Bicyclists Crash Malloy Party

New Haven’s intrepid cyclists politely crashed an I-95 groundbreaking with a show of pedal power and a written plea to the governor: While you prepare to spend another $357 million on cars, consider spending some more money on bike paths too.

Eight members of the Elm City Cycling (ECC) advocacy group rode en masse to the event Monday afternoon on Brewery Street and succeeded in delivering their plea in letter form to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Malloy was in town for the groundbreaking on a project to rebuild the I-95/I-91 interchange to fit in with the new Q Bridge and wipe out left-hand exits and entrances. It’s a $357 million part of the overall ongoing $2.2 billion billion I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program. (Click here to read about the height-scaling most recent portion that was completed, and here for another part that activists succeeded in stalling.)

ECC board member David Streever presented the letter to Malloy as the governor arrived onto the site. The letter advocated for a network of bicycle paths and lanes crisscrossing New Haven, providing residents with an alternative to driving and ultimately saving money. It urged Malloy to “take an active role in guiding” future projects for cyclists and pedestrians in New Haven.

“It seemed like this was an opportunity to show Governor Malloy some force of cyclists,” ECC board member Rob Rocke said. Rocke said the cyclists wanted to show Malloy that “we exist and we’d like to call for him to mandate at the state level that cyclist and pedestrian concerns are important.”

The ceremony, held at the site of the future I-95/I-91/Route 34 interchange off Brewery Street, inaugurated the last major phase of the highway improvement program. Besides Malloy, speakers at the event included Mayor John DeStefano, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez and James Redeker, the acting commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

Malloy thanked Streever for the letter. Later, while other officials gabbed at the podium, Malloy was seen reading the letter.

All of the speakers at the ceremony touted job growth, with Redeker claiming the interchange would create 12,500 jobs over five years. (The project is scheduled for completion in 2017.) DeLauro and Malloy cited the project as an example of investment in infrastructure and efficient transportation. The new interchange will “make the difference in Connecticut” by allowing the state to invest in the “movement of people and products in a timely fashion,” Malloy said.

Streever said he believes that “the state needs highways.” But he argued that a greater investment in cycling and alternative forms of transportation would be fiscally as well as ecologically sound.

In his letter to Malloy, Streever noted that one study found that the construction of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure creates twice as many jobs per million dollars spent as highway construction. He added that these projects have “been demonstrated to improve safety, save lives, and increase the economic health of municipalities.”

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