NYC's On-Street Bike Improvements
Check out this video 101 on the different types of on-street bicycle designs that make up the New York City’s 200 miles of bike infrastructure.
Stamford is woefully behind the curve on developing a bike infrastructure. The recently completed stretch of the Urban Transitway is the only stretch of roads in town striped with a dedicated bike lane. The recently completed Traffic Calming Master Plan only peppers them sporadically and does not add up to anything cohesive you could actually use to get around. To put it into perspective, the Downtown Ambassadors, paid city employees, ride bikes on the sidewalk. That would be unheard in any kind of progressive bike plan.
What say my receny uncharacteristically chatty crew? Is every square inch of pavement needed for cars or can we make some concessions for the public looking to traverse Stamford on bike, whether for commute or recreation?
8 comments :
I live and work in Stamford and would love to bike to work. It is too dangerous. Having dedictaed bike lanes will definetly sway me.
Worst roads are summer (Upper), broad and bedford (upper).
There's certainly a lot of opportunity to create a better road infrastructure for bike commuters. What we need are the big north south thoroughfares (long/high ridge, Wash. Blvd., etc) to be more bike friendly. Hopefully we can move more in that direction.
Also, Stamford has a ton of in-town commuters. That group is ripe for bike-to-work programs. Think if we took 10% of those folks and moved them from cars to bikes. But even more than road infrastructure, I think there's more employers (and the city via incentives) can do to encourage that behavior. Things like showers/bike storage at work locations are pretty important too...
More enhancements to biking sound great. There are probably little things that can be done to push the city in that direction. As I have said before, its only a matter of money...and the city seems to have already laid out ambitious capital improvement plans elsewhere...such as Mill River Park and with the south end.
One thing to keep in mind is that Stamford is only a city of 118k of which only approx 1/2 of that lives in an urban setting. The limited scale of the city should be considered when comparing ideas in other cities to Stamford.
Cold Shower – while a bike master plan would help, I’m not necessarily suggesting this as a capital project to be undertaken by itself. It’s more of a philosophy that should be rolled into other projects.
When undertaking major roadwork (for example, the South End as you mentioned), the city should look to include bike lanes. That doesn’t seem to be on the city’s radar right now. It’s my understanding that he bike lanes on the Transitway were a federal mandate for the funding – and the city has all but apologized in some cases for including them. There is an impending Hope St reconfiguration in Springdale that includes sidewalk work, but nothing for bikes.
Adam made a good point too. There needs to be attention to the starting point & destinations as well. The zoning board could place requirements for adequate bike storage in any new office or residential developments. Retail could be required to place an adequate number bike racks in prominent places. Same goes for city parks or prominent places downtown. Having an adequate capacity of clearly visible bike parking at key destinations would go a long way towards “normalizing” biking. Chances are now you are locking your bike in some out of the way, shady place. If you want to bike to the new mall plaza, you can go chain up your bike on the rack placed in the bushes by the dumpsters. The bike racks at the transportation center are too few and in some dingy corner.
Great points JT. To incorporate a pro-biking agenda in to future public works and developments a biking masterplan would be a good idea. The costs of the plan would be relatively low and it could lay the groundwork for future biking priorities...both small and large.
I Bike to work here in Stamford. I get to the office very awake and ready for action!
We need more pioneers to get out there with bikes following the rules of the road, setting the example of safe, affordable transportation. This presence sends the clearest signal that bicycle facilities are needed.
The scale and density of Stamford make it a good place to get around without a car. There are always the common problems of weather and cargo capacity. Take a look at how cycling works in Europe to see how individuals mitigate these.
In many areas, addition of proper bike lanes would only be financially reasonable when aging streets are being updated anyway, so a long-term plan would be needed.
Again, this is a "two-way street". Actual cyclists create demand for facilities, then the built facilities encourage more cyclists.
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