Bike West Hartford held our first New Britain Avenue Walk Audit on Friday June 30th 2023, co-sponsored with State. Rep. Kate Farrar (be sure to check out her awesome short video on Facebook or Instagram). Twenty people joined our event and shared observations and ideas for improving safety and services for walkers, bike riders, and bus passengers. Here’s a message we shared with everyone at the event, which you can also view as a 1-page PDF handout:
We call on leaders from West Hartford and the CT Dept of Transportation to work together to improve safety on New Britain Avenue, a state road that slices through local neighborhoods in West Hartford and Hartford. We welcome you to join us for “walk audits” to get outside of meeting rooms, gain first-hand experiences on local streets, and discuss ways to improve safety for all, including walkers, bike riders, and bus passengers.
We deserve better transportation safety. In our study of 5 years of West Hartford crash data New Britain Avenue stood out (apart from high-volume Interstate 84) because it had:
- the second highest number of all crashes (11% of West Hartford total)
- the highest number of crashes with any injuries (13% of West Hartford total)
When dividing the 3-mile New Britain Avenue corridor into equal 1-mile segments, we found that the number of crashes with any injuries were highest in the East and Middle sections.
Our first walk audit on Friday June 30th covers only one portion of New Britain Avenue (from Mayflower Street to the train/bus bridge near New Park Avenue). We invite partners to help us organize walk audits for more areas of New Britain Ave this summer, both east and west.
View our June 30th Walk Audit Map and Questions in PDF format