State completes cycling lanes on stretch of Route 5 in Hartford

A Vermont Agency of Transportation diagram shows the

A Vermont Agency of Transportation diagram shows the "protected intersection" at North Main Street and Route 5 in White River Junction, where markings denote cyclist and pedestrian crossings. (Courtesy Vt. Agency of Transportation) Courtesy Vt. Agency of Transportation

By CHRISTINA DOLAN

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 12-20-2024 7:31 PM

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Drivers in Hartford are adjusting to new traffic patterns following the completion this fall of a roadwork project that included lane reductions and the creation of new cycling lanes on Route 5, roughly from the Hartland town line to Wilder.

Residents expressed skepticism on social media and the local Listserv throughout the summer and early fall. The biggest concerns included an increase in accidents, traffic delays and general congestion as a result of the lane reductions.

“The Town received numerous complaints and a few words of praise,” even though it was a state project, Hartford Town Manager John Haverstock said by email.

“I would say that some of the more dire predictions from members of the public do not appear to have materialized thus far,” he added.

Reducing vehicle lanes in favor of bike lanes, which are protected in some stretches of the corridor by a 4-foot buffer zone, were a particular target of public vitriol.

There was one bicycle-involved accident on Hartford Ave. in November, described as a “sideswipe,” according to crash data made available by Vermont Agency of Transportation, or VTrans. A total of 167 crashes of all types occurred in Hartford in the past year, up from 147 in 2023, according to the same data. Two of this year’s crashes, including the November sideswipe, involved bicycles. There were no crashes involving bicycles reported in 2023.

The Hartford Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on impacts of the new traffic patterns by deadline.

“It is a big shift in the traffic pattern,” Rita Seto, senior planner with the Two Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Commission, said by phone on Friday. “There may not be enough pedestrians or cyclists to warrant the bike lane now,” she said. But that may be because the corridor was not particularly bike or pedestrian friendly, so cyclists avoided it.

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“Perhaps now bicyclists will feel more comfortable using the corridor,” she said.

People may say “we didn’t see bikes before, and now you’re dedicating the lane,” Matt Bogaczyk, a VTrans program manager, said by phone. But without a dedicated bike lane providing some separation between cars and bicycles, “there wasn’t a safe place for them to ride,” he said.

One bicyclist said that he feels safer as a result of the project.

“It gets you out of traffic,” West Lebanon resident Shawn Westover said of the new bike lanes.

Westover waited with his bicycle for an Advance Transit bus outside Kilton Library on a chilly late-December day recently. He commutes to work and otherwise travels around the region using a combination of his bike and the bus. In warmer weather, he relies less on buses and more on bike lanes and rail trails, he said.

The new roadwork has resulted in some adjustments to bus routes, Advance Transit bus driver Linda Bonnett and said Friday morning.

“I don’t know that it’s slowed us that much,” she said, except when there’s a particularly slow-moving vehicle such as a tractor in a one-lane stretch of road.

But the bike lanes on Hartford Avenue leading to and from the high school have resulted in some unexpected behavior by other drivers.

“We used to stop in the driving lane and let people come to us,” to board the bus, Bonnett said.

After an incident in which a driver used the bike lane to pass a stopped bus on the right, buses now pull into the bike lane and then back into traffic, which is a bit of an inconvenience, she said.

Vermont passed a Complete Streets Act in 2011 requiring all towns and state entities to consider the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians when they are rebuilding or redesigning infrastructure, Seto said.

The state also provides cash incentives for consumers to purchase electric bicycles through a program authorized in the fiscal year 2025 transportation bill.

The Route 5 corridor project grew out of 2018 road safety audit commissioned by the town of Hartford. That study culminated in a 2020 scoping study approved by the Hartford Selectboard.

The scoping study highlighted “the community’s desire to install more multi-modal facilities,” including “safer bicycle facilities and pedestrian facilities throughout the project corridor,” Bogaczyk said.

As for how many bicyclists use the new protected lanes in the future, there are no plans by VTrans to collect data, Bogaczyk said.

VTrans conducted a survey of public input on the project after its completion in November, but the results are not yet available for analysis.

Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.