Calf Pasture Beach Road bike lanes: time to put paint to pavement

This plan for buffered bike lanes on Calf Pasture Beach Road can be installed this spring for the cost of a few buckets of paint.

Last fall, representatives from East Norwalk came together to support a new vision for Calf Pasture Beach Road. Mayor Moccia, Councilman Nick Kydes and State Rep Gail Lavielle joined a crowd of supporters from the Marvin Elementary PTA and other Norwalkers to call for bike lanes on Calf Pasture Beach Road. These bike lanes will not only create a vital recreational resource for Norwalk, they will also bring much needed safety to the dangerous crossing in front of Marvin Elementary. Currently, the schoolchildren who cross the street must contend with cars traveling in four lanes at highway speeds.

Norwalk leaders gave Calf Pasture Beach Road bike lanes their strong support last fall. With election season behind us, does that support still hold?

There is nearly unanimous support for Calf Pasture Beach Road bike lanes. The road is a feeder into two-lane Gregory Boulevard, so the four lanes are overkill. The stacking of cars on the road during Marvin Elementary pickup and drop-off times would still be permitted--although hopefully more of those parents will feel comfortable with their kids walking and biking to school. The city will get a solution to a hazardous road that has been a source of complaints from East Norwalkers for years.

These kids-turned-advocates don't want to wait any longer for a safe trip to school.

The small sidewalk feels safer when there are only bikes going by.

Furthermore, by moving forward with a paint-only solution, the city can improve Calf Pasture Beach Road at a very low cost. This is more a matter of will than money. The question is, does the support of Norwalk's leadership still hold and are they ready to make this happen? Sign the Calf Pasture Beach bike lane petition to let the city know this is important to you.

Coming soon: how the Calf Pasture Beach Road bike lanes can connect to the rest of town.

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

A new look for Wall Street could be coming soon

This vision of a new and improved Wall Street may happen in 2012.

Wall Street could be in for a big improvement this year. The redevelopment agency has plans to remake the hard-to-walk area by Fat Cat and Meigas into "Landmark Square", with calm traffic and attractive landscaping. The pavement will be replaced with red brick, trees will be planted along the sidewalks and the sidewalk in front of Meigas will be greatly expanded. This last step both creates a plaza and makes the intersection significantly safer. In short, this section of Wall Street will become a much more attractive place for restaurants and retail.

The current configuration has dangerous turning movements and poses challenges for the many pedestrians who cross here.

The traffic authority has tentatively approved the plan. The Department of Public Works is still in consultations, but they will hopefully give it their endorsement. Wall Street can't wait any longer for beautification and economic development.

Norwalk has too much empty parking

The Connecticut Avenue Stop & Shop provides far more parking than will ever be used. It would have been more practical to use that space for another business, creating a bit of the density that pedestrians crave.

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Washington Street is attractive precisely because it is lined with buildings, not parking lots.

Do you love attractive, pedestrian-oriented streets? Meet your enemy: the parking lot.

That parking lots are inhospitable places goes without saying. One parks their car then gets the heck out of there. But in our car-crazy world, parking lots can feel like a necessary evil. After all, most people drive everywhere and those cars need to be stored somewhere, right? What is a lover of pedestrian-friendly streets to do?

The first, obvious step is to make sure that parking lots aren't any bigger than they need to be. Only a few of Norwalk's parking lots are well-used. Most are never anywhere close to full. Surface parking lots cost about $5000 per spot. Why would a developer squander valuable money and land on unused parking spots? Because we require them to.

Planning & Zoning's minimum parking regulations ensure that every development in Norwalk has more-than-ample parking, at the cost of more productive and attractive uses of that space. Consider the ratio of space for business to the space for storing cars.

Business type	Active sqaure feet per parking spot	space for cars : space for people (based on 300 sq ft / parking spot)
Restaurant	45	6.7 : 1
Funeral Home	60	5.0 : 1
Take-out restaurant	100	3.0 : 1
Retail Stores	200	1.5 : 1
Medical Offices	200	1.5 : 1
Industry & Manufacturing	300	1.0 : 1
Other Offices	334 (370 in development parks)	0.9 (0.8) : 1
Retail Furniture Stores	400	0.8 : 1

In the most extreme example, restaurants are required to set aside nearly 7 times more space for cars than for people. Even the typical retail store must have 1 1/2 times more space for cars than for people.

Why should Norwalk require businesses to be more parking lot than business? We don't want Norwalk to be a city of parking lots. It's time to reevaluate these damaging regulations.

While some businesses will no doubt construct oodles of parking regardless of the regulations, we should leave that up to the business owner. It may be in their interest, but it's certainly not in Norwalk's. There should be no requirement to fill Norwalk with asphalt. And, if doing away with minimum parking requirements is too radical, let's at least start by paring them down.

Merritt 7. WTF?

The Merritt 7 office complex is disconnected from the train station, nearby housing and even from businesses across the street.

It's time to connect Merritt 7 with the world around it. Every day thousands of people commute to jobs in the office complex and yet they are trapped. If they want to walk to lunch they have to cross Main Avenue, with its speeding traffic and lack of crosswalks. The businesses along Main Ave may cater to the office workers from across the street, but they greet those workers with a parking lot rather than a walkway.

The train station and the office complex...so close and yet so far.

Commuters coming from Danbury or other points along the Route 7 corridor could, in theory, beat congestion and take the train. It stops literally a stone's throw from the office buildings. Unfortunately there is no way to get from the train station to the office buildings. Chain-link fencing and a high wall block the way.

These barriers combine to make walking impossible, so that even people living in the shadow of the office buildings can only reach them by driving.

Finally, the impression the Merritt 7 area makes on visiting business travelers is downright embarrassing. The walk from the Hilton, in particular, is missing stretches of sidewalk and requires walking through strip mall parking lots. I've even seen businesspeople walking in the roadway.

Norwalk can do better than this. Here's Livable Norwalk's plan to fix the Merritt 7 neighborhood.

1. Connect the train station to the office complex. Seriously, how is it possible that these two things are disconnected?
2. Build crosswalks and sidewalks along Main Avenue.
3. Encourage redevelopment of the existing strip malls into more productive mixed-use by bringing the frontage up to the sidewalk and making it safe and appealing for people to live, work and shop here.

It's time to leverage the success of Merritt 7 as a jobs center to build a successful neighborhood as well.

Re-imagining East Norwalk's Cemetery Loop

WHAT COULD BE: A cemetery loop that functions as a "downtown East Norwalk", appealing to people and businesses, replete with public spaces and places to walk.

CURRENTLY: High-speed one-way traffic and a neighborhood that lacks vitality.

One of the biggest barriers to pedestrian and bicycle movement in East Norwalk is the Cemetery Loop. Several moderately-trafficked two-lane streets converge on this high-speed raceway around the historic cemetery. Inside that cemetery is the burial place of Col. Thomas Fitch, the original Yankee Doodle, a potential tourist attraction unreachable due to the nature of the street. The dangerous design also hurts the area's retail and residential property values by reducing walkability and connectivity to the East Norwalk train station.

But enough about what's wrong...the question is, what can be done to revitalize the area? Here is the Livable Norwalk proposal, visualized above.

• All streets returned to two-way operation.
• Gregory Blvd connects directly with East Ave.
• New crosswalks plus a path through the cemetery create pedestrian connectivity.
• New public spaces are created at intersections to the north, southeast and east of the cemetery, reclaiming land now lost to asphalt.
• A modern roundabout is installed at the intersection of East Ave and Winfield St (Rt 136) to reduce the backup from the signalized intersection. This will also calm traffic entering the cemetery area.

Thomas "Yankee Doodle" Fitch wants more visitors. (from Matthew Fatale via findagrave.com)

The best part about this plan is that it is relatively inexpensive, primarily involving curbing work and existing entirely within the publicly-owned right-of-way. Its price-tag would certainly be less than $1 million, comparing favorably with the $5 million plan to widen East Avenue while having a much more transformative impact on the neighborhood.

Norwalk's most walkable neighborhoods

Via walkscore.com, this is a map of Norwalk's most walkable neighborhoods. Their algorithm is based on the number of amenities (schools, restaurants, grocery stores) within walking distance. How walkable is your neighborhood?

Oyster Shell Park work moving forward

The Oyster Shell Park plan, designed by the BSC Group.

What's that I see in Oyster Shell Park? Yellow trucks, overgrowth being cut...could it be the long-awaited project to make Oyster Shell Park a destination is finally beginning?

Yes, according to project manager Susan Sweitzer from the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency:

The contractor is beginning the work and will be doing substantial clearing of invasive brush prior to doing a site survey. Following that, the rough grading will begin. The contractor has agreed to try and work through the winter in which case the Park improvements will be completed in 6 months. If they are forced into a winter shut-down, then the project landscaping will likely be pushed off to the Fall 2012.

Let's hope for a mild winter and continued progress. We've been waiting a long time for this!

Why Livable Streets? My presentation at the CT Bike Walk Summit

Thanks to everybody who came to my presentation today at the Connecticut Bike Walk Summit. I'm sharing it here for your reference and for those who couldn't make it out.

The presentation went over the various arguments for livable streets--both data behind these arguments and their usefulness for local advocacy. If you have any questions or comments, please drop me an email at davidmarcus@gmail.com.

New complete streets supporters join Norwalk's council

Dave McCarthy from District E is poised to become the council's biggest champion for walkable and bikeable development.

Note: This post indicates that John Tobin won reelection, based on the best count available at time of publication. After all votes were tallied and recounted, John Tobin fell nine votes short of reelection. Please keep in mind that correction. Sorry to see you go, John.

The results are in, and livability will have some great champions for the next two years. Sadly, we've lost supporters as well. Thanks to those outgoing council members who have worked for better walking and biking over the years.

Thank you as well to the candidates who filled out the Livable Norwalk survey. Dave McCarthy, Matt Miklave, Bruce Kimmel and John Tobin showed through strong statements of support that they are in touch with their community's priorities for more walkable and bikeable streets. Norwalk's voters rewarded their efforts.

57% of candidates who filled out Livable Norwalk's candidate survey won last night. Only 45% of candidates who did not take a stand made it through.

Here are some highlights from the winners last night...

• Mayor Moccia
• Supports bike lanes on Calf Pasture Beach Rd, the Norwalk Harbor Loop and Norwalk River Valley Trails, and transit-oriented development.
• Gave a great defense of walkable development during one of the debates, culminating with: "It's going to be hard to break the car culture...in Norwalk."

(from The Daily Norwalk)

• John Tobin, At-large council
• Calls for sidewalk repair and traffic calming to be done alongside repaving work
• Endorses the Calf Pasture Beach Road bike lanes
• Anna Duleep, At-large council
• Has worked on the SWRPA board for transit-oriented development
• Wants Norwalk to be a destination, says "our small businesses will benefit from added foot traffic"
• Fred Bondi, At-large council
• Says "I will continue to support improvements to our parks and beach, and I will continue to support trafficcalming and to improve our neighborhoods"
• Matt Miklave, District A
• Wants "to encourage those coming to Norwalk for shopping, dinner or recreation to leave their cars behind and connect -- by walking trail, bicycle, streetcar or boat -- with the rest of Norwalk"
• On the Harbor Loop Trail, "I would press the City to move forward in an aggressive way to make the trail fully accessible year-round. It is a real gem and we do ourselves a great disservice by letting it languish."
• On Calf Pasture Beach Road bike lanes, "I... support the creation of bike lanes whenever and wherever possible. I confess that I am not fully familiar with the plan for Cafe Pasture Beach bike lanes, but I would approach that project with a bias toward making it work.



Councilman Nick Kydes (2nd from left) and Mayor Moccia (2nd from right), seen here endorsing Calf Pasture Beach bike lanes, were reelected last night.

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• Nick Kydes, District C
• An avid cyclist, Nick Kydes gave a full-throated endorsement to Calf Pasture Beach Road bike lanes.
• Bruce Kimmel, District D
• Calls for repairing our sidewalks and footpaths and filling in gaps
• On Calf Pasture Beach Road bike lanes, "Yes, I support the initiative at Calf Pasture Beach. I live in Cranbury; wouldn’t it be great to get on a bike, head down to the beach, with a quick stop to check out the river?"
• Dave McCarthy, District E
• Walkable and bikeable development were a central part of his platform.
• One of his op-eds began, "The importance of bike and ped planning to create a livable, walkable and bikeable city became very evident to me today."

Congrats to all of our new representatives. We look forward to working with you to build a more walkable, bikeable and livable Norwalk.

John Tobin, At-Large Council Candidate: Calm Traffic When Repaving Roads

John Tobin (R) (from Re-Elect John Tobin)

Our final response to the Norwalk candidate survey comes from John Tobin, candidate for Council At-Large. I particularly like John's idea of tying sidewalk and traffic calming improvements to the city's annual road paving work.

(1) safe streets - Should Norwalk have a program for installing traffic calming devices? (For example: pedestrian islands, curb bump outs, speed bumps, neck-downs or similar technology) How should widespread resident concerns about speeding and pedestrian safety be addressed?

I am in favor of certain traffic calming devices, such as islands, curb bump outs and neck downs. While I believe that speed bumps in certain areas made sense, the Fire Department and other emergency services do not want any more in the city. When we receive the recommended street paving list, we need to analyze the streets on the list and see if any of those roads need traffic calming devices before proceeding with the paving. We may need to put aside a portion of the road paving capital budget funding for traffic calming. 

(2) sustainable development - The desire of people to walk or bike is affected by the way their community is constructed. Large parking lots, wide roads, or businesses set far back from the street have a negative impact on walkability. Would you support initiatives to promote walkable development?

This would be an item for the Planning Commission and the Zoning Commission to address. I would encourage those commissions to look at proposals to enhance walkability.



(3) pedestrian infrastructure - Many of Norwalk's busy arterials have incomplete sidewalks. Often Norwalk pedestrians must walk in the roadway or scramble along the side of the road. Would you support an initiative to complete these sidewalks?

I have always believed that when we do road paving and reconstruction, the sidewalks and footpaths should be repaired as part of the project. The issue comes down to funding. We did put $350,000 into footpath reconstruction, and the next council needs to push forward with this project. 



(4) bicycle infrastructure - Norwalk is currently lacking any formal bike lanes or bike routes. Our bike paths exist only in short, disconnected segments. Would you support completing the Norwalk Harbor Loop Trail and the Norwalk River Valley Trail? Will you support dedicated funding for low-cost infrastructure such as bike lanes or bike routes that could be rolled out on a large scale?

I would support bike lanes where they are feasible. These projects also would need to be incorporated into the overall road paving plan. I would support funding Trails that are already in the works and partially completed, depending on the availability and priority of capital projects.

(5) calf pasture beach project - Do you support the plan to add bike lanes to Calf Pasture Beach Road?

Yes, Calf Pasture Beach Road is the ideal spot for bike lanes.

(6) other - Please share any further thoughts you have on how we can build a more walkable, bikeable and livable Norwalk.

We have a already dedicated capital funds to walkable and bikeable areas. I will continue to advocate for more sidewalk and footpath repairs, these two areas are one of my top priorities for capital funding. There will be a need going forward to keep business and property owners informed as well as those in the biking community. We need to avoid situations like the Seaview Ave signage that have occured.

In these tough economic times, we do need to keep in mind the cost associated with these projects, and as always prioritize all capital expenditures.