 A cyclist explores the bike path that runs parallel to the New Britain busway for five miles. (Patrick Raycraft / Hartford Courant) Remember these guys? Read and be proud of Trinity College students' op-ed in today's Hartford Courant.
Hartford Must Join Bike-Friendly Cities Making Hartford's streets friendlier for bicycle riders would improve capital's image, especially among young October 29, 2014 - As Trinity College students from different parts of the country, we care about the environment and its condition. We haven't been around long enough to cause climate change, but we inherited the responsibility to create a solution. That sentiment led us to take a seminar on "Cycling, Sustainability and the City of Hartford." In addition to our classroom work, we've been getting to know Hartford by going on group bike rides on weekends. Unlike the metro areas we're from — Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York — we were surprised to find a cultural stigma associated with cycling in Hartford that keeps it from becoming bike-friendly, which would help to alleviate traffic, climate and demographic problems. Read the full article.
4 Comments
Terry
10/29/2014 06:28:40 am
Good for you ! Connecticut is not the most bicycle friendly of states and as a European I was somewhat taken aback moving here because of that - every bit helps and so keep working at it !
Richard Harding
10/29/2014 11:00:28 pm
I rode my bike through Hartford this week on my way from East Hartford to Farmington and it was surprisingly easy to follow the roads designated as "East Coast Greenway", but I must say that the stretch along Capitol Ave is pretty dismal and could use an upgrade. In places there is a designated bike lane but it is not marked consistently and the part that goes under I-84 is a little scary with all the auto traffic. If Capitol Avenue could be made a little more bike-friendly it would make a tremendous difference in encouraging cross-town bike traffic east-west.
Marco Lumbroso
11/3/2014 11:42:52 pm
I'm French (and really French, born and raised in a Paris suburb). France and America have the same terribly unfriendly bike traffic in urban areas. Big cities there have made tremendous effort to correct that (at the expense of certain politicians' career). Hartford has some way to go but it's like baby steps. You gotta start somewhere and it will be painful alonf the way. I was in Holland this summer and over there it's a world away. It's the ultimate goal to reach: having every single stretch of roadway, all over the country, WITH its own bike lane, regardless of where it is or how big that road is. Excellent article.
Jamie Sullivan
11/5/2014 04:25:39 am
Kudos to the authors. Making our community bike friendly makes sense on many different levels. Leave a Reply. |
(c) 2012-2016 Bike Walk Connecticut | PO Box 270149, West Hartford, CT 06127 | bikewalkct@bikewalkct.org