Pitch In to Pop Up a Protected Bike Lane to Center Streets!

Once a year, Bike West Hartford waves a magic wand and makes all the cars disappear from Town Center. The spell lasts for 4 hours. The Town helps, but it costs this tiny non-profit (with no paid staff) about $5,000 for the West Hartford Police Department to safely close the streets. Then, it's “a block party on wheels" and it’s fun for all ages. For one morning, the people own the streets. It is a joyous time! There is a live band, giant puppets, and 2,000 of our neighbors show up to get their active transportation ON! It is called Center Streets and this is the seventh year.

Don't miss your chance to take it one small PROTECTED step further! Imagine if you could ride to Center Streets safely on your bike without ever sharing a lane with a car, all the way to Town Center from Trout Brook Trail. We imagined!! And the Town of West Hartford has agreed to help. The Town drew up a design to close one lane of Farmington Avenue from Trout Brook Trail all the way to the Center Streets event to make a POP UP PROTECTED bike lane. We need to raise a little bit of extra money ($1,800) to pay for Police and Public Works support to set up and manage the Pop Up lane. Can you help? More than 600 people answered a survey a couple years ago saying we wanted protected bike lanes to help us ride safely in West Hartford. This is our chance: Three bucks from each survey respondent gets us there (or $30 from 60 folks). Every bit helps.