NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk’s South Main Street is priority No. 1 in a plan being devised to make the city more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly, with a raised intersection in front of police headquarters, and, further south, painted markings to indicate that motorists must share the road with bicycles, even giving cyclists priority in places.
The idea is to slow drivers down, said David Sousa of the New Haven firm CDM Smith, as he helped unveil a “Complete Streets” design being developed for South Norwalk and the Wall Street area by the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency to about 20 Norwalk citizens Wednesday at the Stepping Stones Museum for Children.
“If you can make streets conducive to walking and biking, automatically those streets become more attractive places for people to work and invest in,” Souza said.
Souza and representatives from two other firms say that, while West Avenue is challenging, there is a potential for a bike network to connect the areas, which would be phased in with an incremental approach as finances allow.
“They’ve come up with some concepts, they’re floating them back out to the community and they’re taking that feedback back in,” RDA Executive Director Tim Sheehan said. “They’re doing that at various points within the planning process, and this was one of the first issues to say, ‘here are some concepts we’re putting forward, what are the response to the concepts, what are the issues,’ and then they’re basically going to distill that, put that back in to the plan again.”
Cyclists are already bypassing West Avenue, Francisco Gomes of Fitzgerald and Halliday said as he recommended pathways, bicycle boulevards and shared road (sharrows) access along the lesser-used roads that parallel the busy street. But Martin Luther King Drive has the potential to be an expressway for bikes between the South Norwalk Transit Oriented Development area, which surrounds the South Norwalk train station, and Rowayton, by narrowing the travel lanes for cars to make room for permanent – yet relatively cheap – bicycle lanes painted onto the road.
Cyclists would eventually pass the rebuilt staircases at Clay Street and Hamilton Street — or go up them — if the plan is implemented.
Those staircases as they exist now are vital, but they are not welcoming, Souza said. The redesign includes making the staircases curvy, adding lighting and flat portions with seating. There would be troughs for bicycle wheels to allow cyclists to move the bicycles up easily.
The firm did a pedestrian count on the staircases about two months ago, he said.
“We were surprised with the number of pedestrians actually using the staircases, mostly, of course, during the morning rush hour or during the afternoon rush hour, people heading to the train station,” he said. “But even people that have children that are walking down to Washington for shopping or go to the libraries, it’s a pretty popular shortcut to go from point A to point B.”
The problem with on-street parking on South Main Street would be dealt with by making cars share the street with those using two wheels.
“In some areas it will be necessary for cyclists to actually move in and take over the lane for a short period of time, in which case we’ll have signage to say bikes may use full lane,” Gomes said. “So this is as much an educational program to motorists as it is a facility for bikes. Along with this type of facility there would need to be enforcement.”
Side roads are generally used by Norwalk drivers as shortcuts because of the volume of vehicles out there, but drivers could adjust to not using them all, David Truesdale of Sasaki Associates said.
One road eyed for a transformation is Henry Street between South Main and Chestnut streets. The “simple intervention” of painting the street in a colorful pattern and adding “bump outs” to slow cars down and provide sheltered areas for pedestrians would be relatively cheap and provide a space for public events, he said.
Water Street could also get a permanent bike lane. Gomes said the Washington Street railroad bridge is an “awesome structure” that ought to be lit up, not only for improved pedestrian safety at night but also for the aesthetics. The Monroe Street underpasses could be dressed up with lighting and murals, and room could be made for bike lanes by narrowing the travel lanes.
Souza said moving pedestrians closer to the road can actually make the road safer and help retail establishments. He was referring to “parklets,” decks built in parking spaces, which can be removed, he said. They allow restaurants to serve people on the sidewalk, which causes drivers to automatically slow down out of a desire to see who is out there, he said.
The trio spoke of “quick wins” — basically, improvements accomplished with paint and temporary barricades to give the community the idea of what can be done.
Some of the work to bring the plans to fruition will be funded by state grants, Sheehan said. The pedestrian access portion deadline is in January, while the Complete Streets and bike lane plans need to be done by late spring, he said.
Expect quick wins soon.
“I would say, realistically, implementation aspects would be closer to summer,” he said. “It goes out to bid and everything else, to do it.”
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