New Haven Independent

That was one of the issues discussed at an Elm City Cycling subcommittee meeting Monday night at City Hall.

The bicycling community in greater New Haven is growing and beginning to formulate a platform of infrastructure improvements that would make cycling safer and more pleasant and convenient. Those who attended the meeting had a lot on their minds, including a discussion of where to put more bike racks (“in front of municipal buildings, schools, hospitals and major employers” was the wish list); elements of traffic calming, the value of greenways, and the thorny issue of bike lanes, such as those that have sprung up in various parts of town when streets have been repaved.

Mark Abraham (pictured above) said the Farmington Canal Greenway is growing the bicycling community. “It attracts a lot of first-time riders, a lot of children and people who might not normally feel comfortable riding on the roads. They use the Farmington Canal Greenway as a recreational piece of infrastructure, and we’d like to have a lot more of those in the area. We think that would build the bicycling community and therefore make it safer to ride anywhere in the city.” He said funding is in place to finish the pieces of trail in both Hamden and New Haven that will connect the finished segments in the two towns, as well as the piece around Yale south to Grove Street.

One of those present was Yale University’s sustainable transportation specialist, Holly Parker (on the right in the photo, with Erica Mintzer). She said she hopes any improvements will be coordinated between the city and the university, since Yale is right downtown and so many students and staff use their bikes for transportation.

Tom Harned (pictured) chaired the subcommittee meeting. He’s been looking into the pros and cons of bike lanes, especially those like the ones in town that run between parked cars and moving traffic and are indicated only by a white stripe of paint on the pavement (and sometimes a white stencil of a cyclist). Some research indicates that using bike lanes is less safe than encouraging cyclists to be part of vehicular traffic flow (bikes are considered vehicles by the state Department of Transportation), especially when cyclists and motorists reach intersections, where most accidents occur.

The group decided to do more research on the issue, and perhaps invite experts with opposing views to make a presentation to a future Elm City Cycling meeting. Harned added that other factors impact safety in the city, “like travel speed in roadways and what could be done to reduce that, or improvements in roadways that reduce collisions, such as left-turn lanes, or things as simple as repaving.”

Whitney Avenue through Hamden was just repaved, but with no amenities for cyclists. Whitney Avenue in New Haven — which is in terrible shape, especially toward the curbs where cyclists usually ride — is scheduled for repaving in 2008.