Share The Roads
Share The Roads
To the Editor:
Iâve been a resident of Newtown for 21 plus years. As an avid walker and cyclist you can bet Iâve seen my fair share of both courteous as well as irresponsible, rude, and reckless drivers. Connecticut has several laws on the books that are there to protect the safety and well-being of pedestrians, dog walkers, baby carriage pushers, runners, and cyclists.
As long as I have lived just off the corner of Walnut Tree Hill Road, there has never been a designated turning lane from Church Hill Road onto I-84 going west. That is correct, no arrow painted onto the asphalt, no solid white line indicating the existence of an additional turning lane. This 1000+-foot section of Church Hill Road heading up to the flagpole has become a hotly contested section. Despite the lack of state designated traffic symbols, it is common practice for drivers to use the shoulder space as a turning lane. Common practice, however, doesnât make a practice legal.
According to state law, a pedestrian or a person propelling a human powered vehicle has a right to that space when there is no sidewalk or safety zone provided. This means that any pedestrian has the right to be in that space safely walking, jogging, cycling or what ever nonmotorized means of transport they are using. That also means that when a pedestrian is in that space the driver of a motorized vehicular doesnât have the legal right to force said pedestrian off the road into the tick-ridden grass so that they may quickly enter I-84. I have been buzzed, cursed at, run off the road and challenged for this space by drivers. Iâm not about to jump into the tick grass. I will continue to walk and ride on this section of roadway. I will continue to exercise my right of mobility.
It is springtime and it is essential that we all share the road. As long Newtown lacks a safe contiguous sidewalk, there will be people out and about. A collision between a pedestrian and a vehicle is a lose/lose situation. If a person or cyclist is further into the roadbed there may be a very good reason for this. Just maybe, the roadbed is in such poor condition that traversing it is hazardous. Slow down and share the road; it just may save someone from bodily harm and you from a lifetime of nightmares.
Itâs springtime â share the roads.
Virginia Gutbrod
4 Walnut Tree Hill Road, Sandy Hook                           May 5, 2012