Plainville Greenway Alliance

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 recently an

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