An easier commute for Stamford bicycle thieves — I get it — but otherwise, who needs, or even wants this?

Greenwich, Stamford announce four routes for new bicycle route to connect town parks

As is always the case with projects of this type, this multi-million dollar road-clogging, front yard-seizing project is not really about bicycles:

[Stamford’s mayor Carole]Simmons said “recreation projects like this can help achieve other goals too”. It’s all for “Equity”.

“This project is a great example of ways we can collaborate between our cities and towns to promote more equity, to promote more pedestrian friendliness, to promote more access to quality parks and open space. I think this is one of our state’s greatest assets.”

I’ve detected no clamor from Old Greenwich residents for easier access to Stamford’s west-side parks, have you?

GREENWICH – Four potential routes have been proposed for the new multi-use trail that will connect Greenwich’s Binney Park to Stamford’s John J. Boccuzzi Park and improve bicycle and pedestrian connections between the two communities.

The new multi-use trail will be more than 2 miles and have a 10-foot wide paved pathway. It will also “rely on painted bike lanes and shared lane symbol markings within the roadway to fill gaps where a 10-foot-wide pathway is not practical,” also known as sharrows, according to the website.

The first route option would travel from Binney Park to Boccuzzi Park by taking Sound Beach Avenue to Shore Road, and then either Fairfield Avenue to Top Gallant Road or Fairfield Avenue to Congress Street, according to the project website. This route would include 1.2 miles of sharrow, 0.8 miles of bike lane and 0.7 miles of multi-use path, the website states.

An alternative approach to this route would follow the same roads, but would be comprised of 1.2 miles of sharrow and 1.5 miles of multi-use path, according to the website.

A second option would be to travel from Binney Park to Boccuzzi Park via Sound Beach Avenue, Lockwood Avenue, Tomac Avenue and Shore Road and then Fairfield Avenue to either Congress Street or Top Gallant Road, the project website states. This would entail 1.4 miles of multi-use path, 0.2 miles of bike lane and 0.7 miles of sharrow.

The third option would be to take South Beach Avenue to Forest Avenue, Tomac Avenue, Shore Road and then Fairfield Avenue to Congress Street or Top Gallant Road, according to the project website. This would include 1.7 miles of multi-use path and 0.3 miles of sharrow.

The fourth option would include travel from Binney Bark to Harding Road, Brownhouse Road, Selleck Street and Southfield Avenue to Boccuzzi Park. This would entail 0.4 miles of multi-use path, 0.4 miles of bike path and 1 mile of sharrow.

From an earlier RTM meeting that approved $368,000 for “planning — not construction — costs:

“Some members were concerned that the chosen endpoint of Boccuzzi Park may have too much crime, given that someone was murdered there earlier this year,” Mr. Harris said.

“Mr. Michel reminded us that the final path was subject to review and could be quite different. The ultimate end-point could potentially be a location that had no murders at all,” he added, to awkward laughter.