Blog - 10/12/11 - Bike Lane Speech Given at New Canaan Town Hall Meeting
This is a speech that I gave at an open town hall meeting in the town of New Canaan on October 12, 2011. The town created a committee to come up with a master plan for the town that included improvements to town hall or the construction of a new town hall at a different site in town. At this meeting the committee came up with three scenarios all of which focused on spending 20 to 40 million on the upgrade of the town hall building.
“I’d like to address the parking situation in the Town of New Canaan. The committee has done a good job thinking about the supply of parking in town, but they haven’t done a good job going over ways to decrease the demand for parking. One way to decrease demand is to make the town more pedestrian friendly by adding sidewalks such as the sidewalks proposed for Main Street and Farm Road. Another way to reduce the demand for parking is to incorporate a network of bike lanes in and around the town center in the town’s Master Plan.
I have a son in Saxe Middle School. When the weather is good he rides his bike to and from school. Most kids at Saxe don’t ride their bikes to school and many that do are told by their parents to ride on the South Avenue sidewalk. Parents don’t think that it is safe enough to let their kids bike to school on the road. When school lets out, the kids trying to bike home on South have to share the sidewalk with pedestrians and their dogs and their strollers. Bikes are vehicles and are supposed to be in the road.
The speed limit on South Avenue is 30 miles per hour but it’s not really enforced so the majority of cars on South Avenue actually travel at 40 miles per hour. A pedestrian hit by a car moving at 30mph has a 45% chance of dying; at 40mph, the chance of death is 85%. At 20mph, the chance of dying is 5%.
South Avenue between Farm and Elm and the bystreets connected to that stretch of road account for hundreds of houses, three schools, and probably thousands of people. If bike lanes were to be put on each side of the South Avenue and the speed limit was 20mph when bikes are present, it would make it safer for cyclists and safe enough for the parents of cyclists to allow their kids to ride their bikes in the road. Including these bike lanes in the Master Plan could be the first of a future network of bike lanes in and around the town center.”
That concludes what I said at the podium, but I also wanted to say the following:
In Amsterdam, Copenhagen & Berlin motor vehicles allowed near cyclists are subject to what’s called “traffic calming”. They must slow down to about 20mph, a speed that, in case of collision, kills less than 5%. Police strictly enforce these speed limits with hefty fines. Repeat offenders lose their licenses. That is why dying while cycling is three to five times more likely in America than in Denmark, Germany or the Netherlands.
Traffic congestion and parking congestion produces the 'demand' for more roads, bigger roads and more parking lots and the removal of 'impediments' to traffic flow, such as pedestrians, signalized crossings, traffic lights, cyclists and public transportation. These measures make automobile use more pleasurable and advantageous at the expense of other modes of transport.
Automobile dependency is a condition that occurs when cars are the predominant mode of transportation in a town and it’s a symptom of suburban sprawl. As automobile dependency intensifies, the residents’ freedom of choice about the way they move around their town diminishes.
In conclusion, I strongly urge the committee to include in the Master Plan a bike lane on each side of South Ave. between Farm and Elm with “traffic calming” speed limits that are vigorously enforced, and if these bike lanes prove to be successful through frequent use, I urge the committee to build out in the future a network of bike lanes in and around the town center.
Bizarrely, my son Victor who turned 11 years old less than a week before was hit by a car a week after I gave this speech at town hall. He was on his way to school on South Avenue and he stopped at a red light on Bank Street, and when the light turned green, he started cycling, and a red pickup truck that was stopped at the light next to him didn't see him, made a right turn onto Bank Street, collided with Victor and knocked him off his bike and then left the scene of the crime. Victor bruised both his knees and the chain fell off the sprocket and the bike seat was turned clockwise by 40 degrees. Victor walked the bike to school, and at the end of the day he "punched" the seat until it was straight and he managed to get the chain on the sprockets by himself for the first time. He rode the bike home and has continued to ride the bike to and from school. He only started riding to and from school in September of this year. It was a good learning experience for him.