June 1 — GROTON — Residents here are sharing ideas about where to add sidewalks, slow traffic, install signage, implement bike share and improve crosswalks in the community.
They identified areas of the city with gaps in sidewalks or inadequate signage, roads where cars speed, and places that would benefit from clearly marked trails and paths or crosswalks.
The city is seeking feedback as part of a project to make walking and cycling safer and improve connections in the city and surrounding communities.
The Complete Streets and Trails Master Plan will help guide potential improvements to biking and pedestrian facilities over the next 10 to 15 years, said Parks and Recreation Director Mark Berry. The plan, scheduled for completion in November, will be an update to the city’s bicycle and pedestrian plan from the mid-2000s.
The project comes after a 2022 recreation needs assessment concluded that increasing trail and path connectivity was a top community priority. The recreation master plan that followed also identified this as a goal.
Brian Kent, president of Bike Groton, a local cyclist and pedestrian advocacy group, and chair of the city’s Complete Streets Advisory Committee, said the project’s goals include improving safety and connections.
An overarching goal is to connect parks, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces and businesses, he said.
By making the community more livable, it will also encourage redevelopment that looks more like traditional New England villages, he said.
“The ultimate goal is to have places that are just nice, healthy places to live, work and play,” Kent said.
As a consultant, FHI Studio of Hartford develops the plan. It will map the city’s bike lanes, sidewalks and other amenities, and review proposed improvements and studies for the city, region and surrounding communities as residents bike from Groton to work outside the city, Berry said. The consultant will collect information, including accident data and road and cycle path usage, and analyze demand.
The consultant will also look at possible restrictions on the improvements, he said. For example, state roads need to go through the state process.
Community members can contribute through focus groups and meetings. Additionally, an online survey and map will be available where they can drop pins and add comments about areas for improvement.
The result of the $150,000 planning project will be a map with proposed new and improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities and connections, conceptual plans for projects and an action plan detailing the steps needed to make improvements, Berry said.
There will also be some demonstration projects such as temporary curbs or signage at an intersection to make crossing safer for pedestrians.
Berry said identifying potential projects and associated costs will be a benefit as the city takes steps to implement projects through grants or city capital improvement projects.
Complete Streets
The plan will incorporate the principles of Complete Streets, which accommodate people walking, biking, driving or using other forms of transportation, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Kent said that a century ago, streets functioned as “complete streets” because everyone used them, regardless of age or status, and cars didn’t travel at 50 miles per hour. Everyone was going slower. Traders sold things, people walked, and although the streets weren’t necessarily the safest places, there was more space to share.
Today, however, cars and trucks dominate the right-of-way, he said.
The idea of complete streets is to look at the entire right-of-way, from end to end, and make streets more valuable to residents by adding improvements such as sidewalks, space for bicycles and better drainage to prevent flooding.
He explained that the narrowing of the road often slows down drivers.
But Kent said “one size doesn’t fit all” and not all roads need to have sidewalks and bike lanes. These types of improvements are most useful near mixed-use and more urban areas, such as city centers and towns.
Kent said areas targeted for improvements could be corridors, such as the Route 1 corridor to make it safer from Mystic to Interstate 95.
“It’s a process where you really have to look at your community and customize these investments to fit your community, and so it’s a long, slow process,” he said.
New England has more challenges than other parts of the country because it has features like stone walls, old trees and narrow lanes dating back to colonial times that “zigzag,” he said.
The city adopted a Complete Streets policy a few years ago, and the effort to develop the plan will bring together local government, advocates and the state.
“It’s just another step in the process of making Groton a much more livable community, with connections between places like parks, schools, villages and neighborhoods, so we’re not so reliant on cars to get us from one place to another. place when we’re close enough that we could get there much more efficiently and safely if we walked or biked,” Kent said.
Improvements in progress
Improvements in the region are already being implemented or planned.
The state is planning to widen the path on the southbound Gold Star Bridge between Groton and New London.
City of Groton Public Works Director Greg Hanover said the city last year installed a new sidewalk along the north side of Route 1, across the street from the Community Center and City Hall.
The city has a Capital Improvement Program to fill sidewalk gaps along major roads in commercial areas and is designing sidewalks along Route 1 between Bridge Street and Kings Highway and a missing section in front of Poquonnock Plains Park. Hanover said.
“The Complete Streets and Trails Master Plan will provide us with a planning guide to prioritize other areas for future sidewalks,” he said.
The city also painted missing bike lane symbols on the sidewalk and installed bike lane signage on Groton Long Point Road from Brook Street to Esker Point Beach, he said.
Additionally, the state is planning a project to replace the Groton Long Point Road bridge over the Amtrak railroad, which envisions bike lanes along Groton Long Point Road from Esker Point Beach to Robert E. Fitch High School; a new sidewalk on the west side of the road, south of the bridge; and sidewalks between Fishers View Drive and Mohegan Drive.
More information about the Complete Streets and Trails Master Plan is available at https://www.greatergroton.com/streetsandtrails
k.drelich@theday.com
