Navigating New Hampshire’s Urban Paths
To those of you who watched TV in the 80’s, I think you’ll get the reference above. If you don’t, read on — hopefully, it will become clear.
The Pine Street Fracas
There’s been some recent controversy about the approaching repaving of Pine Street. For a recap, read on. Also, see recent coverage by Andy Sylvia HERE and HERE. Also this article in the Union Leader.
Manchester approved a plan in 2019 to add bike lanes to sections of four streets at their next repaving, along with reducing vehicular lanes from two (in the same direction) to one. Three of those streets have been done, with generally good results, showing measurable speed reduction and crash reduction.
The fourth street, Pine Street, is up for repaving this summer. At a recent meeting of Manchester’s Committee on Public Safety, Health & Traffic, the committee voted to “table” changes to Pine Street (meaning to make no alterations to the current configuration on the ground). The committee discussion included some anti-bike-lane rhetoric from some of the Alderman involved.
This generated strong feelings among residents of the neighborhood and among cycling enthusiasts in Manchester. Rapid citizen action followed, including the creation of an online survey that gathered approximately 270 signatures, plus about 50 physical paper signatures. On Tuesday May 20 there was a regularly scheduled meeting of Manchester’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen, which had a public comment session early in the meeting. This public session had a diverse array of approximately 20 speakers, from age 7 (with her father) to 65 (at least), who spoke in favor of the Pine Street paving with the addition of a bike lane. Not a single speaker opposed the bike lane. Total speaking time was about 50 minutes.
It would appear the speakers had the desired impact. Afterward, several of the aldermen spoke in favor of the bike lane addition. One spoke against it.
Official action will wait until June 3. First, the committee has to “untable” the changes, then on June 3 the Board of Mayor and Alderman can vote on it. Until the vote is cast, the outcome is anyone’s guess.
I spoke at the meeting, as a citizen of Manchester. Below is what I said in my 2 1/2 minutes:
Hello. I’m Jeff Rogers. I live on Magnolia Road in Ward 1.
Sometimes I drive in the city, sometimes I walk, sometimes I ride a bicycle. All are important to me.
The suggestion that Manchester should decide whether it’s a bicycle city or not, may have been well-intentioned, but it is misguided and futile.
With a population of 115 thousand, Manchester will have many people who will never ride a bicycle. It will also have many people who love bicycles and ride them often. And it will have many people who are gainfully employed but cannot afford a car and so need other transportation. All these citizens deserve safe streets.
Two huge components of those safe streets are visibility and calm speeds.
However I’m getting around—be it driving, walking, running, or biking—I want to see others, and I want them to see me. That visibility keeps us all safer. I’ve experienced a life-threatening crash while cycling, and I can tell you: the aftermath is painful and disruptive, as it would be regardless of the mode of transportation involved. We all share the road, and we all deserve to get home safely.
The recently delayed Pine Street project contained a bike lane, and it also contained a lane reduction, and parking changes to increase visibility when approaching corners. All these components are enormously important, designed to calm traffic, allow space for everyone, and make our streets safer for all users. Especially as they approach corners.
These changes were recommended by our Department of Public Works to improve safety. Now imagine that they are delayed or even gutted by this board, stripping away the measures intended to increase safety. Then imagine someone — a pedestrian, cyclist, or driver — is seriously injured or even killed on this stretch of road due to a crash.
Ask yourselves, should such a tragedy occur, who bears the moral responsibility? When we ignore proven safety improvements, we are not merely delaying a project, we are intentionally accepting a foreseeable risk that someone in our community will pay a severe price. As those elected to protect our community, I implore you to reconsider your decision and not contribute to a situation where one of our community members pays with their life.
Thank you.
Pictured below are some of the speakers at the meeting:
Call for Input
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Stay safe, warm, and dry, and have fun out there!
Note: The author is a member of the board of the Bike Walk Alliance of New Hampshire, but the views expressed in this article are his own.