).  Bike share program like Simsbury Fre...

I discovered this on my ride to Cheshire yesterday. It's painted on the side of an active industrial building right alongside the trail. In fact, the white lettering in the upper left hand corner reads: "This mural is dedicated to the Town of Southington by the students of the 2012 YMCA's Fine art of Graffiti Class". What a cool gift. The only thing missing might be a bench where I took the photo from to sit and enjoy the artwork, you know, like in a museum.

I recently completed a cross country trip by train and car (no bike this trip), and enjoyed a fun dinner at Toro Bravo in Portland, OR. We tasted a brilliant, mouth watering array of tapas (small plates) while seated at the counter that looked directly into the food prep area where these dishes emerged from the ballet like movements of the professionals working there. But the big surprise for me, in addition to all the wonderful food, was the number of bikes out front on a really nice SAT evening in Portland. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised since Portland is one of the most bicycle friendly communities in the US. It's one thing to read about it, but something else to see it in person. Anyone care to join me for a ride to dinner at Fiore's IV or J. Timothy's here in Plainville?

I have a dream! One day, I'd like to see lots of kids in this town on bikes. With more kids biking, maybe more adults would be motivated to do so as well, but let's focus on the kids for now. How about a "Bike to School" month, maybe in MAY? There could be rewards for the student who bikes the most days, or the one who rides the farthest. The rewards could come from Plainville businesses, maybe a free pizza, ice cream, or a grand prize of a new bike. It's been done before, and I've seen it in Bay Village, Ohio, a village about the same size as Plainville, and just a little flatter. I was so impressed I took some photos like the one above, and wrote about it for a national cycling magazine. The photo here is taken at the Middle School, on a side street where the latecomers must lock up to the picket fence because the bike racks in front of the school and the picket fence along the main street are full of bikes, on both sides! You can read the article and see...

This is work underway at West Main St. (Routes 68 and 70) in Cheshire on a streetscape improvement project, part of which is an improved pedestrian crossing at the location of where the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail will intersect with this busy road when it reaches here. The improvements should be finished this summer and will look like this in plan: (That's the island in the center of the roadway, with the future trail shown as a dashed line). This will permit a safer crossing for pedestrians and cyclists of this busy road. It's not ideal, but every little bit helps. The big news accompanying this stuff is that the section of trail south between here and the current trail end at Cornwall Ave. (and around the often irksome Dalton Co. property) is being designed by the CT DOT, while Milone & MacBroom of Cheshire is designing the section from here north to Jarvis St.. This would still leave a gap between Jarvis St. north to the ...

SUN was a beautiful day for cleanup along the trail! 150 volunteers showed up to enjoy the weather and rid the trail of trash. For a first hand report from the field, click here and then click the arrow button to watch a short video from which this screen shot was captured (that's PGA member Judy Chatfield busy at work on the left. Well done Judy). Thanks to all who pitched in.

Where is this beautiful bridge? Actually, it is one of two such bridges within a mile of each other along the Cuyahoga Valley Recreational Area Towpath Trail in Valley View (just outside of Cleveland). I've posted about it back in 2007 (omigosh, 5 years ago!), but it seems important to do so again, as folks are studying the extension of the trail from Farmington to Plainville, and seriously considering an at-grade crossing of US Route 6 at New Britain Avenue, a serious safety issue to my thinking. Imagine you are a serious cyclist out for a fast ride on the trail in this area once it is complete, and you come to cross  Route 6 with its current push button signal activation (or even if the signal is successfully upgraded to permit detection of the cyclist by the loop wires in the paving). Most such cyclists will be sorely tempted to cross this high volume, high speed road against the red light, with the real possibility for an accident that would certainly be the cyclist's fault...

We finally got some respect! Our trail has been noticed by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), a national organization advocating for and assisting communities to build these wonderful trails, as a "Trail of the Month". They have published a story about the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in their monthly, national publication, "Rails to Trails", which you can read in full by clicking here . It does a good job of covering the trail from New Haven (skyline photo from the trail on top) to the northernmost bridge just before the MA state line in Suffield (bottom photo). However, you will notice one glaring omission, failure to mention the critical 9.1 mile gap in the trail that includes all of Plainville. This is a little hard to fathom, since RTC staff have walked the trail here in town with us in the past and, when asked what RTC could do for us, were told, "help us to close this gap"! You will also notice that local spokespersons for th...

This is what the smart women rode back in the day when the bicycle was new. The guys liked a little more of a risk, so they rode the "high wheeler", alternatively known as the "bone shaker", or the "penny farthing" (the larger wheel in front being the "penny", compared to the smaller wheel in back being the "farthing", both coins of the realm in the UK at the time of the introduction of the bicycle).

Here it is, hot off the press.   This bridge was raised into place across Route 316 in Andover, CT, and will provide a vital link for users along the Airline Trail across this busy road. The bridge was mostly prefabricated off-site, with the final stages involving a shut down of the road on last FRI evening to allow removal of electrical and phone/cable lines and transport of the bridge to the site yesterday (SAT), when it was set into place by the oversized red crane you see in this photo. This was a giant step forward for this part of the East Coast Greenway (ECG) in Connecticut. Slowly, this 200 mile long gem is getting completed, thanks to the incredible perseverance of a few believers like Bill O"Neill (CT trail building Grampa from Manchester), Rob Dexter (hardworking ECG ambassador from West Hartford who manages to be in lots of key places along the ECG around the State). There are a few believers hoping for similar good things to happen to close the 9.1 mile gap in...

This is a plan of the proposed Avon Village Center, a large scale development of the area currently known as Avon Park North that was the former site of the Ensign Bickford Co., an old line manufacturer of products for the mining industry and through which runs the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. The trail route will be slightly altered and is shown in this plan as the dotted red line. It still crosses Route 44 through the existing tunnel beneath that busy road, and enters the new Center as shown in the lower left corner of the plan, winding on-road behind the Avon Police Department, and onto Ensign Drive as at present. The slight alteration occurs at the point where the trail leaves Ensign Drive and circles around a new feature before rejoining the road at Fisher Drive, and then to the at-grade crossing of Route 10 in the upper right corner of the plan. This development will consist of a mixed use of residences, offices, retail shops (and, I hope, a coffee shop and an ice cream ...

  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...

This is a sketch showing revisions to the streetscape improvements proposed by the Town for the intersection of West Main and Pierce Streets. Construction is scheduled to begin after Memorial Day, so the Bike Friendly Community committee reviewed the plans and suggested the changes shown in red. The basic idea behind these changes is to make the intersection where cyclists using the trail will make an important turn on the on-road portion safer to do so. The crosswalk was moved to the west side of the intersection and pinched down by the "bump outs" on either side so as to slow motor vehicle traffic. Also proposed, but not likely to be included in the construction of the improvements, is the sloped area on either side of the crosswalk, (essentially a "speed hump")  that would physically alert motorists to a change in road conditions (the presence of cyclists). The sharrows and Share the Road signs also alert motorists to this change. A similar treatment is prop...

This booklet, available online here , is a very helpful one for any cyclist, young or old, experienced or not, for riding on the road with traffic. Many would-be cyclists say they are afraid to ride on the road, and who could blame them with increased traffic and the threat of distracted drivers. But , that doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't do it. In fact, one of the best ways to make roads safer for cyclists is to have more cyclists on the road, exercising all their rights to do so, and faithfully following all the rules of the road, thereby helping motorists to learn what to expect from cyclists. You can order your own hard copy from Rubel Bike Maps here .