Meeting Summary October 5, 2023
Attending: Hultgren, Waldburger, Gosselin
This meeting began at approximately 7:10pm in the lobby of the Nash-Zimmer Transportation Center.
We discussed the bicycle ID contest/drawing at the Bike Mansfield booth at the late September Downtown Festival. The contest seemed to engage festival passersby but mostly after we went out of the booth to ask them if they would like to participate. Once they were in, the contest seemed to be fun for us and for the participants. A different type of 10 bicycle-related items to be identified could be done (from photographs) next year, having people ID things like a bike rack, tire pump, helmet, bike computer, blinky light, riding kit, sharrow, bike (signal) box, bike lane, etc.
Hultgren said that the PZC had endorsed the draft Bicycle/Pedestrian Master Plan earlier this week and sent it to the Town Council for adoption. When the presentation is made to the Council, Bike Mansfield members and other advocates should attend the meeting to tell the Council that it is important that they adopt the plan and its recommendations (which include hiring an Active Transportation Coordinator, budgeting specifically for active transportation in the DPW and Recreation Department budgets, continuing with the bike/pedestrian projects that are underway, and seeking funding for the projects recommended in the plan).
Based on the minutes of the Town’s Human Services Advisory Committee, there is a good chance that Bike Mansfield’s grant request for ARPA funding to purchase a 3-wheeled e-bike and a shed to store it in for the CWA program will be funded. Having meeting(s) amongst the potential participant organizations will need to be started soon.
Hultgren read an email from Coryn Clark summarizing the UConn Bicycle Working Group’s current efforts. They recently did an audit of bicycle and other PTV’s (Personal Transportation Vehicle) on the campus; are interested in updating the bicycle page on the UConn Sustainability website; and are looking to help find funding for some of the recommended projects on campus from UConn’s recent Active Transportation Plan.
The updated and reprinted folding map of Town Bike Routes and Points of Interest has been printed and is now being distributed.
The next meeting, originally scheduled for November 2nd (first Thursday), will be held later in the month as it conflicts with the BikeWalkCT annual meeting in Hartford that night.
The meeting concluded about 7:55pm.
Lon Hultgren, Sec-Treas
hultgrenlr981@gmail.com