This is not a drill! 

Before Corona, I attended a meeting in which the person infused with the power over our streets announced that the bike lanes we had been asking for could not go on Main Street. Although other decisionmakers in the room showed discomfort with the situation, they did not then and there call into question what was being said, which was the same old, same old: there was not enough room for bike lanes, there would be traffic problems, it would be impossible because of the timing of traffic lights, it would upset drivers. 

Even before the pandemic, nobody in touch with reality could claim that Main Street had congestion problems. Not on a daily basis in my generation.

What I and other advocates in the room knew was that once the street was paved and striped, that’s the way it would be for many years after. We caused a ruckus over this, and not long after, we were told that the plans had been reconsidered and that it looked like they would be able to do bike lanes at least from the portion between Park Street and Charter Oak Avenue. That wasn’t good enough, but it was 0.2 mile more than they said was originally possible. 

Then, there was silence. Then, a pandemic. More silence. And then, boom! 

 

The new bike lanes go more than twice the distance that they begrudgingly said might be possible a few years ago, and a sharrow — which is not bicycle infrastructure — only appears on the last block of the repaved area near the Wadsworth Atheneum. 

Make no mistake — these are not top-of-the-line bike lanes, in that they are not physically separated with barriers of any kind, but those could be added going forward, now that it has been established that bicycles are entitled to their own space on Hartford’s literal Main Street.

The results have been pretty immediate.

Once stencils were added, people began cycling in the correct space, which makes for more predictable behavior. Far fewer people are riding on the sidewalks. 

At the same time, most drivers are taking it more slowly on Main Street, as they should be. It’s a city, not a freeway. 

There are other versions circulating about how these bike lanes came to be, but I can guarantee one thing: had nobody protested what we were told several years ago, it’s highly unlikely that the City of Hartford would have taken this initiative. Question authority early, often, and loudly when necessary. The meek get nothing.