23-03-2025
Groton plan recommends bicycle, pedestrian improvements
Groton — A long-term bicycle and pedestrian plan is recommending about $42 million in phased improvements for bicycle facilities and sidewalks to help make the community safer for cyclists and pedestrians and better connect areas of the town.
Town Manager John Burt said the plan will serve as a guiding document for solicitation of grant funding. The town will also consult the plan when reviewing sidewalk and road work to determine where best to enhance the walkability and bikeability of the area.
Parks and Recreation Director Mark Berry told the Town Council during a presentation March 11 that an impetus for updating the town's 2005 bicycle and pedestrian plan was the town's 2022 recreational needs assessment. Residents identified improved community connectivity as one of the highest needs.
Rory Jacobson, a community planner with FHI Studio, now IMEG, the consultant, said the purpose of the plan, called the Groton Complete Streets and Trails Plan, is to identify infrastructure the town can install to improve walking and biking throughout town for a variety of users. The plan also includes recommendations to improve connections to parks, open spaces and recreational areas.
Groton has a Complete Streets Policy, and the town's Complete Streets Advisory Committee assisted with the development of the plan.
Community comments
According to the plan, community members said during the community outreach process that they hope the town will improve handicap accessibility, safety along roads, signage to raise awareness of bicyclists, trail wayfinding signs, and connections to trails.
Residents also said they want the town to fill gaps in Groton's bicycle and pedestrian network, add facilities along east-west routes to accommodate commuters, encourage bicycling at schools, better maintain road shoulders and sidewalks, create designated facilities for bicyclists, educate drivers about types of bicycle facilities, and improve pedestrian safety.
Nicole Detora, a planner with the consulting firm, said the town has few on-road bicycle facilities and multi-use pathways, but a good number of trails that accommodate hikers and mountain bikers. Groton has a fairly extensive sidewalk network, but there are gaps, including some significant ones.
Detora said areas along Route 1 lack sidewalks on both sides or one side of the road, while other routes, such as 184 and 117, lack a sidewalk network altogether.
She said 2019-23 crash data shows that the western side of town, specifically around Route 12 and the western part of Route 1, have higher crash concentrations. There also are some hot spots in places such as Mystic and along Route 184.
She said if there are sidewalk gaps in these areas, it will sometimes force pedestrians onto the roads, so there is a safety concern.
Recommendations
Francisco Gomes, comprehensive planning manager with the consultant, said the emphasis of the recommendations are for roads and corridors that provide connectivity across town. The recommendations are for a range of facility types, including bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, side paths, multi-use paths, shared roadways and sidewalks.
The recommendation for a four-phase comprehensive bicycle facility network would cost $29.4 million.
The total cost of sidewalk improvement is estimated to be $12.5 million. Gomes said the recommendation is for that to be done three phases, with the first $3.1 million phase to focus on the Route 1 sidewalk network.
The plan includes five concept plans for improvements to corridors: Routes 12 and 1 from Toll Gate Road to Buddington Road; Route 1 from Buddington Road to Noank Ledyard Road; Route 1 from Noank Ledyard Road to the Stonington town line; Route 117 from Route 1 to the Ledyard town line; and Route 215 from South Elm Street to Route 1. The concepts include the planning work the town could use in future grant applications.
The study also has concepts for Complete Streets demonstration projects for Bindloss and Depot roads.
The plan includes a list of potential grants funding sources the town could apply for. Gomes said a next step is to reach out to the state Department of Transportation.
Town Councilors spoke about the importance of accessibility and safety. They discussed the plan, with some expressing surprise over the high cost for improvements, but also said the town could look to make smaller improvements as it does projects, such as repaving.
A recommendation to adopt the plan as the guiding document to improve connectivity in Groton is slated to be on the agenda of the Town Council's April 22 Committee of the Whole meeting.
