Here's the latest as of Sunday June 15on the top 20 participating towns in our bike friendly, walk friendly town survey. As you'll see, population doesn't seem to have a lot to do with it. Small and medium sized towns are right up there with a few bigger cities. Didn't take the survey YET? Please visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/bikewalkCTnd complete it before midnight on Sunday, June 15 -- tonight!. SOS! We still need to hear from these towns! Bozrah ... Canterbury... Deep River... Hampton... Hartland... Harwinton... Killingly ...Naugatuck... Oxford... Preston... Roxbury... Salem... Scotland... Seymour... Sharon... Sherman... Voluntown Top 20 Towns for Survey Participation ... so far ....
The annual Kids Health and Safety Day will take place in Middletown on Saturday, June 14 from 10 to 2 p.m.
The day will include a 4.5 mile family bike ride that is sponsored by the Middletown Complete Streets Committee. The ride will leave at 9:30 a.m. from the Cross Street A.M.E. Zion Church on West Street. There will also be a bike rodeo where kids can bring their bicycles for a free safety check from Pedal Power. For more information, read the article in the Hartford Courant here. Didn't take the bike friendly, walk friendly town survey yet? What are you waiting for?! The survey closes at midnight on June 15. Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/bikewalkCT and take it now. It'll take only a few minutes. Thank you!! Today's Top 10 Towns for Bike Walk Survey Participation - as of JUNE 12 1 West Hartford 2 Middletown 3 Hartford 4 Trumbull 5 New Haven 6 Weston 7 Canton 8 Glastonbury, Fairfield 9 Simsbury, Farmington 10 Stamford We're still waiting to hear something, anything! from these towns below. Can you help? Surely there are some parents who want their kids to be able to walk or bike to school; there must be some seniors who'd like to be able to do their errands on foot; at least a few people might like to be able to walk or bike to town parks and amenities. We want to hear from them!
Complete Streets Leadership Forum
Implementing complete streets in Connecticut's 169 towns will require citizen involvement, local leadership, and collaboration with town planners, engineers and public safety officials. To that end, Bike Walk Connecticut will also host an initial workshop to bring together people from communities that are already working to implement complete streets with others who want to make their own towns better places to bike and walk. If you are interested in the workshop, please indicate so here: http://conta.cc/1qSGmFY By Mike Clifford, Public News Service - CT Listen online or download audio June 10, 2014 HARTFORD, Conn. - A survey is underway to make Connecticut streets more friendly for pedestrians and bicycles, and survey organizers say the results should eventually result in positive impacts for health, air quality and even the economy. As day-to-day work grows more computer-based, employees often wind up spending too much time sitting. Kelly Kennedy, the executive director of Bike Walk Connecticut, says that sedentary work environment is taking a big hit on workers' health. In fact, Kennedy says public health is the primary reason her group is conducting this first of its kind survey, called Complete Streets, in an effort to make roads originally designed for cars more user-friendly for those on foot and riding bicycles. "If it were easier and safer to get around and to make at least short trips by bike or by foot that would improve our health," says Kennedy. "It would also improve air quality." Kennedy says her organization's survey is also questioning city planners to get a sense of what towns and municipalities are doing proactively to create more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly routes. She says they also want to know if it is easy for you to get around your town by bike or on foot, and what it's like walking or biking to places like schools, parks, senior centers and shopping centers. The survey is accessible from the Bike Walk Connecticut website. "If it's not generally easy to get around, then we ask for specifics; what's the problem, are there not enough sidewalks, do the sidewalks stop and start suddenly," says Kennedy. "Those are the kinds of things that we are getting at." She says the money saved by greater numbers of people walking and biking can add up to big benefits for local economies. "Gas prices are only going up, and the more money we spend on gas and on cars the less money we have for other things," explains Kennedy. "If we can re-purpose some of that spending, we can help other sectors of the economy like the mom-and-pop stores that keep the economy moving." The Complete Streets survey is funded through a federal cooperative agreement administered by the Connecticut Department of Public Health. The results will be released early this summer. Top 10 Towns for Bike Walk Survey Participation - as of JUNE 6 1 West Hartford - still well out in front 2 Trumbull - coming from nowhere to surge to 2nd place--nice move! 3 Weston 4 Hartford 5 Stamford 6 New Haven 7 Fairfield 8 Farmington 9 Glastonbury 10 New London Did you take the bike-friendly, walk-friendly town survey yet? The survey closes at midnight on June 15, so don't delay! Visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/bikewalkCT. Then pass it on! Do you know anybody from these towns below? We're still waiting to hear from them, so spread the word.
Design plans are almost complete for the new streetscape in Collinsville.
During a town meeting on Tuesday, an architect hired by the town said the design of the improvements is almost complete and a final version will be presented later this month. According to an article in the Hartford Courant, the plans shown on Tuesday called for improvements to the intersection of Main and Bridge streets and an extension of Main Street to Front Street. Read the full article here. Did you take the bike-friendly, walk-friendly town survey yet? The survey closes soon, so don't delay!
If you didn't take the survey yet, please do now! Visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/bikewalkCT And keep spreading the word. Your help will get our responses into the thousands! Top 10 Towns for Bike Walk Survey Participation - as of JUNE 4 1 West Hartford way out in front Neck and neck for 2nd through 5th spots: 2 HARTFORD 3 Stamford 4 New Haven 5 Fairfield 6 Farmington 7 Glastonbury 8 New Canaan 9 NEW LONDON - welcome to the top 10! 10 Norwalk A big THANK YOU to the hundreds of you who have already completed our Bike-Friendly, Walk-Friendly town surveys! We're heard from people from 102 towns, but nada from any of the 67 towns below. Our town-by-town scorecard will be released by the end of June. Don't let your town be a no show! New Canaan and Stamford are currently tie for the lead in most responses, having edged out West Hartford, now in 2nd place. Norwalk and New Haven are tie for 3rd place, with Hartford coming in 4th and Greenwich at 5th place. A mighty fine showing by Fairfield County... Keep those responses coming in, Connecticut! Do you live in any of these towns where no one has responded yet? Take the Survey!
Bike Walk Connecticut is very excited to launch a new effort to help make it safer and easier to walk and bike by implementing “complete streets” in cities and towns across Connecticut. The project is funded through a federal grant administered by the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) to promote statewide implementation of policies and actions to promote health and prevent and control chronic diseases. The link between complete streets and health and disease prevention is physical activity. Complete streets make it easier and safer for people be more physically active by getting around on foot or by bike. What are Complete Streets? Complete Streets are streets that are designed to be safe for everyone to use. Complete Streets make it easier and safer to walk and bike to work, to school, to transit, for errands, or just for pleasure and exercise. Connecticut’s Complete Streets law (Conn. Gen. Stat. §13-153f) requires pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users to be routinely considered in the planning, designing, construction and operation of all roads. This effort will help communities implement aspects of this law. Public Opinion Survey and Scorecard As part of this initiative, Bike Walk Connecticut will conduct a statewide public opinion survey [take it now!] of the bike- and walk-friendliness of Connecticut’s cities and towns, develop an inventory of towns that have bike/pedestrian task forces and plans, and assess the degree to which those plans are being implemented by their respective towns. Bike Walk Connecticut will publish a town-by-town scorecard early this summer, ranking cities and towns on their bike- and walk-friendliness. The survey and scorecard are expected to be conducted annually. Complete Streets Leadership Workshop Implementing complete streets in Connecticut’s 169 towns will require citizen involvement, local leadership, and collaboration with town planners, engineers and public safety officials. To that end, Bike Walk Connecticut will also host an initial workshop to bring together people from communities that are already working to implement complete streets with others who want to make their own towns better places to bike and walk. This initiative is made possible through the financial support of the DPH through Cooperative Agreement 1305 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A new report titled Dangerous by Design 2014, that was released by the National Complete Streets Coalition, ranks Connecticut 27th in the U.S. in pedestrian safety. According to the report, between 2003 and 2012, 351 people were killed while walking in Connecticut, representing 12.6% of the 2,780 traffic-related fatalities in the state during this period. Connecticut’s overall Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI) is 35.02. For the years 2003 to 2010, these fatalities include 20 children under 16 and 107 adults aged 65 or older. Download Dangerous by Design 2014: Connecticut, including our state-specific findings and recommendations for decision makers at the state and federal levels. |
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