Editor’s note: The following comments on the town’s federally funded “Safe Streets and Roads for All” action plan were submitted on behalf of Bike Westport to Tighe & Bond, the consulting firm leading the study.
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We are hereby sending you Bike Westport’s recommendations that we strongly believe need to be incorporated into your “Safe Streets 4 All” Westport Safety Action Plan.
We understand that the $450,000 Safe Streets 4 All (SS4A) grant that is funding the current study may not have anticipated incorporation of the ideas and solutions we have put forward.
However, rather than using the constraints and defined scope of the consultants’ contract as an excuse to ignore or postpone consideration of these ideas, we urge the Town of Westport and the consultants to amend the contract to incorporate these essential elements, to ensure that the results of the study are fully responsive to community needs.
If the funding for such augmentation is not readily available, please let us know as Bike Westport would appreciate the opportunity to raise private funds from members of the community to ensure that the ideas and solutions offered are incorporated in the forthcoming reports and recommendations.
Bike Westport is a nonprofit organization advocating for safer biking and walking in Westport (bikewestport.org). The comments below are built on the voices of hundreds of Westport residents wanting change. I’m including here results of 1,600 Westporters submitting their opinions on the topic of safer streets (downloadable spreadsheet with ALL individual comments and answers here).
Bike Westport’s recommendations:
1. Numerous systemic changes are needed to address the problems in addition to addressing specific safety hot spots.
2. Our primary goal should be to reduce vehicle miles driven.
3. Priority should be given to cycling, walking and mass transit over personal car use.
4. Create a town-wide network of protected bike lanes, connecting schools, train stations, beaches and downtown. See this map for recommendations.
5. Connect new bike lanes to existing bike lanes in Norwalk/Fairfield
6. Create biking and walking paths parallel to the Metro North train tracks and the Merritt Parkway. Start with connection along Merritt between Exits 41 and 42. Eventually connect with a path along the entire Merritt (see here).
7. We cannot stress enough the importance of watching Jeff Speck’s presentation on “Walkable Westport,” organized by Sustainable Westport and funded with over $25,000 contributed by local residents.
8. We fully endorse Jeff Speck’s recommendation to reallocate the existing road width by narrowing the vehicle lanes and adding protected two-way bike lanes. This can be done at a nominal cost. (See the accompanying “Road Design Illustration” graphic (above) illustrating this approach. This approach has the following advantages:
- Making driving safer by slowing traffic and creating safer pathways for pedestrians and cyclists.
- Much safer for cars being separate from pedestrians/cyclists.
- Much safer for pedestrians/cyclists having their own space.
9. Incorporate roundabouts wherever possible. (See accompanying graphics regarding roundabout concepts). In particular, the “Bridge Street roundabout concept” provides a specific example incorporating a roundabout with bike lanes for the Riverside Avenue/Bridge Street intersection. This example meets all existing engineering standards combined with all existing state DOT best practices.
10. Eliminate curb cuts and combine parking lots wherever possible. Reducing the number of places cars can pull out of parking lots onto main roads makes driving and riding safer and makes traffic flow more smoothly. Zoning incentives should be adopted to encourage this.
11. Zoning regulations should be adopted to reduce parking and encourage mass transit. Examples could include fee for transit in lieu of creating parking up to current minimum zoning standards or fee for creating parking over new minimum zoning standards.
12. Add more “share the road” signs to alert drivers that roads are also used by cyclists and pedestrians. This is not a substitute for shared bike lanes; signs could be prioritized on smaller roads not part of the bike lane network.
Thank you for your consideration, feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Markus Marty
President, Bike Westport
This is ambitious material. Non of it will ever happen. I came across some very bicycle friendly towns while on my solo bicle trip across America. I wrote a book about bicycle centered utopian society. We might be able to make a few changes here and there but not enough to actually make Westport safe from cars, for non professional cyclists such as my self to ride about. Short of banning car or flattening westport and starting over i am skeptical. Take iowa for example, great place ride, they have oodles of space out there. Im afraid westport is doomed in this regard. However, it is a nice sentiment, imagine if…
While a great idea, perhaps Bike Westport doesn’t know about the upcoming ‘oversized for the area’ new development known as The Hamlet that will be breaking ground and causing tremendous disruption to this area soon. No way, you can do something like what they propose while all the construction will occur.
One beautiful thing Margaret is that the state has mandated that any money raised by the railroad is for improvements for bike lanes and pedestrian access !
So it’s not for our police dept to use as they wish. It is very specifically for access improvement.
No doubt this too will get brushed under the town rug
Seems like a good plan, its execution might be challenging. As many of us experience so many “near misses’ on the roads everyday it’s so frustrating and terrifying to be on the roads in any form. Just yesterday, I drove to Fresh Market at around 4:30pm. Two girls were trying to cross at the dreadful Compo/PostRoad intersection. They engaged the crosswalk signal to get the go ahead to cross. Just then, a driver ran the red light on the Post Road- nearly hitting one of the girls. Thankfully, her partner pulled her back off the road to safety. A woman in the market parking lot sped through the stop sign, ignoring it completely. Then, driving up North Compo to my home, I was behind 3 other cars all observing the posted speed limit. The driver behind me decided to pass all 4 of us at the curve into the opposite lane. ALL OF THIS WITHIN 15 MINUTES! I know many will hate this idea, but red light cameras might be useful….
A pity the focus is not on the crappy safety of the roads instead of the green add obsession. Sorry but no space for a lick of green as long as the roads are still utterly treacherous.