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Regional active transportation plan aims to reduce pedestrian and bicyclist deaths
Summary
NVCOG staff described a regional active transportation plan covering walking, bicycling and micromobility; staff cited crash data (about 60 pedestrian crashes per year and 47 pedestrian fatalities from 2019–2024) and said a draft plan and complete-streets policy would be shared for comment.
Mark Nielsen, NVCOG, briefed the committee on the regional active transportation plan that combines pedestrian, bicycle and micromobility planning into a single framework.
He said the plan will look at infrastructure, education and a proposed regional complete-streets policy so local projects can better accommodate walking, biking and electronic assisted devices such as e-bikes and scooters.
Nielsen summarized safety data from a six-year review (2019–2024), saying the region saw about 60 pedestrian crashes per year and 47 pedestrian fatalities across the period. "The real concern is the percentage of these crashes that result in either a serious injury or, you know, in the case of pedestrians, fatalities," he said.
Nielsen said about 61% of pedestrian crashes involved people crossing the road away from intersections and that the plan will include education strategies, a conceptual on-road bike route network to link multiuse trails, and illustrative project cost estimates to inform funding needs.
He asked towns to respond to outreach from the NVCOG office identifying local walking and bicycling priorities. Chris Roberts (speaker) said the consultant team expects to complete the draft plan and wrap up the existing-conditions report by next spring and will provide draft regional and individual reports for comment.
Nielsen also noted coordination with the Connecticut Department of Transportation, which is preparing its statewide active transportation plan; NVCOG staff and the CTDOT team recently toured the region to identify needs. The committee was told to expect circulation of drafts and to provide comments so identified needs are considered for project programming.
