New Haven Independent

That was the message delivered at Friday’s Bike to Work Day breakfast (organized by this reporter wearing her Elm City Cycling hat).

Sylvia Thompson (pictured), a driver trainer with CT Transit, was on hand to demonstrate how to load a bike (or two) quickly and securely on the bike rack attached to every transit bus serving greater New Haven. It takes just a few seconds.

James Staniewicz, director of planning and engineering for the New Haven Parking Authority, said his agency will be adding covered bike storage at Union Station shortly, as well as improving the existing bike parking, for a total of 120 spaces at a cost of $150,000 to $200,000.

Next, Norman Thetford (pictured), executive director of the Farmington Canal Rail to Trail Association, tantalized the crowd with visions of a completed 80-mile paved, off-road route from New Haven to Northampton, Mass., once various gaps — including the one between the New Haven-Hamden line and the trail through Science Park — are filled in. That New Haven piece is scheduled for completion this fall, which will create a 14-mile route from the city all the way to Cheshire. “If you’re commuting to work, this is a great resource,” Thetford said.

New Haven traffic czar Mike Piscitelli announced that a downtown bike/pedestrian gap analysis is about to kick off Phase I improvements, which will be painting “sharrows” on some city streets to indicate that lanes can be shared by cyclists and motorists. He thanked members of Elm City Cycling who suggested improvements based on their commuting experiences. Click here for that story.

He added that the city is about the launch a municipal bike station for employees who bike commute regularly, plus employees who want to use a bike during the work day. “It’ll be a place for city employees to hang up their stuff, have a locker, and park their bike within City Hall as opposed to just leaving it outside their cube.” He thanked City Engineer Dick Miller for making it happen.

Holly Parker, director of Yale’s Sustainable Transportation Systems, displayed one of 25 bikes in the Y Bike program the university has given to employees in various departments to get around campus instead of driving their cars. She said the bikes are loaded with accessories, including an odometer, “so we can track the mileage and attribute that to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. With only about half our departments reporting, we’ve achieved about 500 miles on bikes. If you consider that a car creates about a pound of CO2 emissions per mile, we’ve reduced 500 pounds of CO2 emissions since the program started [last year].”

About 65 cyclists stopped by throughout the two-hour event, and each received a “Bike to Work” sticker as a way of tallying the number of participants and of promoting bicycle commuting when they arrive at work. Those who were present for the updates reacted enthusiastically as each project was announced. Friday’s event was held in conjunction with national Bike to Work Day. The local event takes place monthly and is organized by Elm City Cycling; Bru Cafe on Orange Street provides the coffee, and this month the city provided breakfast. (Note: This reporter is one of the event’s organizers.)