Celebrate World Car-Free Day in Norwalk

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Tomorrow – Friday, September 22nd – is World Car-Free Day, a worldwide initiative that invites the public to reimagine how we move around our cities. We invite you to check out the benefits & resources below and make a plan to get around car-free tomorrow. There’s also an opportunity to be featured on the City’s social media pages! Read on for more.

Depending on who you talk to, the idea of going car-free could be met with enthusiasm, indifference, or even concern for your physical (or mental) well-being. Certainly, in many parts of Norwalk, using a car is both the safest and most convenient way to get around. However, walking, biking, and riding public transit are real options in many Norwalk neighborhoods – options that thousands of Norwalkers rely on every day. In fact, according to the 2020 census, around 3,500 households in Norwalk (almost 10%) don’t have a car.

Here in Norwalk, we’ve been doing a lot of work to make it easier and safer to get around without a car. Our department of Transportation, Mobility, and Parking (TMP) has been auditing and fixing our sidewalk network as working with the Department of Public Works (DPW) to add miles of new sidewalk. We’ve been rapidly expanding our network of bicycle lanes, making progress on the Norwalk River Valley Trail, and adding both practical and attractive bike parking around town. And just a couple months ago, our Transit District kicked off NTD Ahead, the first major update to our bus network in decades.

You may be wondering: “Why should I consider going car-free?” There’s no question that a car provides mobility and opportunity in ways that other transportation options don’t. But, car ownership is expensive! The average monthly payment for a new car in the USA is at an all-time high of $729 per month. Add to that the cost of insurance, gas, maintenance, taxes, and depreciation, and you’re looking at upwards of $1200 per month for the average American with a new car. That’s a chunk of change!

Driving is also taxing on our health. It doesn’t take a doctor to see that sitting in traffic is irritating, but nevertheless, doctors have found that driving in traffic is linked to increased blood pressure, and longer exposure corresponds to a larger increase. You don’t even need to be driving to experience the health impacts though – just the exposure to road noise raises your blood pressure and has even been linked to dementia, especially Alzheimer’s. A recent review of over 700 studies found that the air pollution from highways “causes asthma attacks in children and may cause a wide range of other effects including the onset of childhood asthma, impaired lung function, premature death and death from cardiovascular diseases and cardiovascular morbidity.” Lastly, the risk of injury & death from driving is higher than almost any other activity we do on a daily basis. Over 40,000 Americans die every year from traffic violence, and many times more are injured.

Lucky for you, there are huge advantages to using other forms of transportation. Getting around on foot or on bike allows you to build low- or medium-intensity physical activity into your day. It should come as no surprise that such activity is good for your physical health – but you may not know how good it is for your mental health as well. Thirty minutes of moderate activity, five days a week (e.g., a brisk 15 minute walk to the train station or bus stop and back) is as effective at treating depression as either medication or psychotherapy.

This year, the City of Norwalk is encouraging everyone in the community to participate by sending them a picture of yourself going car-free. Whether you’re walking, biking, taking the train or a Norwalk Transit bus, they will put everyone’s pictures on the City of Norwalk’s social media pages that day. If you’re interested in participating, please take a picture of yourself utilizing an alternative mode of transportation and email it to Kim Ramirez at kramirez@norwalkct.gov on Friday, Sept. 22.

To help get you started, here are some resources for walking, biking, and taking public transit around Norwalk.

Walking

Walking is the oldest form of transportation and a healthy and sustainable one to boot. If you ask most NYC residents, as long as their destination is within a 15-minute walk (perhaps a 20-minute walk for a non-New Yorker), they’re walking there. Going by this 15-minute rule of thumb, the average person can get to anywhere within three quarters of a mile on foot in a reasonable amount of time. Norwalk has many walkable areas, especially in SoNo, East Norwalk, and the Wall Street area. Handy pedestrian connections between these parts of town include:

When walking anywhere, it’s important to do so safely and comfortably. The Watch for Me CT site has a lot of good tips for pedestrian safety; here’s a few:

Wear shoes and clothing that are comfortable in the current weather
Use sidewalks and crosswalks when available
If there are no sidewalks, walk against traffic and as far from the roadway as you can
Know that pedestrians have right of way in most circumstances, but should proceed with the understanding that a car won’t always notice you

Biking

The joys of riding a bicycle are uncontestable, just ask Freddie Mercury of Queen. Bicycles are more than just recreation, though – they can also be a sustainable, healthy, and quick means of local transportation. Norwalk has some bike infrastructure already in place, but the City is working to get even more done. The existing paths, bike lanes, and bike racks can be found on these maps:

To stay up-to-date about new bike projects, follow the Norwalk Bike/Walk Commission on social media or attend one of our Commission meetings!

When riding your bicycle around Norwalk, there are many things to keep in mind in order to ensure you’re doing so in a safe manner. The Watch for Me CT site has some tips for cycling safety, and the Local Motion website has some great videos on strategies for biking safely when riding alongside cars. Here’s a list of tips:

When riding at night, use a white light for the front of your bicycle and a red light for the rear of your bicycle
Wear a helmet and highly visible clothing
Use bike lanes and trails when available
Yield to pedestrians, especially on sidewalks and crosswalks
Use turn signals

If you’re biking for transportation, practicality and comfort are also key considerations. There are many kinds of bicycles, at least as many accessories, and innumerable different opinions on which kind is the most comfortable or best for getting around town. Norwalk is pretty hilly, and the roads are pretty well-maintained for the most part, so cyclists in the area tend to prioritize their bike being lightweight over having suspension. Many of your needs for convenience and comfort when getting around town can be accomplished through accessories, such as:

A rear or front rack with a basket for transporting things (carrying things in a backpack can get heavy and reduce ventilation)
Panniers and bungee cords are popular alternatives to baskets
Fenders to shield you from puddles or dirt on the ground
Water and wind resistant clothing (high visibility, preferred!)
Water Bottle Cages
Kickstands

An especially important accessory is a bike lock. If you’re leaving your bike out of your sight, it’s all too easy for it to wander off. Any lock is better than no lock, but a solid metal lock (such as a U-lock) is quite a bit more secure than a cable lock.

Accessories such as the ones listed above, along with regular preventive maintenance, can help to ensure you have a comfortable and convenient ride to wherever you’re going. Doing all this yourself can be a daunting task, though, so luckily there are helpful folks at shops like Smart Cycles and REI Co-Op who can help you transform your bicycle into your favorite mode of transportation.

On the topic of transformation, one of the most transformational products for transportation in recent history has been electric bicycles, or E-Bikes. Their speed, ability to climb hills, and ability to carry loads have made them a very realistic alternative to cars for many people who live in areas that have the proper infrastructure in place (not to mention the fact that the price tag of some E-Bikes is less than that of a used car). For those who are interested in E-Bikes, the Electric Bike Reviews website has comprehensive reviews of many models of e-bikes, along with a very handy comparison tool.

Public Transit

For those trips that are too long for walking or biking, trips where you’d rather not have to pay too much attention during the actual getting there part, or even trips for which you’d rather not put the wear and tear on yourself/your means of transportation, the bus or train can be the perfect solution.

The Norwalk Transit District (NTD) provides bus service to much of Norwalk and parts of neighboring towns. You can see the different bus routes, as well as where the buses are in real time, on NTD’s myStop website. (There’s also a myStop app for iOS and a myStop app for Android!). For more detailed info, you can see the WHEELS section of NTD’s website.

As mentioned above, NTD is currently undergoing a Comprehensive Operational Analysis (COA) to ensure that they can provide the residents of Norwalk the best bus service possible. A lot of the COA includes a study of bus routes, bus stop frequency, and bus shelters. You can look forward to the results of the COA around this time next year, and in the meantime, you can follow their progress and provide feedback on the project website, NTD Ahead.

NTD is working on getting a new payment system in place. As of now, a Norwalk resident has four options for paying for bus fare:

Pay the $1.75 fare on the bus with exact change (the machine can’t give change)
Purchase a bus pass from Stop & Shop (both Main Ave and CT Ave)
Order a bus pass online on the fares section of the NTD’s website
Use cash to purchase a pack of 10 or 20 bus tokens from Connecticut Community Bank on West Ave during its open hours

Metro-North Railroad has service in different areas of Connecticut and can get you to cities nearby Norwalk within minutes, in a lot of cases. Metro-North’s New Haven line connects Norwalk to New Haven, Stamford, NYC, and points in between. Additionally, the New Canaan Line connects Stamford and New Canaan, and the Danbury Line connects Norwalk to Danbury along a route similar to U.S. Route 7. The MTA does a pretty good job of making the schedule function on their website easy to navigate, but the MTA’s TrainTime app does a very good job of putting schedules, real time train stops, and ticket payment functionality all within the same app.

There’s clearly a lot of options and resources, and hopefully this guide puts it all in one place that’s a little easier to understand. No matter which mode of transportation you choose to use tomorrow, we hope you took something away from this and consider the wide array of options Norwalk has next time you want to get around town.

Tanner Thompson

Nicholas Pappas

Norwalk Bike/Walk Commission members