Union Ave not bicycle-accessible

That's excellent, Brian.

Elm City Cycling is developing conceptual designs for a separated bike path (cycle track) connecting downtown to Union Station as part of our long-range bike plan. Here is an early conceptual rendering that I have just put together.

Is the State DOT so hard-set against on-street cycling? Or is it just difficult to obtain permission? I only wonder because the DOT was also against bicycle lanes on Whitney Avenue (the other busiest bicycle thoroughfare).

First:

Was authorization requested? Initially, the city had indicated that sharrows might be possible through a pilot implementation.

Posting all of the information about precisely what was requested, dates of all requests, and who denied requests for authorization and why, would help the community resolve the issue going forward.

It sounds like the community needs to push the state to adopt Federal road standards, which were recently changed to encourage use of sharrows. Has the city made requests for the state to adopt these standards more quickly?

Second:

Were measures other than sharrows evaluated? If so, details are needed again for the community to be able to respond effectively and advocate for changes. Sharrows are a good first step (recommended by the SCRCOG-funded Downtown gap analysis consultants in 2009), but ultimately, they are insufficient to allow users of all ages and abilities to get to Union Station by bicycle.

The Dept. did not have authorization to apply sharrows on the short stretch from State St @ Water St, to Union Station, as this is a state controlled strech of road.

How come the sharrows installed throughout Downtown New Haven were not installed going to the train station, one of the city's busiest bike routes?

Perhaps some sort of shared lane markings could be employed on the right hand lane. These might help to remind drivers the cyclists have a right to use the road.