New Haven Independent

The wide sidewalk was packed for much of the morning,; the best guess of organizers (of whom this reporter was one) is that about 125 cyclists showed up between 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. for some homemade goodies, fruit and coffee. Hopefully no one got too grumpy when we ran out of coffee (courtesy of Koffee? on Orange) and food three times, replenishing both as quickly as possible.

Channel 8 no doubt helped with publicity, broadcasting live from the spot starting at 5:30 a.m.

Richard Stowe (pictured on the right) showed up after taking Metro North to town Thursday night from his home in New Canaan, since he can’t bring his bike on the train during peak hours, and peak hour restrictions apply in both directions at morning and evening rush hours. At the event, he collected dozens more signatures on his petition to require the new train cars coming next year to have bike tie-downs and allow bikes on all trains. He explained that, although it was a big step forward when Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell came out last week in support of bike tie-downs (but not for allowing bikes on peak trains, yet), the blessing of her counterpart in New York, Gov. David Patterson, is also needed. A tie-down enables a bike to be secured on a train.

Harvey Hoskie (pictured above, a fit 61 years old, said he rides his bike four days a week from New Haven to West Haven. “I don’t have a car - that’s one of the good reasons to have a bike - I can’t afford a car. The experience is good, and the exercise is good, and at my age, I need all the exercise I can get.” Click here to hear more of his story.

These cyclists were part of a group who rode in together from Hamden.

Tracy Blanford lives in Fair Haven Heights. She heard about the event and saw what a beautiful day it was, so, she said, “When I asked my daughter if she wanted to ride to school at Cross, she said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ So we jumped on our bikes and rode to Cross, which is a little bit of a treacherous ride over Willow Street, but we made it safely, and the I rode down to the Green just to see what’s going on.” She stayed ‘til the end and helped clean up

Many Yale grad students and staff contributed to the big turnout. (Click here for a story on Yale’s own Bike to Work Day breakfast May 30.) Several are from European countries and two young women, from Germany and Hungary, contrasted the pro-bike policies in place in their countries compared to the situation in New Haven, in Connecticut, and in most of the U.S. One explained how easy it was to travel multi-modally by bike and train — almost as if transportation planners and train personnel welcomed cyclists on board!

Alienne Morrione (pictured) said she lives in Bridgeport and sometimes tries to bring her bike on board Metro-North, but is often prevented from doing so (even though there are many empty seats traveling west to east in the morning) because of the peak hour restrictions. On those days, she said, “I ride to New Haven. What choice do I have?”

Mayor John DeStefano rode his bike in from his home near the Woodbridge line, then rode to mass at St. Mary’s on Hillhouse Avenue before cycling back and schmoozing briefly with fellow cyclists before disappearing into City Hall.

Tim Nottoli, this reporter, and David Streever showing off last year’s BTW shirts.