This top photo shows Park Terrace, southbound. The building on the left is an elementary school — Burns — and to the right of the sidewalk is the Bankside Grove segment of Pope Park.
North of this view is Pope Park North and people’s homes:
A few minutes north of here is the Sigourney Street CTfastrak station, along with an I-84 entrance and exit ramp.
Follow Park Terrace south and it intersects with Park Street. Follow it north and it becomes Sigourney Street, which eventually intersects with Albany Avenue.
What you’re looking at is a high-speed road cutting through a residential neighborhood, even with the roundabout under construction. Though traffic has been significantly restricted by construction closures, this one too-wide lane remains open. Vehicles speed up the hill, far exceeding anything acceptable in a school zone.
Though I have seen crashes and their aftermath — signs and poles destroyed, glass and car fragments littering the ground — in this area frequently over the years, I have never seen enforcement of traffic laws by the Park Terrace/Sigourney/Russ intersection.
Currently, the sidewalks have road closure signs, though one is along the lane that has been permitted to remain open for cars. Though no construction has been happening the last few weeks, the sidewalk closure remains in effect. None of the sidewalk on the west side of the street has been dug up during construction, but all of the street lights have been removed from this area.
Who walks here? I could cite the number of residents who do not have ready access to private vehicles, but I find that boring. All you need to do is show up and look around at Park Street on a morning when extreme cold weather warnings are flashing on every news site; you will see nearly as many people going to and from shops as you would on a nicer day.
So, who walks here? People going from the bus station to Park Street. Families walking their kids to school from Asylum Hill. Anyone needing to catch one of the buses down on Capitol Avenue. Maybe some folks are out to get their exercise, but by and large, people are walking (or cycling, or using wheelchairs) for practical reasons.
From looking at what portion of the redesign has already happened, it’s hard to know if this will benefit all road users. So much imagination is required to envision how the final product will look and work. The plans do not appear to have been published for the general public to see. (My attempt to locate them reminds me that the City of Hartford continues to lack accessibility — phone numbers but not email addresses have been provided for City employees; we also see this in Mayor Bronin’s COVID-19 updates that are video only with no transcript).
All I can say is what appears in front of me.
It looks like the slip lane running north to east from Park Terrace to Russ Street is going away.
I am unable to tell if the straightaway (pictured below) will remain as is or become part of the roundabout. If nothing happens with it, then we know this whole project was nothing but for show.
How are cyclists and pedestrians to use this?
I know that those changes are coming in a second phase, which tells us again that we are second class citizens, much like Mayor Bronin’s announcement yesterday, before the nor’easter, that “It may take us a few days to get to all the sidewalks and crosswalks around the city.” As with this snow event, pedestrians are left to wonder how we are supposed to get where we are going when our portion of the road has been treated as an afterthought.
Think Beyond Cars
This top photo shows Park Terrace, southbound. The building on the left is an elementary school — Burns — and to the right of the sidewalk is the Bankside Grove segment of Pope Park.
North of this view is Pope Park North and people’s homes:
A few minutes north of here is the Sigourney Street CTfastrak station, along with an I-84 entrance and exit ramp.
Follow Park Terrace south and it intersects with Park Street. Follow it north and it becomes Sigourney Street, which eventually intersects with Albany Avenue.
What you’re looking at is a high-speed road cutting through a residential neighborhood, even with the roundabout under construction. Though traffic has been significantly restricted by construction closures, this one too-wide lane remains open. Vehicles speed up the hill, far exceeding anything acceptable in a school zone.
Though I have seen crashes and their aftermath — signs and poles destroyed, glass and car fragments littering the ground — in this area frequently over the years, I have never seen enforcement of traffic laws by the Park Terrace/Sigourney/Russ intersection.
Currently, the sidewalks have road closure signs, though one is along the lane that has been permitted to remain open for cars. Though no construction has been happening the last few weeks, the sidewalk closure remains in effect. None of the sidewalk on the west side of the street has been dug up during construction, but all of the street lights have been removed from this area.
Who walks here? I could cite the number of residents who do not have ready access to private vehicles, but I find that boring. All you need to do is show up and look around at Park Street on a morning when extreme cold weather warnings are flashing on every news site; you will see nearly as many people going to and from shops as you would on a nicer day.
So, who walks here? People going from the bus station to Park Street. Families walking their kids to school from Asylum Hill. Anyone needing to catch one of the buses down on Capitol Avenue. Maybe some folks are out to get their exercise, but by and large, people are walking (or cycling, or using wheelchairs) for practical reasons.
From looking at what portion of the redesign has already happened, it’s hard to know if this will benefit all road users. So much imagination is required to envision how the final product will look and work. The plans do not appear to have been published for the general public to see. (My attempt to locate them reminds me that the City of Hartford continues to lack accessibility — phone numbers but not email addresses have been provided for City employees; we also see this in Mayor Bronin’s COVID-19 updates that are video only with no transcript).
All I can say is what appears in front of me.
It looks like the slip lane running north to east from Park Terrace to Russ Street is going away.
I am unable to tell if the straightaway (pictured below) will remain as is or become part of the roundabout. If nothing happens with it, then we know this whole project was nothing but for show.
How are cyclists and pedestrians to use this?
I know that those changes are coming in a second phase, which tells us again that we are second class citizens, much like Mayor Bronin’s announcement yesterday, before the nor’easter, that “It may take us a few days to get to all the sidewalks and crosswalks around the city.” As with this snow event, pedestrians are left to wonder how we are supposed to get where we are going when our portion of the road has been treated as an afterthought.
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