Unplugged Learning Project Sponsors Pedestrian and Bike-friendly Survey Initiative

An Avon group is sponsoring a survey that will consider how to make the town a more pedestrian and bike-friendly area.

The Unplugged Learning Project, which motivates a nature-based education and recreational opportunities for children and adults, is trying to understand how much pedestrian-friendly measures such as sidewalks and bike paths are needed by Avon residents.

The survey, which asks what transportation residents use, why and how Avon can become more pedestrian friendly, is still available to complete here.

Avon parent Susan Reitano-Davey who founded the Unplugged Learning Project, says that the survey and subsequent brainstorming is an initiative which anyone in Avon can support. She believed that everyone wants to ease congestion on roads and live healthier lives in general.

Reitano-Davey observed that already, when the survey was just up for three days, 400 responses were collected and she continues to see more.

“The idea really resonates with residents,” Reitano-Davey said.

She pointed out that residents were already proposing ideas which Reitano-Davey and others affiliated with the Unplugged Learning Project didn't consider. Also, reviewing the results which have already come in, Reitano-Davey noticed that residents appreciate the Rails-to-Trails network of bike paths but are frustrated because they need to drive to use them.

If Avon already lacks a pedestrian-friendly layout, Reitano-Davey said that is not because residents choose it.

“It's not so much that people don't want to walk or bike,” she said. “It's that Avon doesn't have the infrastructure.”

One of the main reasons for initiating the survey was what Davey saw as a lack of pedestrian-conscious planning around areas such as Roaring Brook Elementary School. Davey explained that on the road leading to the school there is no shoulder and no crosswalk.

“The children that live across the street can't even walk there,” Reitano-Davey said. “ [It's the] most egregious example of a lack of regard for residents.”

Communicating with town services that will be responsible for retooling roadways for pedestrian walkways and bike paths is one of the next steps.

After collecting and making sense of the results, Davey wants to present the findings to the community and share them with town finance and public safety leaders, members Reitano-Davey says “can really push some of these things forward.”

To Reitano-Davey, the eventual pedestrian- and bike-friendly projects will be cheap and will primarily use paint to mark designated bike lanes on roads.

She hopes to have all results in by mid-week and for the data to be available Monday, June 6. A narrative explaining the results will be published along with survey data and eventually presented to the town.

Reitano-Davey's own hope is that her grandchildren will be able to walk to school from their house and ride bikes across town and be safe.