How Much Bike Can Connecticut Handle?

A veritable fire storm of bicycle events in September.  Toss some logs on would ya?

I've been off the radar lately, largely due to mandatory Saturdays at my employer.  Depressingly my last post about the death of Paul Hughes graced the Beat Bike Blog pole position for an extended time.  With corporate responsibilities on a three day weekend, I'm able to catch up and provide Hartford with a deluge of upcoming bicycle (and pedestrian) events this Fall.  As a BBB reader and all around good person, it is now incumbent on you to further spread the word - either by voice, Facebook share, email, text, tweet, fart... whatever your preferred methods.

• Discover Hartford Bicycle Tour.  Sadly.  One event that isn't happening this September is the Discover Hartford Bicycle Tour.   Here's why.  I'm listing the non-occurrence of this event to head off questions about, "When is the Discover Tour this year?"
• Slow Roll.  Gladly - there are other rides in Hartford that you should know about.  The first is a "Slow Roll" happening on Monday, September 8th (corrected) and organized by Transport Hartford (www.transporthartford.org).  Meet at 6PM at the Bushnell Park Carousel for a short and slow ride around Hartford.  Transport Hartford is filling the active transportation (bike/walk/transit) void in Hartford.  The organization treats bikes like transportation, with a side of recreation.  For years motor vehicles have been the sole design driver of our infrastructure, even in dense cities served poorly by the resulting space hungry (and resource heavy) designs.  It's past time to get organized and push back for Complete Streets and high quality transit service across Hartford.  Sign up for Transport Hartford's email list to stay informed about upcoming events and advocacy opportunities in our transitioning city.  Spread the word via this Facebook invite.
• Pedal and Path: Hartford & the Bicycle.  From September 3rd through October 7th, the Hartford Public Library "will showcase vintage Connecticut bicycle maps and images from Hartford’s past association with the bicycle, as well as a 1924 velodrome track bike, featuring components manufactured by famous African-American cyclist [] Major Taylor."  Hartford was home to Columbia Bicycles started by Colonel Pope and can claim many significant moments in bicycle history.  Get over to the library to learn more about Hartford's bicycle roots.  The exhibit is up on the 3rd floor.
• Bicycle and Pedestrian Counts.  On September 9th through 14th the Hartford metro region planning organization (CRCOG - Capitol Region Council of Governments) is gathering volunteers for bicycle and pedestrian counts at intersections across the region.  I'll be traveling that week for work, so I set up an alternate count day on Sept 28th for an intersection in Hartford.  More data leads to more action, and data driven action is harder to ignore.  It only takes a couple hours of sitting in a lawn chair.  Contact Mike Cipriano  (860-522-2217 x223) with your preferences for count times/locations.  Map of locations here.
• Riverfront Cross Fest.  Get your bike dirty or yell dirty things at the cross racers on Sunday, September 14th.  Starting at 8:30AM and the pro race starts at 3PM.  The racing starts at the boathouse in Riverside Park, the northern part of the Hartford riverfront.  You can walk or ride there from downtown.  If you drive there, I'll make fun of you.  That's because cross racing includes a healthy dose of heckling ('cross heckling is de rigueur) - and therefore I'll heckle the wankers that drive to a bike race.
• Connecticut Cycling Festival and Hartford Envisionfest.  A weekend of awesome events with arts, music, and fast bicycles.  All within walking or biking distance of downtown Hartford.  On Saturday there is a "Gran Fondo" with 45 mile and 100 mile distances.  For some reason, they time the riders, and I'm guessing that leads to pretty irresponsible behavior at intersections (if you get creamed blowing intersections it's your own fault).  On Sunday a closed course criterium zips around downtown and is surprisingly fun to watch.  All over Hartford on Saturday there is a rolling festival at your own pace - Envisionfest.  Check out the day full of events and formulate a plan, or just wander around finding fun stuff willy-nilly.
• Nightfall at Colt Park.  An evening of music, dance, spoken word, and GIANT puppets to mark the seasonal transition.  This event embraces sustainability with valet bicycle parking.  Bring your bike or walk over from the nearby Hartford neighborhoods.  Nightfall has several community outreach arts events leading up to the main performance on Saturday, October 11th.  Nightfall starts at 5:30PM (get there early for a good spot) and seating is on the hill near Wethersfield Avenue.  BYO blankets, chairs, and refreshments.  I'll be organizing an informal neighborhood and park cleanup that same morning, meeting at 9AM at the Sam Colt statue (also near the Wethersfield Ave entrance).  
• Interstate Multi-use Trail Summit.  From New Haven to Northampton, MA there is a paved trail that is almost all the way complete.  I've ridden all of it and am excited to see this non-motorized trail connection close the gaps.  On Saturday, October 18th there is a summit in Simsbury, CT for this this cross state (and multi-state) trail.  You should register now.

My view this morning.

In other news, I took the opportunity on this extended weekend to do a quick overnight camp - within city limits.  It can be done, and done well.  Rather convenient to camp within a 10 minute ride of your home.

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Shake a fist

Taking the opportunity on to the trip to the Granby CVS, where Johanna gets prescriptions filled because it's close to work, Johanna exercised her right to ride around on her new 'cross bike. We rode around on those dirt roads out that way and it was pretty good.

No hot sulfur rained upon us as rode/hiked up Sodom Mountain.

This sign was a the beginning of a cool dirt road, the kind upon which I like to drive my Passat. So, I don't think a Passat is an "own risk" at all. Or, maybe it was like Passats own risk, because that's definitely true.

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Over Hill, Over Dale

Honestly, anytime I venture into Farmington, I am surprised by its existence. That's how far from my daily consciousness the place is. A colleague once spoke of how the trails enabled her father to have an easy commute to work-- a factoid I quickly forgot as this little world had no relevance to my own. Then, after a different coworker raved about the trails -- she is over 60, had not ridden in a long time, and decided to hop on the trails one day, during which she easily, effortlessly rode about 20 miles -- I felt more inspired to see what exists on the other side of Death Avon Mountain.

She directed me to take Route 44, then Route 10, and park in a lot that would be visible fairly quickly. I found the Farmington Valley Trails Council site and stared at the intricate maps for awhile before having a duh moment. She meant going from her house on Route 44, not from Hartford. Finding the parking lot was probably the simplest navigation-related part of this adventure, and before I start hearing all kinds of judgment, Interstatement challenged me to bike to the trail from home before the end of summer. At the lot in Avon, we tried to plan our route by using the posted maps to guide us. In the future, we will print out maps to take along. Some sections of the trail were well-marked; others, not so much. I found myself yearning for the faded ECG emblems painted on the sidewalk in Hartford, if that tells you anything. The most confusing section we encountered was in an area undergoing construction. We kept looking for where the trail continued, only to learn later that we were riding a segment that uses the road. This stretch was not terribly long, but when you have no clue where the trail may or may not pick up, such things seem like an eternity. Just as I was ready for a fullblown meltdown (feeling lost, riding in direct sunlight, and having to pee), we arrived at Stratton Brook State Park. There, we found shade, the path, and a restroom with running water, hallelujah. This park has a beach, places to kill/torture fish, and a few cool bridges. Our original plan was to ride in a loop, going through Collinsville and so forth. So, we continued out of the park, expecting to find clear trails once more. This did not happen. We rode down a very rural road past about ten firetrucks, casually parked there, as if it were their natural setting. Just as I thought I could hear Dueling Banjos in the distance, we came to another small park with picnic tables and a sports field. There was a cool playground that was absolutely deserted.
I find it utterly depressed that kids would rather go to the newfangled plastic-everything-no-sharp-edges-playgrounds than to a little one (next to an equally deserted pond) where there is a metal backhoe with which to dig in the sand. It used to be that getting a bruised knee or removing a splinter was a routine event. Now, if a kid so much as has access to a metal slide, people panic. Being raised in a culture of fear makes it understandable why children are prone to obesity and videogame addiction; they simply are not allowed to have real fun.
We biked a little past the playground to see if there were any signs indicating where we were or if this was the trail. As the road turned into gravel, with no sign of ending, we said to hell with it and turned around. On the way back, we caught more of the bike trail that ran through Stratton Brook. Originally, we had missed the loop turn and had taken the trail North. It looks like it goes to or beyond the stateline, but we did not make it quite that far. This section runs along/through another park and has nice views of the Farmington River. I noted the picnic table which could come in handy on another day.

I was taken aback by how many cyclists were using this trail, as well as how many riders get their kicks apparently training for some race or another. If I want to sweat, I'll just ride downtown during Friday evening rush hour.

We obviously aborted our original plan, but shall return, at least to see if we can navigate the other half of the loop we did not quite get to attempt. Read more!

The most unrelated yet

As an avowed Northeast liberal, I subscribe to Harper's Magazine. Generally, the stories are about places far away from here, because central Connecticut is boring. Thus, you can imagine my surprise when I turned to page 26 to see that the transcript of Judge E. Curtissa Cofield's bizarre October arrest graced the pages. Looks like Glastonbury has ignominiously made the intellectual big time.

Unrelated, but now bike related, I have seen with my own eyes that the Salmon Brook bridge on the Farmington Valley Greenway is almost complete, save for the railings. You can now ride from Unionville to Congamond and barely touch a road.

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Tax dollars at work

Obviously, we here at the beat bike blog are far too skilled and extreme to ever ride on rail trails. We're not so skilled and extreme that we don't pay income tax, however. In some news that makes me glad, it appears that some Federal DOT stimulus money is going to central Connecticut rail trail improvement and expansion. Here's the article in today's Courant.


ps. We actually do use rail trails and bike paths. I'm kidding!
pps. Photo credit goes to our friend Heather Brandon at urbancompass.net. I hope she doesn't get mad that I stole her picture.
ppps. Johanna and I went to DC this weekend. No scuba diving in the Potomac:

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From the Times

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/nyregion/connecticut/28bikect.html?ref=connecticut

September 28, 2008
Recreation
Road Bumps for an 84-Mile Canal Trail
By GREGORY B. HLADKY

SIMSBURY

MARK Lander, a bicycling enthusiast, calls this section of the Farmington Canal Heritage Greenway “my favorite ride in Connecticut,” and he hopes someday to be able to bicycle all 84 miles of the proposed recreational trail.

“I can’t wait ’til they get more of this done,” the Old Lyme resident said earlier this month as he and his son took a break from bicycling.

But at age 66, Mr. Lander isn’t sure he’ll still be pedaling by the time the entire stretch of the New Haven-to-Northampton, Mass., path is finally finished. “I suspect it’s going to take a while,” he said.

It has been 17 years since federal financing was allocated for the ambitious recreational trail, and key elements of the project have hit some snags:

In Plainville, activists are struggling to work out a deal with a still-active railway to use a portion of the line’s right of way. A stopgap measure of an on-road route to link completed sections of the trail in Farmington to the north and Southington to the south is under consideration.

In New Haven, the federal government has filled in a portion of an old rail tunnel that could have taken the bike trail under the city’s downtown. For security reasons, the F.B.I. didn’t like the idea of a tunnel running under its New Haven headquarters. A study is under way to plan an aboveground detour.

In East Granby, a long-awaited project to rehabilitate a 300-foot railway trestle to carry the trail over the Salmon Brook just got under way and won’t be completed until 2009. The state-designed work is expected to cost about $800,000 — a figure supporters of the bike path say is unnecessarily high. State officials insist the bridge must have a new concrete deck to carry emergency vehicles.

The Farmington Canal project in Connecticut has cost about $28.5 million since federal funds became available in 1991, state officials say. In this state, federal funds cover 80 percent of the cost and local communities put up the rest. In Massachusetts, the state finances the 20 percent local share.

“It’s been enormously successful,” said R. Bruce Donald, president of the Farmington Valley Trails Council.

He said a computerized laser counter on the trail in Simsbury logged 114,000 individual visits by walkers and bikers between November 2006 and November 2007.

“This year, the number is looking more like 190,000,” Mr. Donald said. He believes the big increase is due in part to more people using the trail to commute to work, especially since the price of gasoline has skyrocketed. “This isn’t just recreation — it’s alternative transportation,” he said.

The path follows roughly the same trail as the Farmington Canal, which opened in 1835. Boats carrying agricultural and industrial goods were able to travel with ease from New Haven all the way to the Connecticut River in Northampton.

Dreamers originally envisioned extending the canal all the way to the Canadian border. But flood damage and opposition from farmers pushed maintenance costs so high that expenses far outpaced toll revenue.

The canal was effectively closed down by 1843, just as railroads were beginning to take over as the prime method of transportation. The Farmington Canal had a much longer second life as a ready-made railroad route, one that remained in use until the 1980s.

The effort to give the Farmington Canal a third incarnation as a multi-use trail has had its greatest success in northern Connecticut.

Once the bridge over the Salmon Brook is completed, there will be a continuous 21.5-mile path from Farmington north to Massachusetts.

“What’s neat about all this is that it’s one of the first times I know of where you can use a multi-use trail like this for commuting, shopping, as well as just recreation,” said Mr. Donald.

The southern section of the Greenway, from Plainville to New Haven, will eventually cover 30.2 miles and is the primary focus of the Farmington Canal Rail-to-Trail Association.

Norman A. Thetford, the group’s executive director, said just 13.1 miles of the trail have been completed in Southington, Cheshire, Hamden and New Haven. He said many members of the group ask him when they will be able to use the trail to commute to New Haven.

Robert B. Rakowski, a state transportation supervising engineer, estimated it would take an additional $8 million to $9 million over five years to finish the New Haven pathway. “It’s one of the most difficult sections,” he said. “It’s going to have a lot of different agencies involved.”

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I can't understand why the FBI wouldn't want a tunnel under them.

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