Over GOP Murmurs, Cycletrack Approved

After nearly three years spent convincing Westville, Edgewood and Dwight neighbors of the benefits of a two-way cycle track stretching from Forest Road to Park Street, city planners found one group left to convince: Republicans.

The city engineer and the deputy transportation director made that discovery Wednesday night when they brought long-awaited site, coastal, and inland wetland plans for what has been dubbed the ​“Downtown-West Community Connectivity Corridor” before the City Plan Commission for approval

The received that approval in a unanimous vote, after one last round of convincing.

The plan calls for creating a two-mile long, two-way cycle track from Forest Road to Park Street. It also includes improvements to pedestrian crossings and intersections, new signals specifically for bike traffic, and fixing a problem intersection at Winthrop and Edgewood Avenues.

The state is providing $1.2 million to build the corridor, which City Engineer Giovanni Zinn will become the longest protected two-way cycle track in the state. The current record holder for the state is the two-way cycle track that runs along Long Wharf Drive.

Zinn said pending state approvals for the planned changes in signalization, work is projected to start this fall and end some time in spring 2018.

The presentation met with initial skepticism from Commissioner Jonathan Wharton, who happens to be New Haven’s Republican Town Committee chairman. He also is an avid cyclist who personally supports the city’s plans.

“Giovanni, I have to tell you man — and this is killing me,” Wharton started ominously. ​“You know I have spoken to Doug [Hausladen, the city’s traffic and parking chief] an awful lot about this project. But I have to tell you right now on the record that the Republican Town Committee is against so much of this stuff.”

Wharton said the prevailing concern, which he said has come up during several of thoat committee’s meetings, is that the project will be an eyesore with its green striping and delineator tubes. He predicted it will drive down their property values.

​“I’ve tried to calm them down, especially as a cyclist,” he said. ​“God knows, it is tough to deal with some curmudgeon Republicans especially when it comes to bicycles, and God knows I’m probably seen as one of the biggest sell outs for pushing this project in the first place because they’re not for it.”

He asked what the city might do to further convince people that not only is the project a good idea but that it’s good for them in the long run.

Zinn said people should know that the national research shows that property values go up when infrastructure in general, and bike infrastructure, in particular, is improved.

“We’ve certainly seen that with the belt line development along the Farmington Canal in New Haven and the other towns as well,” he said. ​“It’s something that drives development and property values nationwide.”

He also pointed out that though a lot of attention has been paid to the bike lanes, the improvements that are coming aren’t just about bikes. He pointed to improvements to pedestrian crossings such as new signals and striping at Ella T. Grasso Boulevard; traffic calming as the travel lanes for cars are reduced from two lanes of car traffic to a lane for bikes and a lane for cars; and the placement of an actual traffic signal at the intersection of Winthrop and Edgewood Avenue to straighten out a tricky configuration that makes it safer for bikes, pedestrians and drivers.

Deputy Transportation Director Mike Pinto said public outreach about the project has been ongoing since 2013, when he was tapped by Westville Alder Adam Marchand, who also serves as a City Plan commissioner, about ideas for traffic calming.

“Outreach on this has been extensive,” Pinto said.

“Excruciating,” Marchand chimed in with a chuckle Wednesday night.

Pinto said even some of the strongest critics have come around, as the city has found ways to accommodate people’s concerns about lost parking. The design preserves a great deal of on-street parking and in fact, creates additional legal parking for Edgewood School.

“If we had enough money we would do this as a curb-protected cycle track that would be much more attractive,” he said. But he also pointed out that places like San Francisco and Washington, D.C. have used delineator tubes to great effect and not made streets ugly.

“This is an economic development issue,” Pinto said. ​“This is infrastructure for the 21st century. If we want to continue to grow, and maintain the population growth — we have 5,000 students college educated students who graduate [from here] — if we want to keep those well-educated people here, if we’re not competing with the other cities by investing in this infrastructure we will get left behind.”

“You understand the concerns I’m hearing,” Wharton said. ​“We have some curmudgeons…”

“We have some curmudgeons in our party too,” Marchand quipped.

“You have curmudgeon Democrats,” Wharton asked jokingly. ​“I thought you were all happy, go-lucky people.”

“Certainly not since November,” Marchand responded without missing a beat.

Zinn said both the engineering and the city transportation departments regularly hear the concerns about speeding, pavement, sidewalks, and handicap ramps. He said while you can’t make everyone happy, he believes a lot of the problems raised were solved by taking those concerns into consideration and addressing them through the design.

“I will tell you it probably comes up almost every other meeting that we have,” Wharton said of the Republican concerns. ​“The thing is that it’s an image thing because the perception is that it’s only for cyclists and even though you tell people otherwise, it’s still coming up. I applaud you all for doing this, I know it’s not easy.”

Pinto said that overarchingly it is a question of access and equity as much for those who are east of the Edgewood Avenue mall as it is for those who live west of it.

‘We’re talking improvements to Edgewood Park and safe routes to school,” he said. ​“We chose the north side of the street as the final decision for the cycle track because it has direct access to two schools rather than south side because it has direct access to two New Haven schools,” Edgewood and Troup schools. That choice provides an opportunity for more children to bike safely to school he said.

“This isn’t just about the bike lane,” Zinn said. ​“It’s improvement to the pavement, improvements to the sidewalk and the intersections.”