In New London, Connecticut, people from different sides of the political and social spectrum are uniting for a more bike friendly city. Often times people stereotype bicyclists as tree huggers, or political liberals, but bicycle enthusiasts are just people who come from all walks of life and bike for many different reasons be it trasportation, fitness, or recreation. In the article from the New London Times people doubted whether making a town more bike friendly would have any positive impact on the economy …
Improving New London’s bike-ablity is not going to be a cold glass of water for the city’s hiccupping economy, and neither Spellman nor Sprecace would argue that point.
… but it has been my experience that improving the bike and pedestrian facilities in a town can help the economy. The town I live in has built a rail-trail and there are constantly people using the trail and visiting the local cafes after they ride. Getting more people out of cars, and making a city or town more liveable can’t be a bad thing. The local bike shop would certainly benefit if bicycling in the town is encouraged.
The Hartford Courant recently ran an article about cyclists trying to gain access to commuter trains in order to be able to cycle the remaining distance to home or work on either end of their train ride. Many cities accommodate bicycles on trains including San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. Currently the Metro-North train bans bicycles during peak commuter hours.
In the UK, where they allow folding bicycles on commuter trains there has been some backlash against cyclists from other train users.
Last year I rode the D2R2, a great dirt road ride in Dearfield, Massachusetts. It is one of my favorite rides and I plan to do it again this year. We have many dirt roads a little closer to where I live in Northwest Connecticut, so I mapped out a route that connects many of these roads and named it the DFD2R (Berkshire Foothills Dirt Road Ride).
It is around 60 miles and some of the roads are forest tracks that are a little more rough than the D2R2 ride. I wouldn’t attempt this on skinny tires. A cyclocross bike with low gearing is the way to go.
Cross Road to Canaan Valley. One of the dirt roads on the ride.
The Southfield Store at about the midway point of the ride looks like a good place to stop for some baked goods and fill up water bottles.
I’m planning to do this ride May 24th starting at 8:00 a.m. from the Pleasant Valley, Connecticut town hall. I’ll post some photos following the ride. After doing this ride, Simmons Pond Road is not rideable
I’m planning to do this ride this coming Saturday, May 10th. This is one on my favorite routes. I hope I have the fitness to make it without bonking too bad. This is a similar route to a couple of rides I have organized in the past. I’ll take photos on the ride and give a report following.
The Tour of Connecticut, a pro cycling race that was scheduled for May 19 and 20 has been canceled. The race had been on the USA Cycling National Race Calendar. Race director John Eustice tried to pull the race together again this year after having to cancel the race in 2006, but couldn’t get the financial backing to pull it off.
I’m sorry that the race isn’t happening. I sure enjoyed seeing a local pro race while it lasted. The circuit race in Waterbury was a great course for spectators, and the road race in northwest Connecticut traveled over some of my favorite local roads for riding. I hope the race can come back again someday, but with two years in a row of the race being canceled, I’m not optimistic.
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