The Town of West Hartford’s Engineering Division recently presented a draft plan for Sedgwick Road reconstruction, outlining a timeline to finalize the design this fall, implement quick-build trials this year, and begin construction in 2026. This draft design offers much to applaud!
While the plan has positive elements, Bike West Hartford has additional recommendations to dramatically improve pedestrian safety. You can help by contacting Town officials to commend their work and urge them to incorporate our recommendations–see the end of this post for a concise list as well as contact information–in the next design iteration. In brief, the draft design includes the majority of traffic calming for only 1/3 of the 1-mile roadway. The remaining 2/3rds of Sedgwick Road is in desperate need of consistent traffic calming as well. This means cost effective and proven measures to slow cars down so that everyone is safer.
West Hartford’s Draft Plan – The Good Stuff
The Town has incorporated Vision Zero principles, particularly enhancing safety near Sedgwick Middle School and Duffy Elementary School. Notable improvements include:
- Center landscaped medians: These will be transformative, especially when planted with large native trees. Research shows medians effectively narrow the perceived width of a roadway (currently 44 feet), prompting drivers to reduce speed while providing safer pedestrian crossing points.
- A raised intersection at Wardwell Street: Elevating the entire intersection will significantly improve crossing safety at this critical school junction.
- A raised crosswalk at Lemay Street with a landscaped pedestrian refuge island adds crucial safety for pedestrians.
- A curb extension at Westminster Drive narrows the crossing distance, enhancing pedestrian safety.
- A hardened centerline at Tunxis Road discourages abrupt turns before the intersection.
- A new crosswalk at Newport Avenue addresses a significant gap in the half-mile stretch between Lemay Street and South Main Street.
- Lane reduction west of South Main Street from two lanes to one helps prevent unsafe merging and racing.
- Buffered bike lanes around Sedgwick Middle School narrow the roadway, buffer sidewalks from traffic, and enhance overall safety.
- Reduced speed limit from 35 to 30 MPH is a positive step.
We commend the Town’s efforts to enhance safety and extend our gratitude to the Engineering Division for their diligent work.
Bike West Hartford’s Recommendations
The majority of the Town’s proposed improvements are concentrated within just 1/3 of the project area (between Scarsdale Road and Fairlee Road). Sedgwick Road serves a huge portion of our community, including a great many of our children. Many of these children walk or bike to school independently, and many more might be able to do so if the route were safer. To truly elevate the Sedgwick Road plan and ensure comprehensive safety for all, we propose a few key modifications before the design is finalized, primarily focusing on the remaining 2/3rds of the roadway.
- Remove underutilized parking to prioritize safety; add more center medians
Approximately 2/3rds of the project plan–from S. Main to Scarsdale and from Fairlee to Ridgewood–will look like this new stretch of Farmington Avenue (with the one exception of Newport Ave., which is proposed to have curb bump-outs like Boulevard for a new crossing).
This draft design relies solely on paint, which, while visually demarcating lanes, does little to physically slow traffic or enhance safety. The parking lanes are seldom used on Sedgwick which creates empty space that allows drivers to go faster. The Town’s own West Hartford Bicycle Advisory Committee (WHBAC) performed a parking analysis in 2014, and the Town’s West Hartford Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission performed another parking analysis in 2025. The results of these studies were identical, and they speak for themselves. Including commercial vehicles, in the 1-mile stretch of Sedgwick Road at all times of day the mean total number of parked vehicles on the whole road was… 2.
That’s two total vehicles parked at any given time in the entire 1 mile stretch of Sedgwick Road.
It is not reasonable to prioritize a miniscule demand for parking in exchange for an enormous reduction in safety on a residential stretch of roadway that serves two schools.
The Town’s draft design therefore does not address the existing 40 MPH 85th percentile speeds (the speed at or below which 85% of drivers travel; the other 15% go faster). In fact, repaving the road will probably inadvertently lead to even higher speeds because of the smooth surface. To align these segments with the desired 30 MPH speed limit, we advocate for removing the underutilized parking and narrowing the roadway by incorporating at least five additional center medians, and continuing the buffered bike lanes already proposed in the middle section around Sedgwick Middle School.
We suggest strategically placing the medians at the following locations so that driveway access and cross-street turning movements are not impacted:
- Cornell Road: (The location where Anne Rapkin tragically lost her life; the current plan includes only changes to paint for this area, lacking crucial traffic calming measures.)
- Fairlee Road
- Scarsdale Road
- Four Mile Road
- In front of the Sedgwick & Woodrow Apartments by South Main Street
- Optimize pedestrian safety: Relocate the Newport Avenue crossing to Four Mile Road (and RAISE it)
Relocating this proposed crossing to Four Mile Road would be a more strategic choice. Given our recommendation to add center landscaped medians along this stretch for traffic calming, placing the crossing at Newport Avenue could present challenges due to driveway placements (a median directly in front of a driveway would restrict two-way turning). In contrast, a center median at Four Mile Road would not impede any driveways, and a raised crosswalk could seamlessly integrate with a center refuge island, further enhancing pedestrian safety.
Regardless of its final location, the pedestrian crossing at Newport Avenue (or Four Mile) must be raised. This is a fundamental measure to slow down vehicles and cultivate the safe, neighborhood feel that the Town aims to achieve for this residential corridor serving Duffy and Sedgwick schools, as well as all of the facilities in the Buena Vista Road area.
- Implement more quick-build curb extensions
The Town’s own March 2025 Sedgwick Road Safety Audit recommended the implementation of curb extensions at numerous intersection cross-streets along the corridor. These extensions effectively reduce lane widths, thereby improving pedestrian crossing safety and slowing vehicle turning speeds.
The following BWH rendering of a curb extension at Lemay Street (which is not in the current draft design) offers a glimpse of the benefits.
Despite the presence of ~20 cross streets on Sedgwick Road (including South Main Street and Ridgewood Road), and despite the Town’s safety audit recommending multiple curb extensions for cross streets, the current draft plan only appears to include one at Westminster Drive.
We urge the Town to embrace the recommendations of their own safety audit and incorporate more quick-build curb extensions into the plan. Key locations for these include Tunxis Road (and let’s add a crosswalk here while we’re at it!), Garfield Road, Lemay Road, Sulgrave Road, Four Mile Road, and Ridgebrook Road. At Westminster the crosswalk should also travel through the center median, which would act as a refuge island, just as the Town’s RSA recommended.
Furthermore, we strongly recommend trialing the semi-diverter suggested by the RSA at Westland Avenue to mitigate the risk of cars pulling onto Sedgwick Road at the crest of the hill. In short, let’s prioritize safety with decisive action! Quick-builds are a proven and effective method for slowing traffic and safeguarding our community.
- Make continuous bike lanes
Currently, the eastbound bike lane abruptly ends at South Main Street. However, by reallocating space, a bike lane in both directions could easily be accommodated for seamless continuity. We propose adjusting the two 11-foot travel lanes to a consistent 10 feet (matching the rest of the roadway) and repurposing the 4 feet of cumulative buffer from the existing bike lanes. This would allow for a 5-foot unbuffered bike lane on each side, which could then transition to buffered lanes west of the turning lanes.
- Use flexposts to separate bike lanes
While buffered bike lanes are superior to unbuffered ones, BWH strongly advocates that West Hartford add physical buffers, most commonly done with flexposts. By adding a vertical element, drivers are strongly discouraged from entering the lane. The flexposts can be spaced far apart enough for easy driveway and delivery vehicle access. The Town has never offered an adequate reason as to why we do not have separated bike lanes. Snow, buses, and delivery vehicles can all be accommodated by flexpost separated bike lanes. Places as snowy as Denver and Montreal have plenty of these lanes, and they still manage to have buses and deliveries too. There are many people in West Hartford who would never feel comfortable riding on a painted bike lane since there is absolutely nothing to prevent a distracted driver from hitting a rider in the lane.
Your Voice Can Make a Difference!
We need your support to ensure this Sedgwick Road plan becomes truly exceptional. Please take a moment to email the following officials:
- Greg Sommer, Town Engineer, greg.sommer@westhartfordct.gov
- Rick Ledwith, Town Manager, rick.ledwith@westhartfordct.gov
- Town Council, TownCouncil@westhartfordct.gov
- CC us! bikewesthartfordinc@gmail.com
We ask that you respectfully request the following:
- Remove underutilized parking to prioritize safety; add more center medians
- Optimize pedestrian safety: Relocate the Newport Avenue crossing to Four Mile Road (and RAISE it)
- Implement more quick-build curb extensions
- Make continuous bike lanes
- Use flex posts to separate bike lanes
Thank you for your invaluable support and for lending your voice to create a safer Sedgwick Road for everyone!