The residents of Boulevard from Mountain Road to South Main Street express our strong opposition to the recent decision made by our town to eliminate street parking on the south side of Boulevard to make room for bike lanes.  

• Although the Town Engineer referred to this decision as “a reasonable compromise” consistent with the 2015 Complete Streets Policy in the official letters sent to all residents, these tax-paying residents were, in fact, not included in the discussion regarding such dramatic changes to the parking and traffic patterns in front of the very homes they purchased.  
• The letter only cites a meeting with the Pedestrian and Bicycle Commission (PBC) influenced by the advocacy of Bike West Hartford and their March 2023 open letter which called the parking on Boulevard “underutilized” and ideal for being turned into a bike lane.  
• The “reasonable compromise” heavily favors a small but vocal group of road users, yet completely ignores Complete Streets’ most democratic and explicit tenet: the importance of neighborhood feedback. 
• The town nor the PBC care that Boulevard residents are shouldering the burden and inconveniences caused by the town's goal to fulfill Complete Streets and Vision Zero policies. 
• While we know that PBC has no legislative authority, they do influence the town's decision-making processes, and this is why it is critical for the group to reflect the rich diversity of West Hartford. Not one member of the committee lives on Boulevard from Mountain to S. Main.  None will suffer the negative impact on Blvd homeowners/abutting land owners.
• Rather than trying to address valid concerns of Boulevard residents cited in an open letter to We-Ha News in May, PBC plans to refute each concern with "data" and submit it to Town Engineers, playing down the objections of the residents for the goals of the bicyclists citing our town's goal to fulfill the Complete Streets Policy as most important.  
• If on-street parking is removed, residents and visitors (including the elderly, those who have health and/or mobility issues, or young children) will have to walk even farther from their homes and possibly need to cross the Boulevard potentially during times of heavy traffic or inclement weather. Such obstacles can discourage visitors and strain relationships among neighbors as nearby parking spaces become a sought-after commodity. 
• It is difficult enough to pull out of our driveways with the high speeds cars travel on Boulevard, but once the 10-foot parking lane is replaced with the more narrow bike path, traffic will be closer to our homes, making it even more hazardous to safely inch out to the road. 
• According to an August 2019 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), “Studies of conventional bike lanes — those separated from traffic by painted lane markings but without physical barriers — have had inconsistent results.”  The IIHS study also states that intersections, driveways, and junctions (all of which our section of Boulevard has) often render bike lanes no safer than riding on regular roads (PR Newswire).
• Are bike lanes even necessary?  Using Bike West Hartford's accident data (https://bikewesthartford.github.io/wh-crashes/ we learned that there have only been two non-serious bike accidents in the last 7 years on Blvd.  So why is our town spending $58,000 tax dollars (PBC quoted this) to re-stripe Blvd when the few daily bikers we do have (even fewer in the winter) are currently able to ride the Blvd without incident?  
• There is great concern for pedestrians (including children walking to school) especially during the winter months.  Walkers (and runners) often rely on the 10 feet of space the parking lanes provide from the traffic to maneuver around unshoveled sections of the sidewalk. The narrow bike lanes will put the pedestrians on the south side of Boulevard 6 feet closer to the fast-moving cars.
• In the eastbound lane of Boulevard, where will the school buses, landscapers, delivery trucks, utility vans, and service providers park?  With the parking lanes gone, they will have no other option, but to flip on their hazards and block traffic to conduct business. It’s easy to see how this scenario can lend itself to accidents as frustrated drivers and bikers will try to go around the trucks and into oncoming traffic 
• There is a real potential for home values to decline as future home buyers usually view limited on-street parking on a busy road such as Boulevard as a negative. 

We are taking immediate action by emailing our Mayor, Town Manager, Director of Community Development, Town Engineer, and Town Council members and signing this petition prior to the Town Council's Community Planning & Economic Development Committee meeting at 8 a.m. on June 21. This is a special meeting that is being called to discuss the bike lanes on Boulevard.  It's important for ALL the voices and concerns of the residents of Boulevard to be heard.