Allan Appel Photo
Bike New Haven’s Carolyn Lusch arrives for the presser.
One goal: Move past the one-person-one-vehicle mind-set.
More goals: Reduce city greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth by the end of next year. Fewer SOV —single occupancy vehicle — rides. A 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Those were among the key goals enunciated by Mayor Toni Harp and city Transportation, Traffic & Parking Director Doug Hausladen at a press conference Thursday morning.
Hausladen with New Haven Sister Cities’ Chris Schweitzer holding the sign.
The officials gathered at the State Street commuter station as one of the morning trains fittingly chugged by.
They were to launch “2020: Moving Towards A Healthy Future.” That’s the 2019 and 2020 campaign theme of goNewHavengo, a coalition of city and state agencies and private groups working towards a sustainable, more bicycle and pedestrian and train driven transportation system.
If there were a key culprit in the crowd of pressing issues to be addressed, it was the SOV, or single occupancy vehicle.
“It’s simple,” said Hausladen. “Next year is 2020. Cut your emissions by 20 percent. Take a train … try walking to work. There are a lot of options to think outside the car.”
“A shared ride in a car reduces emissions 50 percent with the first occupant,” added Mayor Harp.
The two-year campaign is a lot about posters and flyers and runs and other means to educate individuals and businesses about the growing alternatives to driving.
Hausladen called attention to the growing bike infrastructure in the city — such as the planned Edgewood Avenue cycle tracka recently striped bike lane up on Wilmot Road.
Electric Mopeds?
Showing she practices what she preaches, Bike New Haven manager Carolyn Lusch rode up, parked her sleek, emission-less vehicle at the full bike rack in front of the State Street train station, and updated a reporter on new developments before she participated in the press conference.
From February to October — until the weather grew cold — ridership in her new bikeshare program grew each month. Over 3,000 people have participated thus far, with at least one ride.
Lusch forecast that the current fleet of 200 bikes at 31 stations will grow during the 2019/2020 season of goNewHavengo’s two-year campaign.
As early as this fall, Lusch said, she’ll switch out the fleet of bikes with a new model that has an on-board computer and call-options. Currently you need a smart phone to use one of the bikes.
TT&P’s Ray Willis came with the swag, free bike lights if you pledge to cycle more, and more safely.
The new bikes will be similar to those in use in Hoboken, N.J.
“We’ve been working to do this for some time,” she said, citing some complaints from residents who don’t have smart phones. Now with just a regular phone and using the on-board computer, you’ll be able to snag a bike for a ride.
“It’s part of the city’s overall approach to equity,” she added.
Lusch said the new bikes will have only small differences from the current fleet, including a slightly different chain guard, but the basket will be shifted from back to the front.
Lusch’s company —P3GM — is also hoping to deploy 100 electric mopeds — Ojos — to the fleet, also by the end of the year.
Mayor Harp with Leon/Sister City Project’s Chris Schweitzer.
Lusch said these will be more stable than the electric foot scooters, which have caused some problems in other cities.
The mopeds will also have mobile apps to access them, but details remain to be worked out.
Some of the other organizations partnering to the campaign are the Yale Office of Sustainability; CTRides, a program of the Connecticut Department of Transportation: and New Haven/Leon Sister City Project.
Program Director Chris Schweitzer said that the two rural communities he works with outside of Leon, Nicaragua, were both badly displaced by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
“People are still driving as if it were 1960,” he said. “Make no mistake. Climate change is urgent. We have to be faster.”
And that’s why goNewHavengo will be out in the streets more and more in the immediate years to come. Next up, a goNewHavengo collaboration with the New Haven Road Runners: a Clean Air run, May 11.
This is great to see! However, until the city puts its money where its mouth is by adding A LOT more dedicated bike lanes and decreasing/enforcing the speed limit, nothing is going to get any better. The city needs to make it considerably easier and more convenient if people are going to rely on bikes rather than cars. I have been cycling all over New Haven for years now, and even as an experienced cyclist, I fear for my life getting across town some days.