Instead of screaming into the ever-expanding 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.
I took last week off from doing most writing, but I did not stop moving around as usual.
After a thousand years, the Sigourney Street bridge sidewalk –the good side — has reopened to pedestrians. This shaves a significant amount of time off my commute and off my walk home from the bus stop with heavy groceries. I’d mostly opted to take a detour because crossing highway ramps is, if not a quick way to die, a quick way to hate humanity. On a few days that I did not do this, there were trucks blocking the sidewalk, forcing pedestrians to walk IN Sigourney Street near the highway ramps, without any temporary sidewalk set up with cones, without so much as someone stopping traffic to assist. Between knowing the statistics and seeing how traffic was not sufficiently slowed because they half-assed the construction zone . . . I had been going the long, long way home, and suddenly, with no announcement or fanfare, could just make a direct trip.
That’s the good.
The bad? They did not remove the slip lane at Hawthorne and Sigourney, which is silly since it’s redundant and at minimum could have been turned into a lane for only buses to use.
They narrowed part of Sigourney Street, but the other side did not have significant changes, and, after all these years, it seems we got shafted with the cycle track. The sidewalk on one side is a bit wider, though just on State of Connecticut property . . . which I have trouble being optimistic about. Already I have to nag them to clear the snow and salt the ice in winter. This is more space for them to probably ignore. But, I’ve leaned into the mid-life rage and will just go all that much harder on them and anyone who makes it more dangerous for people to walk and bike. That is my promise to you.
It’s possible they have not finished the bridge work. There appears to still be something happening below. But there is no communication to residents that I have seen. Sigourney Street has reopened, but a week or more later, and the digital message boards remain in place saying that there is a detour. Now that the roundabout is fully opened, I can see how fast people are driving through it because it’s not nearly as narrow as it could be.
UGLY PEDESTRIANS
There was an abundance of ugly pedestrians during Thanksgiving week.
This one was spotted in Bushnell Park.
Despite ample street parking, this ugly pedestrian was found on the Park Street sidewalk on the Thanksgiving Eve.
There is nothing like trying to creep by massive ugly pedestrians when there’s about half a foot of sidewalk remaining and it’s next to road where people drive fast coming off the highway. Cool.
Some ugly pedestrians are just egregious. The paint and signs apparently apply to everyone else.
And then there’s the ones on Thanksgiving Day who, despite having the red light, sat in the crosswalk. The pedestrian light began one or two seconds after I took this photo, and you can’t tell from the angle, but there’s another ugly pedestrian to the left of this one.
Come at me one more time with your hi-vis fetish, I dare you!
THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
On Trumbull Street, near Pratt Street, a temporary sidewalk was created so people do not have to fling ourselves into the roadway during construction. We have photographic proof now that this is possible in Hartford and will trot this out whenever we are told that pedestrian access cannot be maintained. CAN’T OR WON’T?!
EXPANDED MOBILITY
I don’t know when this began, by I just started to notice that some of the e-scooters have seats, which is helpful for people who can’t stand for long periods of time.
WHAT NEXT
Fares will continue to be suspended on buses through March 31, 2023, but the way to get more is by asking for more. Public transportation should be free, always. Tell your elected leaders this. Tell everyone who will listen.
Car-Free Diaries: Week 51
Instead of screaming into the ever-expanding 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.
I took last week off from doing most writing, but I did not stop moving around as usual.
After a thousand years, the Sigourney Street bridge sidewalk –the good side — has reopened to pedestrians. This shaves a significant amount of time off my commute and off my walk home from the bus stop with heavy groceries. I’d mostly opted to take a detour because crossing highway ramps is, if not a quick way to die, a quick way to hate humanity. On a few days that I did not do this, there were trucks blocking the sidewalk, forcing pedestrians to walk IN Sigourney Street near the highway ramps, without any temporary sidewalk set up with cones, without so much as someone stopping traffic to assist. Between knowing the statistics and seeing how traffic was not sufficiently slowed because they half-assed the construction zone . . . I had been going the long, long way home, and suddenly, with no announcement or fanfare, could just make a direct trip.
That’s the good.
The bad? They did not remove the slip lane at Hawthorne and Sigourney, which is silly since it’s redundant and at minimum could have been turned into a lane for only buses to use.
They narrowed part of Sigourney Street, but the other side did not have significant changes, and, after all these years, it seems we got shafted with the cycle track. The sidewalk on one side is a bit wider, though just on State of Connecticut property . . . which I have trouble being optimistic about. Already I have to nag them to clear the snow and salt the ice in winter. This is more space for them to probably ignore. But, I’ve leaned into the mid-life rage and will just go all that much harder on them and anyone who makes it more dangerous for people to walk and bike. That is my promise to you.
It’s possible they have not finished the bridge work. There appears to still be something happening below. But there is no communication to residents that I have seen. Sigourney Street has reopened, but a week or more later, and the digital message boards remain in place saying that there is a detour. Now that the roundabout is fully opened, I can see how fast people are driving through it because it’s not nearly as narrow as it could be.
UGLY PEDESTRIANS
There was an abundance of ugly pedestrians during Thanksgiving week.
This one was spotted in Bushnell Park.
Despite ample street parking, this ugly pedestrian was found on the Park Street sidewalk on the Thanksgiving Eve.
There is nothing like trying to creep by massive ugly pedestrians when there’s about half a foot of sidewalk remaining and it’s next to road where people drive fast coming off the highway. Cool.
Some ugly pedestrians are just egregious. The paint and signs apparently apply to everyone else.
And then there’s the ones on Thanksgiving Day who, despite having the red light, sat in the crosswalk. The pedestrian light began one or two seconds after I took this photo, and you can’t tell from the angle, but there’s another ugly pedestrian to the left of this one.
Come at me one more time with your hi-vis fetish, I dare you!
THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
On Trumbull Street, near Pratt Street, a temporary sidewalk was created so people do not have to fling ourselves into the roadway during construction. We have photographic proof now that this is possible in Hartford and will trot this out whenever we are told that pedestrian access cannot be maintained. CAN’T OR WON’T?!
EXPANDED MOBILITY
I don’t know when this began, by I just started to notice that some of the e-scooters have seats, which is helpful for people who can’t stand for long periods of time.
WHAT NEXT
Fares will continue to be suspended on buses through March 31, 2023, but the way to get more is by asking for more. Public transportation should be free, always. Tell your elected leaders this. Tell everyone who will listen.
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