Senate Bill 502, An Act Concerning Bicycle Safety, proposes updating Connecticut’s rules on riding. Those updates include reconsideration of requirements to ride as far to the right as practicable, new permissions for bike lane and cycle tracks, and endorsing the National Association of City Transportation Officials technical design guideline for bikeways and street designs.
On April 23 in Old Wethersfield, Roger Geller, co-author of the NATCO design guidelines, will hold a guided technical workshop for professionals. It is an opportunity for planning and engineering professionals in Connecticut to familiarize themselves with the designs.
This workshop could be the opportunity needed for municipal planners in Fairfield and Litchfield counties to serious consider such improvements to the roads.
On Thursday, Alexander Scott Lee, a 22 year old New Milford man, will be sentence in Superior Court in Danbury on charges stemming from the death of cyclist Tom Seinert-Threlkeld, 59, of Weston.
Steinert-Threlkeld was an avid cyclist who logged 160,000 miles over 20 years. He was riding west on Route 302 in Bethel in October 2013 when his bike collided with Lee’s vehicle as Lee made an improper left turn in front of him.
Lee kept driving as Steinert-Threlkeld fell to the roadway where he was hit by an oncoming car and trapped under it. He died from his injuries.
If there had been a designated bike lane on that road, would it have made a difference? No one will ever know.
In August 2014, an experienced cyclist Dwight Hipp, 57, of New Milford, collided with a pickup truck on Chestnut Land Road. The accident occurred about 8:30 a.m., police said. And the pick-up had just pulled out of a farm’s driveway.
The truck’s driver, John Kimberly, 22, was not charged, although Hipp died in the emergency room of New Milford Hospital after being taken there by ambulance from the collision.
The question is not if Kimberly should have been charged. The state’s attorney is trained in making such decisions. The question is, would a designated bike lane or a different road design have made a difference? Again, no one will ever know.
For information about attending Geller’s workshop, email bikewalkct@bikewalkct.org