HARTFORD — Bicycling advocates agree that Connecticut, with its antiquated, auto-centric laws from the past century and narrow, often congested roads, hasn’t been as cycling-friendly a place as it could be.
Out-of-date state laws were so focused on cars and trucks that it was sometimes tough for pro-bicycling transportation planners to use the most modern designs for bikeways and bike lanes developed around the world, activists say. Traffic laws were ambiguous about when a biker could legally move out into the regular road lanes for safety, causing confusion for cyclists and motorists alike.
Now, it appears, change is on the way thanks to reform legislation that just won overwhelming approval in the General Assembly and is awaiting Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s signature. The bill removes various restrictions on the creation of things like two-way bike tracks or lanes, and gives bicyclists more leeway to shift out into traffic lanes for safety reasons.
Lawmakers who pushed for this new bicycle safety bill say the reforms are long overdue.
Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, said his city has been repeatedly frustrated in its attempts to adopt pro-bicycle innovations already in use in more bike-friendly states throughout the nation.
“Connecticut’s antique structure of permissions and approvals [from the Department of Transportation] blocked us,” Lemar said. “Every time we tried to work with DOT, it would take six to eight weeks to get an answer, and it would always be, no, you can’t do that…”
Connecticut cycling traffic laws were often ambiguous and open to “highly variable enforcement,” according to Kelly Kennedy, executive director of Bike Walk Connecticut. What police in one town might consider OK for a biker to do — such as moving out into a traffic lane to pass a slower cyclist or avoid some obstacle — cops in the next municipality might consider a violation worthy of a ticket.
Sen. Beth Bye, a West Hartford Democrat who is co-chairwoman of the legislature’s appropriations committee, bikes to work at the Capitol a couple of times a week. She said that arguments in her community about when it was legal for a cyclist to move out into a traffic lane even prevented agreement about what should go on informational street signs about the rights of bicyclists.
“When I have to take up the [full travel] lane, motorists tend to get furious,” she said. “But sometimes it’s the only way to be safe.”
The new legislation requires state transportation planners to use updated, nationally recognized design standards for bike-friendly roadways. Kennedy said that will allow local transportation officials to create things like two-way bike lanes, buffered bike lanes and cycling tracks.
A two-way bike lane is a designated lane wide enough for cyclists to travel in both directions, next to each other, instead of having two bike lanes, one on each side of the roadway. A “buffered bike lane” is separated from motor vehicle lanes and/or parking lanes by an additional space on the road. A “bike track” is a dedicated lane for bicycles that is on the side of a roadway, but is physically separated from motor vehicle traffic lanes, possibly by stanchions or fences or even being raised above the level of the regular road.
Current Connecticut law allows bicyclists to ride out into roadway travel lanes for a limited number of specific circumstances, and requires them to stay as far to the right side of the road as “practicable,” something Kennedy calls an ambiguous definition.
Bye said that the legislation now on the governor’s desk will allow a bicycle rider “to stay as far right as deemed safe by the bicyclist.” She said that makes Connecticut the third state in the nation to give that sort of judgment call to the biker. “It gives bicyclists a fair shot at a lane if they need it,” Bye said.
One of the sponsors of the bicycle safety bill was Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, a first-term Democrat from Fairfield who moved to Connecticut 13 years ago from the Seattle, Wash., area.
“It was definitely a change and a shift coming here,” McCarthy Vahey said of her move to Connecticut. “Seattle is a lot more cycling friendly.”
She said the reform bill “has a lot of bipartisan support … because it makes a lot of sense.”
Lemar said he has no doubts that the governor is supporting the legislation, despite some apparent resistance from his transportation agency.
“[DOT officials] weren’t happy with the final product,” Lemar said. “They felt it ceded too much power to local municipalities. … The DOT is not usually happy to give up control.”
Lemar said that the easing of the old, auto-oriented roadway standards will allow cities like New Haven to do “innovative stuff” already tested in places like Seattle and New York City. “In New Haven, a huge proportion of our population bikes or walks to work,” Lemar said.
McCarthy Vahey said that suburban communities like Fairfield are also intent on becoming more bike friendly, and said that will benefit people who would rather walk than ride. “When you improve bike safety, often you also improve pedestrian safety,” she said.
“In Fairfield, we’re finding that more and more people are interested in this at the grass-roots level,” McCarthy Vahey said.
There is no clear fiscal cost involved with the bicycle reform bill, according to legislative analysts, but bike advocates said it will make it easier for local communities to compete for and use state and federal funding for bike-related projects.
Lemar said he believes that the revisions in state law will “open up a pool of money” at the federal level for Connecticut cities and towns interested in creating new bike-friendly road features. Kennedy said that Malloy’s proposed 30-year transportation program does include funding for bike and pedestrian projects.
“This is less expensive than any other transportation initiative you can think of,” Lemar said.
