Dear Mr. Hammersley:

On July 13, I understand that you chaired a public hearing of the CT
Transportation Strategy Board at Norwalk Community College. Leslie Weinberg
of Stamford alerted me to this, and although neither of us was able to
attend, I believe Leslie emailed you some extensive comments and suggestions
arising from her experience as a pedestrian and user of public
transportation in and around Stamford.

The tragic irony is that a few days later, on July 16, Leslie was struck and
knocked unconscious by a car as she was walking across High Ridge Road in
Stamford. She ended up on a respirator in the critical care unit of the
hospital. Fortunately, she survived and is recovering from her injuries.

It should not have taken a tragedy like this to call our attention to the
dangers of our increasingly congested roads in CT and especially Fairfield
County. As the number of automobiles increases at a higher rate than our
human population, and the average size of automobiles increases (despite
gasoline prices), the roads are becoming more and more hazardous to
pedestrians and bicyclists, not to mention the drivers themselves.

We need a long-range transportation plan that invests in mass transit and
encourages people to walk and cycle by making it safe, pleasant, and
convenient to do so. An emphasis on building more highways or widening
roads will only erode our quality of life, and will do nothing to help those
of us who do not drive on a regular basis. It ignores the transportation
needs of children, the elderly, the disabled, new immigrants, those of us
who cannot afford a car, and those of us who choose not to drive because we
want a healthier lifestyle and a cleaner environment.

We need to slow down the cars on local residential roads by using proven
traffic calming methods, and we need to speed up inter-city mass transit by
having more frequent trains and buses and coordinating their schedules to
allow seamless connections. We need to look at light rail options for
heavily-used routes. We need sidewalks for pedestrians, we need pedestrian
overpasses, and we need downtown commercial streets open to pedestrians and
closed to motor vehicles. We need conveniently placed bicycle racks, we
need bicycle lanes and bicycle awareness education for drivers, and we need
space for bicycles on all trains at all times of day.

We need a transportation strategy whose primary purpose is to move people,
not automobiles. The safety of pedestrians like Leslie should not be
sacrificed to a car culture run amok.

Sincerely,

David Bedell, Secretary
Fairfield County chapter, CT Green Party
http://fairfield.ctgreens.org