Bike Safety Symbols to Be Painted on Heavily Cycled Roads in Canton, Simsbury

While the final two miles of the Farmington River Trail remain incomplete it is a section still heavily used by cyclists.

So Canton and Simsbury are planning to mark many of the roads in the area with Shared Lane Symbols, commonly labeled “sharrows,” large painted symbols in the roadway designed to alert motorists to the presence of cyclists.

The Farmington River Trail is designed to be an 18-mile loop, mostly built on old railroad bed, that connects to the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in Farmington and Simsbury.

The incomplete two miles, from the junction of Lawton Road and Route 44 in Canton to Iron Horse Boulevard in Simsbury, is still marked on several state cycling maps as well as the Farmington Valley Trails Council web site.

In addition, the completion last year of the portion of the trail from Route 179 in Collinsville to Best Cleaners on Route 44 has resulted in more bicycle use on the incomplete portion, Canton Town Planner Neil Pade said earlier this week.

“I believe the painting of 'sharrows' will increase awareness to responsible drivers and promote safety to all users of the road,” Pade wrote in an e-mail to Chief Administrative Officer Robert Skinner.

So on Wednesday night, the Canton Board of Selectmen authorized the town’s public works department to paint the symbols every quarter of a mile on Lawton and Dry Bridge roads. There will likely be seven of them, Skinner said. 

“Like it or not, the state bicycle map does show the trail going down Lawton and Dry Bridge,” First Selectman Richard Barlow said.

The town will have to invest $350 in the stencil and there will be some cost for the paint, Skinner said.

Selectmen Lowell Humphrey asked Skinner if Canton was sure Simsbury would pick up where the town left off.

Skinner said correspondence from Simsbury indicated they would do the project but perhaps in the fall or next spring.

However, Simsbury officials said action by Canton may move the process along.

Simsbury has an existing 14-mile sharrow loop and has future plans to connect it to Canton by way of West Mountain and Dry Bridge Roads, Director of Public Works Tom Roy confirmed Wednesday afternoon. 

Simsbury officials were not planning to move forward with the project this year, but a decision from Canton could move the timetable, he said.

"We may try to keep pace with [Canton] if they decide to start this year," Roy said Wednesday afternoon.

Simsbury officials are considering two options to join the new route with its existing “Sharrow” loop, Roy added.

The first option would end the West Mountain Road route at the Town Forest Trail and connect with the existing loop at Stratton Brook Road. The second option would take the new route to the intersection of West Mountain and Farms Village Roads.

Roy said the first option is less desirable to some cyclists because the Town Forest trail is a gravel trail. The challenge with the second option is the lack of marked lanes on Farms Village Road between West Mountain and Stratton Brook Roads.

While the Sharrows may bring awareness about on-road cyclists, many advocates are still working on ways to complete the missing section of Farmington River Trail.

While much of the rail bed still exists, some has been obliterated and other parts are privately owned, officials said.

However, there is also some state and town owned land on the route. Some communities have also built special path lanes on the side or in the middle of existing roads.

In 2011, the towns applied for a federal Surface Transportation Program Urban Grant that would have paid for 80 percent of a study and initial design to see if one option or a combination would work. At the time, Pade said it would take some creativity but he believed the project was “do-able.”

The towns, however, did not receive that particular grant.