West Main Street streetscape improvements

By -


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 proposed for the East Main Street and Neal Court, even though this intersection does not involve any critical turns in the proposed on-road route. Stay tuned for more information on this first attempt to cooperate with the Town on what we hope will be a successful portion of this important trail section.

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