Many of us are avid cyclists, and moved to Hartford from other urban areas where we routinely cycled to work and school. However, Hartford has fairly poorly functioning non-motor vehicle transportation infrastructure, and this include safe and accessible bike routes. This issue is one that fundamentally crosses academic disciplines, it is clearly an environmental concern, but it is also a human and civil rights issue with deep roots in urban sociology.
So, Alex Perez (a sociology and urban studies double major at Trinity), was really the perfect student to take on this project. His work started with an effort to simply map the existing fragmented bike lanes in Hartford, and then branched out to trying to knit together routes that consisted of safe roadways for accessing various parts of the city. With the mapping under his belt – check out his cool bike route maps here – Alex embarked on a survey of Hartford residents to better understand how well the existing cycling infrastructure in the city met their needs, and what could be done about resident’s concerns. His survey and earlier work culminated in a community presentation Alex organized and led at Hartford City Hall in spring 2015 (check out his slides here).
During the fall 2015 semester Alex built on his earlier efforts by interning with the City of Hartford’s Department of Development Services. During his internship Alex worked on formulating Hartford’s Complete Streets policy, and even started to work on the city’s ambitious sustainability master plan. While he couldn’t share much of that work publicly, Alex wrote a great editorial for the Hartford Courant in which he passionately argued for why Hartford needs to embrace and actively build a vibrant cycling community:
“Bikes bring something intangible but valuable back to the city: humanity. Every person who passes by on a bike provides an opportunity to recognize a neighbor, friend or co-worker — a chance for spontaneous social exchanges that can make the city feel like a home.”
Alex’s views on cycling in Hartford are perhaps even better captured in an electronic “diary” that he created over the fall 2015 semester, in which he visually describes some of his favorite rides in the city, and interviews fellow Hartford cyclists. Check it out over at “Two-Wheeled Hartford.”
Media Coverage of the Hartford Cycling Infrastructure Project
– Alex Perez ’17 Connects with Hartford on Two Wheels, Trinity College News, April 13, 2015
– From the Community: Trinity Sophomore Conducts Research, Organizes for a Safer Cycling Infrastructure in Hartford, Hartford Courant, April 14, 2015
– Trinity Scholar Proposes Bike Lane System to Hartford City Council, Posse Chicago Quarterly, Spring 2015