Plainville Greenway Alliance

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...

Steve, Kathy and Jim have just completed six half-hour shows about cycling to be broadcast on Nutmeg TV (see the poster above). Watch them and give us your feedback. Our biggest concern is that they were all shot in the studio and we would really like to include some live on-trail and on-road footage. So, one of our members is completing training at Nutmeg as a Producer and we will soon be planning the next batch of shows. In the meantime, let us know what you think by adding a post here. The shows may be seen weekly on Nutmeg TV (Comcast Channel 5 in Avon, Berlin, Bristol, Burlington, Canton, Farmington, New Britain and Plainville, and via AT&T Uverse in the rest of the state beginning WED 15 JUL at 7PM, and then repeat for six more weeks after that at the same day and time.  Enjoy the summer weather and be smart about your fun cycling. Happy trails.

Rail-with-Trail? Do these really exist? Yes they do and here are photos of two of them. The first is in Cumberland, MD and the other is in Maine. Both of these "rails" are occasional and moderate speed tourist trains and neither has any barrier to separate the trail from the rail. We have members who have ridden alongside rails with frequent, fast-moving freight traffic, and even faster passenger trains, all safely separated from the rails. There are more than 150 such rails-with- trails nationwide. So, what's the secret for getting them built? Actually there are two: first, effective barriers that make both cyclist and rail employees feel safer and, second, there exists legislation limiting liability for accidents along the shared right-of-way. Maybe a third one would be a railroad with strong community-oriented goals willing to work with a trail building organization like ours. We will need all these secrets in our bag as we get busy creating our rail-with-trail ...