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NORWALK, Conn. – Calf Pasture Beach Road has grown quieter, according to one avid Norwalk cyclist who sees a "definite improvement" with the freshly painted lines on the road.
More people are riding their bikes to the beach since the city installed a shared bike lane, the result of months of activism and political debate, Ed Torres said. Drivers aren't honking at cyclists anymore, he said.
The outside lane has been widened to 14 feet and the inside lane narrowed to 10 feet after a decision made at the July 31 traffic commission meeting to favor "sharrows" over other options. With sharrows, signs indicate that drivers must share the road, and symbols indicate that the outside lane is also for cyclists.
Rosemary Bianco, a Norwalker who was at the beach Thursday, said the signs changed her behavior right away. She automatically goes to the inside lane, because she needs to be there anyway to show her beach sticker to the attendant.
Other beachgoers hadn't noticed. "I did not see that, but I am glad to hear about it because I like to ride my bike here," said Betsy Conti.
But "there is still a long learning curve ahead" for both drivers and cyclists, one activist said. Drivers are still speeding in the outside lane when cyclists are there, Mike Mushak said. Bikers are not sure whether they should follow the arrow directly or stay to the right.
"I had to stop to explain to a biker in the left lane that the 'share the road' signs still meant bikers needed to follow the rules of the road, which is stay to the right, and not drive down the middle of the road!" Mushak said in an email.
Another activist, Peter Libre said in an email, bikers would have preferred a dedicated bike lane. "But there are positive aspects: paint and signage on Beach Road acknowledges cyclists, and the city is beginning to consider that roads should work for all users, not just motorists," he said.
Comments (9)
The few times I tried the road with the new markings there was very little traffic and I was in the car lane and another car was in the bike lane, apparently oblivious. There were no bikes and the new markings do seem to have slowed traffic. It will take a while, and better signage, to educate drivers.
@Old Timer
The right lane is a shared lane for bikes AND cars, with extra space for bicycles on the right side of the lane. Both lanes are still open for use by motor vehicles, but the markings acknowledge that cyclists have a right to be there. Something to make walking safer would be great too, but I believe that will take significantly more time.
The bike lane advocates had presented false and misleading information to the public, the Common Council and the Norwalk Traffic Authority including traffic statistics and citing master plans. And a few offensive blog comments put them over the top. Thanks to the Norwalk Traffic Authority including commissioner Pete Torrano who took the time to research all the information presented by these people and discovered the complete lack of credibility of the so called Beach Road safety group including the ones quoted in this story. The shared roadway is a good compromise. I really would like to know how Mushak can say that motorists are still speeding. Does he have radar in his eye balls? The Norwalk Traffic Authority has exposed these people for what they are...a bunch of liars in order to push their agenda.
David, great to see you think the sharrows are a good compromise. We all do, even if they were not our first choice! When you stated in the Common Council hearing on Beach Rd., as the very first speaker, that cyclists always broke the law and did not belong on roads at all, it freaked a lot of us out as we always thought you were on board with the idea of bike lanes in Norwalk, as a member of the NRVT steering committee representing Norwalk. I think you could accept that the initial negative reaction towards you, which may be a source of this lingering and unproductive animosity, is due to this testimony which was passionate and from your heart, but completely unexpected and a shock. We all get passionate and say things we may regret afterwards, and that has been true in this process by many of us on both sides of this issue. Now that you agree the sharrows are a good compromise, it is good new for many of us that you are not so anti-bike as you had first indicated.
Calling us liars, with a lack of credibility, as "discovered" by Traffic Authority member Pete Torrano is completely unfair, and we would like you to explain that further, or to hear that from Mr. Torrano himself, as we were simply basing our support of the vehicle-free lane on 2 recently published studies paid for by taxpayers. One was by Fitzgerald and Halliday, commissioned by Planning and Zoning and downloadable off the city website, page 32 under "Final Recommendations", for Beach Rd. which recommends either 2-10 ft. lanes and a 4 ft bike lane, or as it states, a more "progressive approach" of a vehicle-free lane with a wide striped buffer strip and a 6 ft bike/pedestrian lane. There was no mention of sharrows in that "Final Recommendations" section on page 32. A further description on page 61 of that study is a full page section devoted to sharrows which specifically recommends against their use in travel lanes that are wide enough for bike lanes as on Beach Rd. They go on to say that sharrows should only be used on roads that are too narrow for bike lanes, which is based on national standards. A graphic appearance of the word "sharrow" on Beach Rd. did appear in a preliminary "task 2" conceptual plan in that study, but did not make the final "task 4" recommendations for Beach Rd. Perhaps that is where some confusion by Mr. Torrano occurred.
The other study that recommends the vehicle-free lane on Beach Rd, and not the sharrows, is by The Alta Group, commissioned by the NRVT (which you are on the steering committee for as mentioned, and which you should be commended for), which shows cross sections and a verbal description of the vehicle free lane on page 55, downloadable off the NRVT website. An even third recommendation of a road diet was verbal, in a site meeting, but unofficial, by a consultant to the DPW Traffic Study., which has not been published yet. I can understand if the last one was questionable by Mr. Torrano, as it was not published, but the other 2 are published studies 'final recommendations' as described, neither of which recommend sharrows. I really would like to find out what you and Mr. Torrano are talking about when saying we misrepresented these studies. They are there for anyone to confirm, online.
However, now that the sharrows are installed, they are better than nothing for sure, and a step in the right direction, which you also agree with, so lets move on. I think they do make the road safer, which were in my comments to Nancy Chapman in the article but she chose not to include them. I still see some folks speeding in that outside lane (although not as many as before which is very positive), not with my radar eyes as you suggest, but by pure observation, since I know the difference between 25 mph and 45 mph when on a bike going 10 mph within inches of a passing car. We all need to learn better habits, both drivers and cyclists, and on that issue I am sure we all agree. Continuing enforcement on that stretch will help, including much needed education of cyclists in Norwalk as to what their rules of the road are. That's something we can all work on together someday, I hope.
There is so much work to do together, and I think we both have said things we regret, and should perhaps apologize to each other for, in person. I hope you are willing to do that, as I am. Your amazing contributions to kayaking, the NRVT steering committee, cemetery restoration (which we worked on together and I saw how effective you were in ridding Pine Island of vandalism with new lighting, etc.) and so many other issues over the years in Norwalk are all worthy of praise and admiration.
It hurts all of the good folks who wanted a safer Beach Rd for themselves and their families, as well as all Norwalkers, to be called names for fighting for what they truly believe in, based on published professional studies by nationally recognized firms that their taxpayer dollars paid for. I don't think the consultants were "lying", or had any devious "agenda", beyond giving the best advice they could based on actual conditions and national best management practices that cities across the country are following. You don't have to agree with their professional conclusions, but many of us do, and we are not horrible people, nor should we be your enemies, for doing so.
Hope you are enjoying Martha's Vineyard, and I look forward to seeing you at the NRVT routing study celebration on October 6th, if not before.
Mike Mushak
Three observations:
1) The new striping which creates a narrower inside lane does reduce my urge to go much faster than the speed limit on Calf Pasture Beach Road. I think the old striping which created wide straight lanes made motorists feel very comfortable flooring the gas pedal. It used to feel like I was moving at a snail's pace if I drove 25 or 30 mph on that road. It no longer feels that way, probably because of the narrower inside lane and the sharrows. I hope that others feel the same and this will last. If I take the outside lane and follow the speed limit, it seems that few if any cars pass me at a much faster speed.
2) The sharrows are painted almost in the center of the outside lanes. I'm curious as to why this is. I would think they should be as far as possible to the right, so as to communicate that cyclists need to stay all the way to the right.
3) David Marcus and the group advocating for the bike lane deserve praise for pushing to make this happen. While we didn't get exactly what we wanted, this is a lot better than nothing, and I believe there's a plan for the sidewalks to be addressed too. I hope this improvement is just the beginning and there will be continued efforts to make other parts of Norwalk more bike and pedestrian friendly.
We'll see. It is going to take a while to get drivers educated to staying out of the bike lane. I wonder if double solid lines seperating the lanes would help.
Kinda hard to state anything at all definitive about this yet. Personally I think it a silly idea & think we will see it go away after awhile. A bike path might be a good idea but trying to create chicken soup out of chicken manure never works. I'v heard other proposals for bike lanes around the city but if they follow the thinking, or lack there of, that the beach road one did I dont expect much. I'v been riding a bicycle here for at least 34 years & never had much issue. What trouble I'v had has more to do with traffic volume than road width.
The way I see it this made things LESS safe for people because drivers are still going to go as fast as they choose and bikers will be enboldened, its never a good thing to fight a car with a bicycle. Also, regardless of the rhetoric the roads are there for vehicular traffic. We pay alot of money in car taxes in this city and I'd think that deserves recognition by those who like to bike on these roads. They dont exist because of cyclists, they exist because of motorists. We dont need to tax bicycles, but we need to be honest about who funds things & why they are there. I know we say bikes dont belong on sidewalks, but I'm not sure I understand how or why they have a greater right to interfere with motorists who pay for road use than sidewalk users. When I ride I use both depending on the situation.
@Ken P Jr, actually the property taxes on vehicles are not enough to pay for roads, the roads are in fact subsidized by property taxes on buildings, competing with all the rest of the infrastructure needs of the city.
@Ken P
Perhaps I'm reading too much into your comment but it seems like you view vehicles/bicycles as an either/or for our roads. It doesn't have to be that way. Cyclists and motorists can and should co-exist for many reasons including public health, recreation, and the environment. I'll be the first to admit that many cyclists need to start respecting the rules of the road, but so do plenty of motorists. Education is the answer to that issue.
Also, I'd wager that more than 90% of cyclists pay property and/or vehicle taxes too, so it's not as though cyclists don't contribute anything to road construction and maintenance.