Thomas Breen Photo
Legislative rider: Alder Adam Marchand samples prototype at hearing.
Clyburn and DeCola: What about Newhallvillle?.
Lawmakers were urged to approve a new bike share program in New Haven — as long as it includes neighborhoods away from downtown.
Which might not prove so simple, at least at first.
A public hearing Tuesday night drew enthusiastic support for the planned new project, which would eventually make at least 300 bicycles available for short-term rental at 30 stations located around the city. The Harp administration has chosen a company to run the program, which is similar to New York’s Citi Bike, and now needs Board of Alders approval to roll it out.
First stop: Tuesday’s two-plus-hour hearing at City Hall of the alders’ City Services & Environmental Policy Committee (CSEP).
While praising the overall concept, alders raised concerns that certain neighborhoods outside of downtown miss out on station placements for the first five years of the bike share. They continued the hearing for another month rather than taking a vote.
After listening to a presentation on how the bike share program will represent an affordable, accessible, and healthful addition to New Haven’s current public transit system, members of the committee interrogated city transit chief Doug Hausladen, deputy transit director Michael Pinto, and New Haven Smart Mobility (NHSM) managing partner Carols Pujol about language in the proposed contract.
The top concern: placement of bike stations.
“I see that Newhallville is not on the launch for this bike share,” Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn told Hausladen. “I would like for this to be launched in our area. I think it’s very important that this project be launched in Newhallville. If you did not choose Newhallville, I would like to know why.”
“I can easily answer that,” Hausladen responded. “Number one, we haven’t chosen a single neighborhood yet for bike stations. This [SeeClickFix map] is where residents of New Haven at the meetings we’ve been able to attend have stood up and said, ‘I want a station here.’ I think you’re aware of how many times I’ve been trying to come to the Newhallville management team meetings and have been called the day of and told not to come.”
Hausladen added that the city hasn’t signed the contract yet. He said he’s committed to eventually covering the whole city with the program.
“We’re launching with 30 stations and 300 bikes, because that is what we can afford with our contracting, and we need to be able to grow fast. I agree that we need to get to places like Newhallville, which is well serviced by the Farmington Canal trail, which has great job access with proximity to the D line on Dixwell Avenue.”
“Just to let you know,” Clyburn stated, “when you do sign a contract, and when it starts, I want to have the bike share program in Newhallville.”
CSEP Committee Chair Sal DeCola of Morris Cove noted that the proposed contract states that phase one of the program will cover two to four square miles. He cited a section of the proposed contract that states that the vendor must build the first 30 bike stations within a four-square mile area of the city.
“If this area is based on the Green, then that means that Delphine does not get a bike station. I’m going by the contract, which says two to four miles in Phase One, which can last up to five years. So for five years, Delphine doesn’t get a station.”
“That’s not correct,” Hausladen replied.
A sample map demonstrating the area of 2.5, 4.5, 6.5, and 8.5 square miles in the city.
DeCola picked up a map provided by Hausladen that showed downtown and its adjacent neighborhoods overlaid with four concentric circles, each defining a radius of an additional two square miles.
“Look, the miles are the miles,” he said, thumping his hands on the table. “You made a circle and you put the miles up here. Delphine’s not in the first phase.”
Pinto, Hausladen, and Pujol at hearing.
“That’s not necessarily where the bike stations are going to be,” Hausladen explained. “I wanted to show what a two to four square mile radius would look like, but the implementation plan will propose where the stations actually go.”
Hausladen pulled up a document that his department had submitted to the alders before the hearing in response to questions from the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) about certain sections of the contract. Several of the answers dealt directly with the two to four square mile area limitation for the first phase of the bike share.
“Systems must have a high density of stations that are within walking distance of each other and anywhere within the system area,” reads the document, citing Hausladen’s and NHSM’s research into what makes for a successful bike share program.
“They must also have high ratios of bikes/residents and cover large areas of the city. NHSM understands this and is planning for high density of stations. While Phase 1 of New Haven Bike Share will not cover all of New Haven nor have high numbers of bikes per resident, subsequent expansions will increase the area of stations and the number of bikes.”
The problem, Alders DeCola and Clyburn argued, is not necessarily with building a bike share program with density, which they recognized is critical. Rather, it is with the constricting nature of a contract that allows the vendor to set up stations within a four square mile area and then not have to expand that area for up to five years.
Marchand checking out prototype.
Based on data that Hausladen and other bike share advocates have collected over the past few months during presentations at community management team meetings, public schools, libraries, and through a public request form on SeeClickFix, DeCola and Clyburn said they are convinced that the epicenter of that four square mile area would have to be the Green. That leaves other areas of the city in the lurch.
Bike station location requests that have been submitted to SeeClickFix.
“All the dots on this map point towards Chapel Street as the center point for this program,” DeCola said, pointing to the map of site requests made via SeeClickFix. “We need to come back at another meeting and have definite answers on what is the center point and where the four square miles cover, or just take that out of the contract. I’m not angry with this, but I don’t like it right now. I don’t see this current contract benefiting the citizens of New Haven.”
DeCola, Clyburn, and the rest of the alders on the committee moved to extend the public hearing on the proposed bike share contract until the next CSEP meeting, which will take place on April 11 at City Hall.
The alders also insisted that the current contract’s 10-year term with NHSM be renegotiated down to five years with an option to renew based on alder review of the program.