Sunday was a beautiful day in Beacon, with summery weather providing the perfect atmosphere as Main Street was closed to traffic for a massive classic cars event (which I can’t seem to find any reference to in any of the local events calendars?). I walked up and down Main Street, and I could’t stop myself from imagining sharrows painted there, which is the goal of the Main Street Sharrows project, about which I have written a number of times.
Later in the day, I was on the train headed into NYC for the Pivot conference (I spoke early Monday morning), and I got an email from Mark Wildonger, saying that the Main Street Sharrows project grant has been approved! He and I will be attending a NY Greenway Commission meeting in Poughkeepsie tomorrow, 17 October, to find out more of the details, but it looks like next spring we will be painting sharrows on Main Street.
Of course, there is a deal of preparatory work, like planning signs, identifying where to exactly paint the sharrows, and most importantly, the planning of some bicycle safety and awareness workshops prior to the sharrows, so that local families – both kids and parents – are aware of bicycle safety in general, but especially with regard to biking on shared roads.
We will be developing plans for the Sharrows project development and execution in collaboration with an advisory council, with representatives from many local non-profits and organizations. The council will include the City of Beacon, BeaconArts, Clearwater, the Beacon Chamber Of Commerce, and others.