This was the scene on Wednesday (and on many other days over the years) on Scarborough Street.
The bike lane is not where you (or your landscapers) should put the leaves. The leaf collection guide on the City of Hartford website specifies that leaves should be placed on the curb: not in the roadway to interfere with traffic, not the sidewalk to interfere with pedestrians.
Besides the “wrong” part of this, it is dangerous to cyclists, particularly on this street where cars move quickly. Riding through the leaf piles is not an option and swerving puts the cyclists into the car lane. The bike lane is there for a reason.
I get that you have lots of trees, but there are homeowners on this same street who have the same number and type of trees and managed just fine to keep their leaf piles out of the way of pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicles.
John Prytko
As a regular biker on the trails and streets, this would not be a pleasant outcome in my town of Manchester.
I only hope the Town Department will clean up the leaves before it becomes a hazard to bikers or drivers.