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Dear Editor,

Wednesday night, Dec. 4, a group of West Hartford residents gathered in remembrance of the victim of our town’s latest fatal traffic accident, just three weeks after the previous memorial service for a pedestrian fatality in town. Conspicuous in their absence were the members of our Town Council. The only representative from local leadership was the Town Manager, who stayed silent and in the shadows. What’s behind the town officials’ failure to attend Wednesday night’s memorial service? While it’s true that the town has some infrastructure plans in the works which will help to make the streets of our town safer, the consensus seems to be that our town leadership is showing a lack of urgency, in the short term, toward reaching the goal of safer streets and sidewalks.

Concern over dangerous streets in West Hartford is nothing new. Directly from our town’s website: “On January 10, 2023, the Town of West Hartford Town Council unanimously adopted the Vision Zero Initiative in Support of Safe, Health and Equitable Mobility with the goal of eliminating fatalities and severe injuries on West Hartford streets by 2033.” Right from West Hartford’s Complete Streets Policy, adopted by the Town on 7/21/15: “Complete Streets” – Right-of-ways that are planned, designed, constructed, operated and maintained in such a way as to enable safe, comfortable and convenient access along and across the Right-of-Way by users of all ages and abilities and modes of transportation.”

So why is it taking so long?  Why are these policies being ignored? This doesn’t require “re-inventing the wheel.” There are any number of published guidelines from traffic engineers and government agencies that offer short-term, quick-build solutions. Two fatalities in a month should be cause for a “Safety Stand-down” to figure out where we are, what’s gone wrong, and what the priorities need to be. While it will take time and money to correct the tremendous number of hazardous road conditions in town, there are remedies and improvements that can and must be done in the short term. This must be done now.

For the long-term, our town manager is just days away from signing a contract to create yet another unsafe road condition as part of the West Hartford Center Infrastructure Master Plan. Several alternate “makeover” plans were announced just about a year ago for the Center of West Hartford, primarily Farmington Avenue and Lasalle Road. The most popular option, “Option A,” was favored by advocacy groups and public commissions including Bike West Hartford, Sustainable West Hartford, and the West Hartford Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission. Those groups all made their position known in writing to our town officials. Among other improvements, “Option A” provided for protected bike lanes in the center that would be safe for users of all levels.

But then things changed. Advocacy groups and public commissions were ignored and opportunities for them to participate in the decision-making process were avoided by town officials. The town manager met with “stakeholders” who were primarily business owners, in regard to the changes in the Center.  None of the aforementioned groups were invited to participate, even though two of those groups were created by the Town Council. Several months passed, with no news on where things stood. With little time to make changes, the final decision, including the elimination of safe bike lanes in exchange for a few more dangerous curbside parking spaces, was announced during an online meeting of the Community Planning and Economic Development Committee in late September. It’s notable that funding for this project is from “ARPA Money” which has a rapidly approaching deadline for spending, so the town manager “ran out the clock.”

The contract for the town center infrastructure project was quickly put out to bid, closing at 2 p.m. on Dec. 9. The town manager agreed to attend the Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission meeting on Nov. 12 to answer questions about the “how’s and whys” of the decision. A “scheduling conflict” prevented his attendance at the November meeting. He rescheduled for the Dec. 9 meeting which occurs 5 hours after the contract is scheduled to be awarded. Given the timing, the input of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission is, therefore, irrelevant! That contract includes the ill-advised creation of dangerous conditions in the Town Center.   In the end, the town leadership’s trade-off was a handful of unnecessary additional curbside parking spots in exchange for putting lives in danger.

As a member of the West Hartford Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission, I assure you that we’ve done our due diligence. A growing number of people of all ages and abilities ride bicycles in, around, and through West Hartford Center. The town leadership of West Hartford is willfully creating a hazard by forcing those innocent cyclists, men, women, and children, to ride behind diagonally parked cars on Farmington Avenue. That is irresponsible, unsafe, and in direct violation of adopted town policies.

I urge West Hartford town officials to immediately stop this process before the contract bids are opened on Monday. We have an endless supply of outdated and unsafe infrastructure to fix; we do not need to create another. I invite everyone who cares about responsibility in local government to attend the next meeting of the West Hartford Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission on Monday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m. in Room 400 of Town Hall. The town manager will be there to answer questions about the unsafe Master Plan for West Hartford Center.

Sincerely,

John B. Wenz
Member, West Hartford Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission