Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Rankling



Ranking is beloved by all. This is especially true it seems in Connecticut. Whenever I go to other states, I don't seem to see lists that rank all the towns. We do it here, though. Bike Walk Connecticut just came out with a new one. The methodology seems a little weird. Cyclists satisfaction and municipal engagement are equally weighed, which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Simsbury being first and New Haven second was not surprising, but New Britain being number three was pretty surprising. I guess New Britain is only bad if you're trying to ride from Hartford to New Britain. Once you're there, it's not so bad.

Hartford is 15. That's pretty good.

The big surprise is West Hartford. They're number 83. That's pretty damn terrible. I guess those few sharrows didn't do much good. However, this bad rating seems to be because they never returned in the survey. I'm pretty sure that they have some bike commission and they have that dorky Wheel Fun Day, so there is municipal engagement. Not that I'm one usually to defend West Hartford, but crappy surveys do no one any good. I mean, West Hartford is full of those dangerous curb bump outs, but I don't know if that's so bad as to rank them 83rd.

Secret new halfpipe discovered.

2 comments:

  1. Curious that so few folks in West Hartford took the survey. There was a significant amount of outreach by email newsletter, website, and the FB. And I do curse the plague of poorly designed bumpouts.

    We should get Hartford moving on a League of American Bicyclists application. With facilities currently in place and plans for more, we definitely get Bronze Bike Friendly - and the program is set up to encourage leveling up.

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  2. Where is that secret half pipe? That thing is sweet.

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