New Haven Independent

Elm City Cycling honored the couple Friday at the year’s final monthly Bike to Work Day in front of City Hall. They were named “bike commuters of the month.”

Sometimes Steve and Laurie ride both ways. Other days one will cycle in while the spouse drives to work in their one car with a bike on board; the couple then reverses the bike commute on the way home.

Steve said bicycling is good for his physical and mental health.

“It feels good in the morning if I bike. If I drive my car into work, with the rush hour traffic, by the time I get to work I’m usually annoyed, or upset, or sometimes even livid with rage. When I ride my bike, by the time I get to work, I’m always happy. I feel invigorated, I feel awake, I feel alive — it just feels good to ride a bike.”

He said that when he considered commuting by bike, he started slowly, noting his age. (He’s 56.) He built up, cycling more miles until he said it was time to try the commute. Needless to say, he’s saving money on gas.

Laurie (who picked out their matching cycling jackets, which no doubt look cool as they wheel down Route 80) said they’re hoping to keep cycling as the weather gets colder. If necessary, they can adopt a multi-modal approach: take the Shoreline East train part-way.

In addition to a certificate suitable for framing, the couple received at Friday’s Bike to Work event a gift certificate from Devil’s Gear bike shop.

They’re not the only ones multi-modaling it. Bill Segraves (pictured in the group photo on the top right in the neon yellow jacket) rides in from Guilford “two to five days a week,” which is almost 15 miles each way. He sometimes hitches in with his wife in the car, and also uses the train. He said recently he’s found some cycling companions.

“We have a nice little group now, with three of us who are faculty members [at Yale] who ride in from Guilford together. We get a nice little pace line going, and get in pretty quickly.”

Friday morning was sunny, warm and calm at the Bike to Work event. All the informational handouts just sat quietly on the table, instead of blowing around with napkins and coffee cups and the old Bike to Work Day banner, which was more or less destroyed in last month’s high winds. David Streever (in front) and Matthew Feiner put up the fancy new banner (that’s a coffee cup and saucer inside the bike wheel) donated by ProPark.

Toward the end of the two-hour event, the city’s transportation chief, Mike Piscitelli, stopped by with one of the half-dozen crosswalk signs his department will be putting up shortly. They can be placed only on two-way streets at unsignalized crosswalks. He said that, based on consultation with Elm City Cycling and the Safe Streets Coalition, one sign will go near St. Stanislaus School (now housing Hooker School) on State Street and another at Lincoln and Trumbull streets. He was mum about the other locations. Cyclists and pedestrians who have been pushing for just this kind of intervention — already in place in many other towns around the state — were happy to hear the signs are coming.