Asked to weigh in on whether New Canaan should place signs around town instructing motorists to give a legally required 3-foot berth to cyclists, planning officials on Tuesday raised questions about the proposed sign itself, how it’s mounted, just what streets would get one and the timing of its possible installment.
Town officials are deciding whether this sign would be appropriate for New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
Planning & Zoning Commissioner Claire Tiscornia said she’s all for safety but that the specific sign developed by the Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club could confuse passing motorists.
“To me that looks like a school bus sign—the sign with the bus and the little light,” Tiscornia said at P&Z’s regular meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center.
“For me, if I was driving down the road, I would think, ‘Why is that school bus sign there?’ And I think it’s a little small. I’m not sure if I was driving by that I would think ‘Share the road.’ I would look at the bike sign and then either it’s too small for me to read or I would just go right past it. I like the idea of a sign, I just don’t like that sign. I think it also seems like it’s an official state sign, whereas it’s a sign from a private organization. So I just think it might be a little confusing for motorists.”
Nancy Rosett, the bicycle club’s community relations director—presenting the signs to P&Z with New Canaan resident Alan Sheiner, the club’s rides director—replied: “It hasn’t been in the towns where they put them up.”
Ultimately, it will be the decision of the Department of Public Works’ decision on whether and where the signs would go. DPW officials have said they’d like to get the point of view of Town Planner Steve Kleppin and P&Z.
Some 40 New Canaanites belong to the Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club, Rosett and Sheiner said, and more in town cycle on their own.
Sheiner recommended 11 roads that could get a sign, saying he chose them because “the idea is to have as many cars as possible see these signs, to make people aware and educate them that they need to give three feet.” (His suggestions are: Weed near Elm, South Avenue, Wahackme, Route 123, Route 106, Ponus Ridge, Oenoke Ridge Road, Main near Cherry, Valley, Jelliff Mill and West Road.)
“I view this almost as a quality-of-life issue” because so many New Canaanites cycle, Sheiner said.
The club, which has a mailing address in Darien, has already seen the signs go in throughout Fairfield County towns such as Bethel, Brookfield, Fairfield, Norwalk and Westport, with Newtown and Greenwich as future possibilities, Rosett said.
Commissioners asked how the sign is mounted (up to the town, though most use existing posts such as for speed limits), who buys the signs (Sound Cyclists does), who decides where they go (the town), by what process do other towns implement the signs (varies town-to-town) and whether it’s possible to get a vertically rather than horizontally oriented version (that would be a significant cost to the club).
The recently adopted Plan of Conservation and Development includes a directive for New Canaan—as it did in 2003—to “enhance bicycle circulation.” Specifically, the POCD calls for New Canaan to identify bicycle routes (see a Bicycle Plan map on page 75) and consider applying for recognition as a “bicycle friendly community” with a national organization.
P&Z Secretary Jean Grzelecki said she would prefer to see the routes mapped out prior to posting the safety signs.
“I think that we need to get our bike routes set up first, before we go ahead and sign a route that essentially is not the one that the town is necessarily deciding is the best for us,” she said.
Rosett said: “The purpose of these signs is not to designate the roads as safe or good or better or worse for cyclists. It’s basiclly to educate motorists about the law.”
Commissioner Dan Radman agreed, noting that cyclists have the same rights to public roads that motorists do, saying that there’s nothing preventing New Canaan from adopting the signs prior to settling on preferred biking routes.
Commissioner John Kriz questioned whether it was appropriate for New Canaan to disseminate through town a sign that has the private club’s name on it because that would amount to a form of free advertising for the club itself.
Kleppin said there are other instances—designating a “Heart Safe Community,” “Clean Your Mile,” designated traffic triangles that are landscaped and the like—where something similar happens.
P&Z Chairman John Goodwin said the group’s primary responsibility was to decide whether the proposed sign is in keeping with the POCD. At Goodwin’s suggestion, P&Z will mull over the matter for one more month and return with a recommendation for DPW.
This seems like a slippery slope. Are we ultimately going to have a driving rule broken down to an icon and posted on our streets?
3 Ft on roads like Wahackme, Jelliff Mill and Valley require you to break the traffic law of not crossing a double yellow and put you in peril of a head on collision.
Understandably cyclists tend not to hug the side of those roads because of pot holes. It also makes it impossible to pass them without
breaking traffic laws.
There needs to be a better understanding all around.
Colorado and many other states have signs that say “Share the road” with an icon of a cyclist and a car. I think that this suggested sign looks like it’s the solely car’s (driver’s) responsibility to avoid a bicyclist when in fact the cyclist is also responsible for following the rules of the road.
Personally, more often than not, I see cyclists in town riding two by two or well into the lane and not closer to the white line. Although I understand that many roads in New Canaan have gravel or potholes and it is difficult to ride on the edge of the road with a road bike vs a mountain bike that does not excuse cyclists from trying to share the road when cars approach. I think it has to be an education process for drivers and bicyclists and we must BOTH, share the road.