Chairman's View: Bike New Canaan (April 22, 2019)

Chairman’s View: Bike New Canaan

APRIL 22, 2019 BY NEW CANAAN TOWN COUNCIL CHAIRMAN JOHN ENGEL

It’s Earth Day. I am reminded we really need bike lanes in New Canaan.

We need to begin with a bike lane down South Avenue that connects Waveny Park, the YMCA, our schools and the New Canaan Village.

I wrote about adding bike lanes in my New Year’s resolutions in December when I wrote about eliminating plastic bags. We banned the bags. Now that it’s warm out, thoughts turn to bicycles and beaches.

Yes, beaches. Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson suggested that bike lanes could connect Darien beaches to New Canaan’s parks. While non-residents pay $45 to park a car at the beach, our residents can ride bicycles to Weed Beach and Pear Tree Point for free. Think about it, free beach access.

Former Advertiser Editor Greg Reilly reported last June that the route from New Canaan to the beach is 7.7 miles. Going to the beach from New Canaan is slightly downhill, 30 minutes. The return trip takes 43 minutes.

South Avenue will soon be repaved and restriped. Are we waiting for repaving? Why wait? We should stripe a temporary path now and begin to train drivers and bikers how to share the road.

There are two types of bike lanes. Sharrows are symbols painted in the road indicating that drivers and bicyclists share the travel lane. Existing law already allows for shared use. Sharrows simply reinforce that reality. A 2016 Chicago study concluded Sharrows don’t encourage biking, nor do they improve safety. In contrast, bike lanes are typically four-foot-wide lanes specifically dedicated to cyclists. They exist on busier streets and demarcate bicycle space from motorized vehicle space with a line of white paint. This is what we need on our widest, busiest roads including South Avenue.

My family rented Citibikes in New York City on the first warm day of spring. (The lanes were clearly marked in green paint.) It was the most efficient (fastest and cheapest) way to get around New York City in nice weather. New Canaan should contract with a bike share service, like Citibike in New York and Hubway in Boston. New Rochelle began a bike share program last year with 11 stations. After six months they had 1,400 registered users, had sold 36 annual passes and 67 weekly passes and had logged 5,200 trips over 2,800 rental sessions. Norwalk’s Bike/Walk Commission has selected the same firm, P3GM, to roll out its bike-share program in 2019. Fairfield and Bridgeport may be next. The bike-share vendor hires a local bike shop to maintain the bikes and docking stations. Here, it’s Lou Kozar and New Canaan Bicycle.

Bike lanes. Bike sharing. After we connect Waveny and the train station to Darien’s beaches, we should add bike rental racks at Irwin Park, Kiwanis Park, the Glass House, Grace Farms, the historical society and the library. We must take the first steps to becoming a bike friendly town. This is an inexpensive initiative. It benefits our residents. It’s healthy for the planet and it’s the right thing to do. I’ll be adding this to our Town Council agenda.

John Engel is chairman of the Town Council. Chairman’s View represents the views of the chairman and not necessarily the views of other council members.

Top 10 Reasons New Canaan is Unique

1. 44 miles to New York City. New Canaan has exits from the Merritt Parkway service New Canaan making it convenient to all areas of town. No other town in Fairfield County has this kind of access to the parkway which is a much better commute than I-95 because there are no trucks.

Empty Seats: The Train Starts Here

2. Next Station to Heaven. In New Canaan your seat is waiting. Metro North trains start and end in New Canaan. 66 minutes express to Grand Central versus 57 in Darien. The train is waiting in the morning with assured seating and returns you to the village at night. Truly a unique arrangement. The folks in Darien and Westport will brag that the "main line" has more trains but who cares if you can never get a seat on the train?  

3. Schools. We have the top school system in the state and New Canaan has been called by Forbes Magazine one of the top 3 in the country for towns in which the average home costs more that  $800,000. Niche Magazine rates us number 2 in Connecticut. Unlike other rankings which use AP data as the sole datapoint, Niche's methodology includes grading for academics (50%), health and safety (10%), student culture and diversity (10%), survey responses(10%), teachers, (10%) resources and facilities (5%), extracurriculars (2.5%) and sports/fitness(2.5%). This methodology appears to be a more well-rounded, holistic approach to ranking.

New Canaan graduates 98% and the average SAT is 1910

4. Taxes. Four towns distinguish themselves with low taxes: Darien ($15,350), Greenwich ($11,270), New Canaan ($15,980) and Westport ($18,260).  The numbers represent the taxes paid on a $1.428 million house in each town last year. New Canaan enjoys one of the lowest tax rates in the county yet maintains excellent services for all our residents. Compared to Wilton ($26,830), Fairfield ($24,790), Stamford ($25,430) and Ridgefield ($26,010) these four just present better value for the real estate dollar. Compared to a comparable home in Bronxville ($42,300) the New Canaan taxes are a bargain.

5. Village. The charming village is our pride and joy and clearly sets us apart from other towns which share our demographics. Our town center is free of the traffic of US-1 and so affords all the ability to walk, shop, dine and enjoy the unique ambience. School children can be seen walking down South Avenue toward town after school.

6. Restaurants. We're the destination of choice for fine dining in the county. According to Trip Advisor we have 37 ranging from Indian to Asian and from American to the Farmer's Table. We host to the #1 ranked Asian/Fusion restaurant Connecticut, Ching's Table. Because New Canaan is so centrally located in Fairfield County we can reach most restaurants in surrounding towns too, bringing about 200 choices within a five mile radius. My new favorite watering hole? The tea house at Grace Farms. You heard it here first.

7. Clubs. The Country Club of New Canaan, the Lake Club and Field Club for summer sports and paddle, The Winter Club for hockey and skating, Racquet Club for indoor tennis and the YMCA which is one of the finest in the country.

8. Waveny Park and Other Town Assets. Designed by the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, renowned for designing Central Park, Waveny boasts over 250 acres of woods, meadows and running trails as well as sports fields, paddle tennis courts, Carriage Art Barn, The Powerhouse Theater, Lapham Community Center and Spencer's Run, New Canaan's off-leash dog park. Our Town Pool is only a few years old, now heated and located in Waveny and is a recent addition to our wonderful town facilities.Mead Memorial Park with baseball fields, playground, and snack bar, Kiwanis Park boasts a large swimming pond, playground and snack bar, Irwin Park has 36 acres and features a newly designed and surfaced trail for jogging/walking/biking. Some of these facilities require permits which are available at the Recreation Department in Waveny Park.

John Engel at the River Building

9. The Arts and Architecture. No other town in Fairfield County can boast having a world-class art destination and we have two. Since 2007 Philip Johnson's architectural masterpiece, The Glass House has been open to the public (with a reservation) from May through November. And now, as of last year, The River Building at Grace Farms, designed by the prestigious Japanese architecture firm SANAA, is open to the public year round. Don't take my word for it. Read the recent articles in Travel & Leisure, the New York Times and over 40 other publications raving about this building, calling it "the coolest building in Connecticut"

But its not just the presence of these two famous buildings. New Canaan was the home of the Harvard Five and other notable architects of the midcentury modern movement in architecture. Together they built about 90 distinctively modern homes in New Canaan in the 50's and 60's and those homes are an important part of our community. See the video.

School Spirit: The Annual Turkey Bowl Football Game 

10. Community Spirit. From Christmas Caroling on God's Acre to our Memorial Day Parade down Main Street, to the Ice Cream Social at the Historical Society and our spectacular 4th of July celebration complete with fireworks at Waveny Park, we above all share the guiding belief that all are welcome. While young families move in, our baby boomers and seniors seem to be staying on, making our community rich in its diversity.