Instead of screaming into the void of Twitter, I bring you a weekly highlight reel of what it’s like going places in Greater Hartford when one is gloriously car-free. These posts are on a slight time delay because nobody needs to know exactly where I am when I am there.
THE GOOD NEWS
SB4 made it out of committee. This means we’re one step (one rotation?) closer to getting CHEAPR rebates for e-bikes, among other things, which you can read about here.
To celebrate this, a few pics from New Haven, as two of the key organizers are from that part of the state.
Shout out to the train for taking me to New Haven! (Is a train shout out anything other than “CHOO CHOO”?)
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
The disappointing news: you already know. Climate arson is being subsidized even more heavily. More about that in a second.
Better News: Fares are suspended on CTtransit local, CTfastrak, and express buses! The express bus fare being waived is the surprise. This is from April 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022.
IMPROVISED WEAPON OF THE WEEK
I wanted to call this #ShivOfTheWeek because it cuts right to the point and I assumed everyone would get it, but a totally unscientific poll on Twitter revealed that 100% of those bothering to respond are purists about language, at least when it comes to this:
As I say it aloud, I realize #ShivOfTheWeek could be easily misread as Shiva of the Week, and those are two very different things.
I keep coming back to this “Scary, Not Scared” theme. Can’t help it. It’s the product of being socialized to eat shit and lash out later. . . except I’ve largely rejected this (see: doesn’t have many friends because unwilling to smile & nod, and then talk smack about the person only after she leaves the room). . . and I think that there are drivers who treat pedestrians and cyclists like dirt because they perceive us as weak and pathetic. Vulnerable because we aren’t wearing cars? Sure. Defenseless? Think again.
Carrying pepper spray is cool and all, but that’s for squirting people and rabid dogs. Maybe it’ll damage the paint job. Maybe not. Why waste good mace when “every tool is a weapon, if you hold it right“?
This week, my improvised weapon was a jar of pasta sauce in my purse. So, more slock than shiv.
Do I want to smash a jar of sauce? Not really. I’m looking forward to my spaghetti dinner. Am I willing to trash an old, ten dollar, ratty purse with a long strap while swinging the weaponized bag against a vehicle that has been driven too close to me when I’m in a crosswalk?
DREAMS
I don’t understand people who are like “nobody wants to listen to someone talk about their dreams.” I want to hear about your dreams. The weirder the better. This is always more engaging than the dull “how are you? fine” exchanges that pass as communication. So, I’m sharing last night’s dream here because it shows how transportation has thoroughly permeated my brain. Feel free to share your own dreams — transportation related or not — in the comments.
The Dream: I was up in Boston for the day because I had tickets to a Red Sox game, but also because a friend (from real life) and a comedian/musician (who is real but I’ve never met) were going to perform a number at Fenway, I guess during the seventh inning stretch. (I do not think this friend has any musical talents in reality and probably should not be singing to a stadium, ever) The comedian/musician asked me on Twitter if I played piano. I lied and said I did. Then, I got roped into performing with them, and was terrified about being obviously found out. Apparently, we were going to perform a song without practicing first, and without me even knowing what it would be. I may have been a dreamworld liar, but if you’re gonna wing it this hard with strangers, you get what you get.
I arrived to my seat hours early, as I would do in real life if nobody stopped me. But I realized I was wearing black shoes, black pants, and white socks. This was not okay. I had time, so I left a few things on my seat and exited the stadium, planning to pop into a store to buy black socks. I get on a bus. I have never taken a bus in Boston. In the dream I did not know where the bus was going. But, I got on anyway, and then took a light snooze, waking up at the city outskirts, where everything became quasi-suburban, but also industrial. I pulled the bus cord, which was more like a lamp cord — not ideal — and got off in an industrial wasteland. The bus driver was even like “are you sure this is your stop?”. I get off the bus to see that it had been lightly snowing and somewhere on this adventure I lost my shoes. And socks.
Now, I’m lost, have no phone, and seem to have left my wallet back at Fenway. I start walking back, or what I think is the direction to go in. It looks like the KMart is empty, and there’s nothing else around, so guess I’m not getting socks of any color, or shoes.
When all hope is gone, out of nowhere comes a friend from Hartford on his cargo bike, which he (in the dream, and not in real life, as far as I know) upgraded to electric. He’ll bring me back to the stadium, he says, but first wants to stop to look at something. I’m like “the game starts in under and hour, and I have no idea how far away we even are. . . I don’t have time for this. . .” so I commandeer his electric cargo bike and start riding on a snowy bike path — still barefoot. I’m more bothered by the possibility of stepping on glass or being hassled at the park for being barefoot than I am about having frozen, naked feet.
I make it back to the stadium in time. Not sure where I stashed the borrowed-without-permission bike. Sadly, I woke up before finding out how I managed the musical performance, but at least I made it before game time.
FUELING ADDICTIONS
Now that people’s gasoline addiction is being subsidized even more, I have to ask when I will get my break.
My lattes* are expensive as fuck. I mean, sure, I could seek out an alternative. I could make my own at home. I could find a cheaper supplier. I could drink fewer and in smaller quantities.
But I’m an American. This is America.
I want what I want when I want it, and even if it’s shitty for me and for the planet, I am entitled to it. Why aren’t legislators cutting down coffee prices? This is an outrage!
What about the price of wine? Coping with the stupidity of premature demaskulation is not cheap! It’d be more expensive if I were sitting sardinish at a bar, getting a double Covid on the rocks, but I’m not. I’m at home.
How about cigs? Do you know how much tax is on those babies?! I’ll tell you. In Connecticut, it’s $4.35 in taxes per 20 pack. (Connecticut’s gas tax, before suspended, was 25 cents per gallon…so, umm, yeah.) I don’t smoke right now, but if I make it to 65 I’ll probably let myself have this habit as a treat. Will I be able to afford it then?! Won’t someone think of the future senior citizens?!
Why aren’t legislators dropping sales tax for other items? Do you have any idea how much it costs to build a collection of erotic art? Talk about pain at the pump!
At no time during this supposed oppression of the gasoline dependent did we see a substantial reduction in idling nor an increase in carpooling. At a non-emergency event at the State Armory, massive police vehicles were idling for at least half an hour, but I’d put money on it being hours. People continued to choose to queue up in drive-thru lines. The behavior did not match the rhetoric.
When low- and no-income people receive assistance, they are expected to appear poor. That is, they are scolded for dressing in designer clothes, enjoying an expensive coffee, or having a beer now and then. Did they dare order avocado toast when they should’ve been swallowing their spit to stay alive?! But when it comes to the middle class, the same standards do not hold. They get bailed out and do not have to show any need for it.
Connecticut’s pause on the gas tax is not the worst. We could be California, where those who own cars are being handsomely rewarded with gift cards at $400 apiece, regardless of income level. Too poor to own a car? Well, fuck you then!
Remember, folks: when middle class people leverage the poor for their causes, the sentiment is rarely legit. They care about the poor when there’s gas tax, tolls, or red light cameras involved. Those panhandling at intersections? They’re the wrong kind of poor. You won’t hear any concern about them.
Do I sound a touch bitchy? It’s only because I’m experiencing an identity crisis. See, I’ve been told that I’m privileged since I can walk, bike, or take the bus to my job, the supermarket, wherever I need to go.
You heard that right: privileged.
Do you want to know how to be privileged like me?
There’s one easy trick: live in a neighborhood that most of your white and upwardly mobile peers turn their noses up at, even though they dutifully stick #BlackLivesMatter signs on their lawns. Live where those folks would never send their kids to school.
Live in a neighborhood that those folks did not even consider when buying a home, even though they could have the same number of bedrooms, the same square footage, for half of what they’re paying the next town over.
This comes down to owning one’s choices. Don’t want to live next to people who look different from you, earn less money than you? Say it out loud. Want to live in a rural area? Own it. Want to drive a land yacht? Own it, and pay for it.
The first to say that buses are a waste of taxpayer’s money are the same begging for a handout at the gas pump. They could’ve lived closer to work. They could’ve bought an electric car. They could be carpooling. They could’ve chosen a different career entirely. But instead, they’re taking part in climate arson. Enjoy the sounds from the world’s tiniest violin.
In the meantime, am I privileged to have made choices that allow me to walk to work, or am I to be pitied/shunned for living in a neighborhood that makes your skin crawl? Pick one and stick to it. Neither answer is correct, anyway.
ENJOYING THE SIGHTS
Cuffs
(Apologies for the lack of pictures for this one)
Walking to work and one of those unnecessarily large pickup trucks passes me. Nothing unusual there. Then I see it. Them. Two shiny, shiny handcuffs of metal dangling off the back.
That is a lot to process so early in the morning, before my non-subsidized coffee.
Are these handcuffs signaling something?
The driver’s kink?
Penchant for vigilante justice?
Support for police?
I wondered, is this a new trend, and if so, may a lowly person not wearing a car don cuffs?
Is this more or less sophisticated than truck nutz?
Are these the latest in that evolution? Truck nuts to stuffed toys to handcuffs?
Anyone want to unpack that?
Toughs
The best debris I came upon this week:
BUS ROUTE DIET
Even though I have not been a West End resident for years I’m still on the West End Civic Association email list, and any time I’m tempted to ask to be off it, I get a gem that I would not have found otherwise. This is how I learned that there is a proposal to eliminate “two” bus stops from the section of Farmington Avenue that is in the West End. Now, the information from WECA tells me this is out of five, but if you ride this route, you know it feels like 15 million. I think, the best I can make of this, is that WECA is counting two stops across the street from each other as one, even though they are going in opposite directions? That makes no sense. Looking at the map, there are actually ten stops in the West End. Only three of those currently have shelters.
Granted, the study is also suggesting amenity improvements, but I know people like to do things in phases, and sometimes those phases mean taking something away because it’s easy, while the additions might take forever, and if you’ve been around long enough, you know how many times government likes to make promises and then years later be like “money ran out. my bad.”
So, even though there are recommendations for new shelters or any shelters at all, I’m giving my opinion on this with the perspective of I’ll believe it when I see it.
One of the three sheltered stops in the West End, also the busiest outside of downtown, is proposed for removal: the one in front of the KFC. This makes no sense, but I would support moving it to in front of the Stereo Shop, knowing how furious it would make the owner who came out to a Planning & Zoning meeting to say as much years back. Am I that petty? Yes. But seriously, I don’t know what logic there is at cutting what is indisputably the most used stop in the West End. The one at Farmington and South Whitney on the south side makes more sense to remove, though I don’t think that’s necessary.
The corresponding stop across the street (was that proposed to go?) by Girard is by a drug store, several other shops, and the incoming food truck bonanza. . . so to me, this is another no-brainer to keep.
There are certainly plenty of cuts that can happen on the route, both in the West End and Asylum Hill. I’d be ruthless and remove every other one if given the chance, but fine, I can be reasonable.
The other stop scheduled for removal in the West End is at Oxford.
Cut it.
There is a nearby stop at Farmington and Prospect, which gets more use with people going to the pharmacy, apartments on Prospect Avenue, and nearby offices. The corresponding stop in West Hartford (at the drug store) has a bench.
Oxford does not.
There’s not so much as a wall to sit on at Oxford.
The study (or whatever) has a ranking system for types of stops. A basic stop has a bench. Oxford is a sub-basic stop.
I do have to ask why we are hopeful about these amenities when the property owners have not bothered to install anything at existing stops in all these years. I think about these large apartment buildings along the route and wonder how the property owners don’t think their own tenants are worthy of a single bench.
The Asylum Hill stretch of Farmington Avenue has twenty stops, and I’m flying entirely off of what’s in WECA’s publication because the Metro Hartford RapidRoutes website where any of this information might be on expired and is now a nothing site. Grrr! I don’t know what’s being suggested for Asylum Hill; regardless, I got opinions because the Farmington Ave buses can move faster by (1) eliminating some stops, and (2) dropping bus fare.
On the south side of the street
We do not need three bus stops on the Aetna block of Farmington Avenue. Drop the one closest to Flower and the one closest to Sigourney; keep the middle stop.
Do we need a stop at Laurel, South Marshall, and Imlay? No, we do not. Pick one. Though Imlay offers a direct route to CTfastrak, it’s a crapshoot crossing at Imlay and Hawthorne anyway. I suggest keeping Laurel and dropping those other two.
On the north side of the street
We do not need a stop at the Archdiocese when there is a stop at Farmington and Sigourney, half a block away. The stop opposite Imlay feels redundant with another down the block at corner of Laurel Street. If I were being ruthless, I’d cut the stops by Forest Street and Gillett Street, but I know these get used by Hartford Public High School students.
The study apparently had a count of how many riders used which stops per day, but I know nothing of how they came to this number. Was it a single day count? Average over a week? I found it surprising. While I don’t simply ride the bus back and forth all day long, I have gone on this route at various times — peak, non-peak, weekday, weekend — and saw wider gaps in usage between certain stops than is what appears in the study. Basically, I don’t know if the study numbers are a fluke, or if I simply have not seen enough because maybe there’s a mad rush on Oxford Street at 11 PM or something. My other question is did they have the drivers do the count, or was a rider doing this? Because drivers do have a bunch of other matters to contend with. Anyhow, I don’t know when the deadline for comments on this is, but sooner the better?
WHAT NEXT
- Send comments about the bus stop changes on Farmington Avenue in the West End and Asylum Hill to info@metrohartfordrapidroutes.com.
- Tell your legislators and the governor that fare-free bus service should be permanent. It’s actual equity. It speeds up boarding. It encourages smarter transportation choices. It reduces conflict. It removes stigma of being a quarter short and having to spare change at the bus stop.
- E-Bike Day at the Connecticut State Capitol: Wednesday, April 6, 2022 from 11 AM to 1 PM, people can try out electric bicycles at the State Capitol. It’s also a chance to talk to e-bike riders, and ask them all the questions you have. If you’re already a convert, show up to be one of the people answering those questions.(Please note: If you’re tempted to say that e-bikes are “cheating” you don’t grasp the concept of cycling as a non-competitive, totally utilitarian activity and it’d be best to keep that bullshit opinion to yourself in the spirit of check yourself before you wreck yourself.)
Before anyone freaks about the sloppy drink cup, let it be known I requested the barista hand it to me like that. The employee was being very conscientious and trying to clean it up, and was about to grab a new cup, and I insisted she keep it as is because there’s no need to waste even more resources. Or, as I put it to her, (1) It looks like this because you added the correct amount of whipped cream, and (2) The cup will look like this after I’ve had it in my hands for two minutes anyway.
Car-Free Diaries: Week 17
Instead of screaming into the void of Twitter, I bring you a weekly highlight reel of what it’s like going places in Greater Hartford when one is gloriously car-free. These posts are on a slight time delay because nobody needs to know exactly where I am when I am there.
THE GOOD NEWS
SB4 made it out of committee. This means we’re one step (one rotation?) closer to getting CHEAPR rebates for e-bikes, among other things, which you can read about here.
To celebrate this, a few pics from New Haven, as two of the key organizers are from that part of the state.
Shout out to the train for taking me to New Haven! (Is a train shout out anything other than “CHOO CHOO”?)
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
The disappointing news: you already know. Climate arson is being subsidized even more heavily. More about that in a second.
Better News: Fares are suspended on CTtransit local, CTfastrak, and express buses! The express bus fare being waived is the surprise. This is from April 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022.
IMPROVISED WEAPON OF THE WEEK
I wanted to call this #ShivOfTheWeek because it cuts right to the point and I assumed everyone would get it, but a totally unscientific poll on Twitter revealed that 100% of those bothering to respond are purists about language, at least when it comes to this:
As I say it aloud, I realize #ShivOfTheWeek could be easily misread as Shiva of the Week, and those are two very different things.
I keep coming back to this “Scary, Not Scared” theme. Can’t help it. It’s the product of being socialized to eat shit and lash out later. . . except I’ve largely rejected this (see: doesn’t have many friends because unwilling to smile & nod, and then talk smack about the person only after she leaves the room). . . and I think that there are drivers who treat pedestrians and cyclists like dirt because they perceive us as weak and pathetic. Vulnerable because we aren’t wearing cars? Sure. Defenseless? Think again.
Carrying pepper spray is cool and all, but that’s for squirting people and rabid dogs. Maybe it’ll damage the paint job. Maybe not. Why waste good mace when “every tool is a weapon, if you hold it right“?
This week, my improvised weapon was a jar of pasta sauce in my purse. So, more slock than shiv.
Do I want to smash a jar of sauce? Not really. I’m looking forward to my spaghetti dinner. Am I willing to trash an old, ten dollar, ratty purse with a long strap while swinging the weaponized bag against a vehicle that has been driven too close to me when I’m in a crosswalk?
DREAMS
I don’t understand people who are like “nobody wants to listen to someone talk about their dreams.” I want to hear about your dreams. The weirder the better. This is always more engaging than the dull “how are you? fine” exchanges that pass as communication. So, I’m sharing last night’s dream here because it shows how transportation has thoroughly permeated my brain. Feel free to share your own dreams — transportation related or not — in the comments.
The Dream: I was up in Boston for the day because I had tickets to a Red Sox game, but also because a friend (from real life) and a comedian/musician (who is real but I’ve never met) were going to perform a number at Fenway, I guess during the seventh inning stretch. (I do not think this friend has any musical talents in reality and probably should not be singing to a stadium, ever) The comedian/musician asked me on Twitter if I played piano. I lied and said I did. Then, I got roped into performing with them, and was terrified about being obviously found out. Apparently, we were going to perform a song without practicing first, and without me even knowing what it would be. I may have been a dreamworld liar, but if you’re gonna wing it this hard with strangers, you get what you get.
I arrived to my seat hours early, as I would do in real life if nobody stopped me. But I realized I was wearing black shoes, black pants, and white socks. This was not okay. I had time, so I left a few things on my seat and exited the stadium, planning to pop into a store to buy black socks. I get on a bus. I have never taken a bus in Boston. In the dream I did not know where the bus was going. But, I got on anyway, and then took a light snooze, waking up at the city outskirts, where everything became quasi-suburban, but also industrial. I pulled the bus cord, which was more like a lamp cord — not ideal — and got off in an industrial wasteland. The bus driver was even like “are you sure this is your stop?”. I get off the bus to see that it had been lightly snowing and somewhere on this adventure I lost my shoes. And socks.
Now, I’m lost, have no phone, and seem to have left my wallet back at Fenway. I start walking back, or what I think is the direction to go in. It looks like the KMart is empty, and there’s nothing else around, so guess I’m not getting socks of any color, or shoes.
When all hope is gone, out of nowhere comes a friend from Hartford on his cargo bike, which he (in the dream, and not in real life, as far as I know) upgraded to electric. He’ll bring me back to the stadium, he says, but first wants to stop to look at something. I’m like “the game starts in under and hour, and I have no idea how far away we even are. . . I don’t have time for this. . .” so I commandeer his electric cargo bike and start riding on a snowy bike path — still barefoot. I’m more bothered by the possibility of stepping on glass or being hassled at the park for being barefoot than I am about having frozen, naked feet.
I make it back to the stadium in time. Not sure where I stashed the borrowed-without-permission bike. Sadly, I woke up before finding out how I managed the musical performance, but at least I made it before game time.
FUELING ADDICTIONS
Now that people’s gasoline addiction is being subsidized even more, I have to ask when I will get my break.
My lattes* are expensive as fuck. I mean, sure, I could seek out an alternative. I could make my own at home. I could find a cheaper supplier. I could drink fewer and in smaller quantities.
But I’m an American. This is America.
I want what I want when I want it, and even if it’s shitty for me and for the planet, I am entitled to it. Why aren’t legislators cutting down coffee prices? This is an outrage!
What about the price of wine? Coping with the stupidity of premature demaskulation is not cheap! It’d be more expensive if I were sitting sardinish at a bar, getting a double Covid on the rocks, but I’m not. I’m at home.
How about cigs? Do you know how much tax is on those babies?! I’ll tell you. In Connecticut, it’s $4.35 in taxes per 20 pack. (Connecticut’s gas tax, before suspended, was 25 cents per gallon…so, umm, yeah.) I don’t smoke right now, but if I make it to 65 I’ll probably let myself have this habit as a treat. Will I be able to afford it then?! Won’t someone think of the future senior citizens?!
Why aren’t legislators dropping sales tax for other items? Do you have any idea how much it costs to build a collection of erotic art? Talk about pain at the pump!
At no time during this supposed oppression of the gasoline dependent did we see a substantial reduction in idling nor an increase in carpooling. At a non-emergency event at the State Armory, massive police vehicles were idling for at least half an hour, but I’d put money on it being hours. People continued to choose to queue up in drive-thru lines. The behavior did not match the rhetoric.
When low- and no-income people receive assistance, they are expected to appear poor. That is, they are scolded for dressing in designer clothes, enjoying an expensive coffee, or having a beer now and then. Did they dare order avocado toast when they should’ve been swallowing their spit to stay alive?! But when it comes to the middle class, the same standards do not hold. They get bailed out and do not have to show any need for it.
Connecticut’s pause on the gas tax is not the worst. We could be California, where those who own cars are being handsomely rewarded with gift cards at $400 apiece, regardless of income level. Too poor to own a car? Well, fuck you then!
Remember, folks: when middle class people leverage the poor for their causes, the sentiment is rarely legit. They care about the poor when there’s gas tax, tolls, or red light cameras involved. Those panhandling at intersections? They’re the wrong kind of poor. You won’t hear any concern about them.
Do I sound a touch bitchy? It’s only because I’m experiencing an identity crisis. See, I’ve been told that I’m privileged since I can walk, bike, or take the bus to my job, the supermarket, wherever I need to go.
You heard that right: privileged.
Do you want to know how to be privileged like me?
There’s one easy trick: live in a neighborhood that most of your white and upwardly mobile peers turn their noses up at, even though they dutifully stick #BlackLivesMatter signs on their lawns. Live where those folks would never send their kids to school.
Live in a neighborhood that those folks did not even consider when buying a home, even though they could have the same number of bedrooms, the same square footage, for half of what they’re paying the next town over.
This comes down to owning one’s choices. Don’t want to live next to people who look different from you, earn less money than you? Say it out loud. Want to live in a rural area? Own it. Want to drive a land yacht? Own it, and pay for it.
The first to say that buses are a waste of taxpayer’s money are the same begging for a handout at the gas pump. They could’ve lived closer to work. They could’ve bought an electric car. They could be carpooling. They could’ve chosen a different career entirely. But instead, they’re taking part in climate arson. Enjoy the sounds from the world’s tiniest violin.
In the meantime, am I privileged to have made choices that allow me to walk to work, or am I to be pitied/shunned for living in a neighborhood that makes your skin crawl? Pick one and stick to it. Neither answer is correct, anyway.
ENJOYING THE SIGHTS
Cuffs
(Apologies for the lack of pictures for this one)
Walking to work and one of those unnecessarily large pickup trucks passes me. Nothing unusual there. Then I see it. Them. Two shiny, shiny handcuffs of metal dangling off the back.
That is a lot to process so early in the morning, before my non-subsidized coffee.
Are these handcuffs signaling something?
The driver’s kink?
Penchant for vigilante justice?
Support for police?
I wondered, is this a new trend, and if so, may a lowly person not wearing a car don cuffs?
Is this more or less sophisticated than truck nutz?
Are these the latest in that evolution? Truck nuts to stuffed toys to handcuffs?
Anyone want to unpack that?
Toughs
The best debris I came upon this week:
BUS ROUTE DIET
Even though I have not been a West End resident for years I’m still on the West End Civic Association email list, and any time I’m tempted to ask to be off it, I get a gem that I would not have found otherwise. This is how I learned that there is a proposal to eliminate “two” bus stops from the section of Farmington Avenue that is in the West End. Now, the information from WECA tells me this is out of five, but if you ride this route, you know it feels like 15 million. I think, the best I can make of this, is that WECA is counting two stops across the street from each other as one, even though they are going in opposite directions? That makes no sense. Looking at the map, there are actually ten stops in the West End. Only three of those currently have shelters.
Granted, the study is also suggesting amenity improvements, but I know people like to do things in phases, and sometimes those phases mean taking something away because it’s easy, while the additions might take forever, and if you’ve been around long enough, you know how many times government likes to make promises and then years later be like “money ran out. my bad.”
So, even though there are recommendations for new shelters or any shelters at all, I’m giving my opinion on this with the perspective of I’ll believe it when I see it.
One of the three sheltered stops in the West End, also the busiest outside of downtown, is proposed for removal: the one in front of the KFC. This makes no sense, but I would support moving it to in front of the Stereo Shop, knowing how furious it would make the owner who came out to a Planning & Zoning meeting to say as much years back. Am I that petty? Yes. But seriously, I don’t know what logic there is at cutting what is indisputably the most used stop in the West End. The one at Farmington and South Whitney on the south side makes more sense to remove, though I don’t think that’s necessary.
The corresponding stop across the street (was that proposed to go?) by Girard is by a drug store, several other shops, and the incoming food truck bonanza. . . so to me, this is another no-brainer to keep.
There are certainly plenty of cuts that can happen on the route, both in the West End and Asylum Hill. I’d be ruthless and remove every other one if given the chance, but fine, I can be reasonable.
The other stop scheduled for removal in the West End is at Oxford.
Cut it.
There is a nearby stop at Farmington and Prospect, which gets more use with people going to the pharmacy, apartments on Prospect Avenue, and nearby offices. The corresponding stop in West Hartford (at the drug store) has a bench.
Oxford does not.
There’s not so much as a wall to sit on at Oxford.
The study (or whatever) has a ranking system for types of stops. A basic stop has a bench. Oxford is a sub-basic stop.
I do have to ask why we are hopeful about these amenities when the property owners have not bothered to install anything at existing stops in all these years. I think about these large apartment buildings along the route and wonder how the property owners don’t think their own tenants are worthy of a single bench.
The Asylum Hill stretch of Farmington Avenue has twenty stops, and I’m flying entirely off of what’s in WECA’s publication because the Metro Hartford RapidRoutes website where any of this information might be on expired and is now a nothing site. Grrr! I don’t know what’s being suggested for Asylum Hill; regardless, I got opinions because the Farmington Ave buses can move faster by (1) eliminating some stops, and (2) dropping bus fare.
On the south side of the street
We do not need three bus stops on the Aetna block of Farmington Avenue. Drop the one closest to Flower and the one closest to Sigourney; keep the middle stop.
Do we need a stop at Laurel, South Marshall, and Imlay? No, we do not. Pick one. Though Imlay offers a direct route to CTfastrak, it’s a crapshoot crossing at Imlay and Hawthorne anyway. I suggest keeping Laurel and dropping those other two.
On the north side of the street
We do not need a stop at the Archdiocese when there is a stop at Farmington and Sigourney, half a block away. The stop opposite Imlay feels redundant with another down the block at corner of Laurel Street. If I were being ruthless, I’d cut the stops by Forest Street and Gillett Street, but I know these get used by Hartford Public High School students.
The study apparently had a count of how many riders used which stops per day, but I know nothing of how they came to this number. Was it a single day count? Average over a week? I found it surprising. While I don’t simply ride the bus back and forth all day long, I have gone on this route at various times — peak, non-peak, weekday, weekend — and saw wider gaps in usage between certain stops than is what appears in the study. Basically, I don’t know if the study numbers are a fluke, or if I simply have not seen enough because maybe there’s a mad rush on Oxford Street at 11 PM or something. My other question is did they have the drivers do the count, or was a rider doing this? Because drivers do have a bunch of other matters to contend with. Anyhow, I don’t know when the deadline for comments on this is, but sooner the better?
WHAT NEXT
Before anyone freaks about the sloppy drink cup, let it be known I requested the barista hand it to me like that. The employee was being very conscientious and trying to clean it up, and was about to grab a new cup, and I insisted she keep it as is because there’s no need to waste even more resources. Or, as I put it to her, (1) It looks like this because you added the correct amount of whipped cream, and (2) The cup will look like this after I’ve had it in my hands for two minutes anyway.
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