 | Elaine Lewinnek |
Graduate student Elaine Lewinnek's devotion to promoting safe bicycling in the City of New Haven became unquestionably clear as she was being photographed for this article at a busy intersection.
University photographer Michael Marsland remarked that the urban landscape of a particular corner, bathed in a soft, late-afternoon light, would serve as a good backdrop for the photograph. But Lewinnek noted, "That will have me facing my bike the wrong way on a one-way street," and suggested another corner.
As she posed with her green Trek road bike in the new spot, it became apparent that Lewinnek is as passionate about the pleasures of biking as she is about obeying the rules of the road. In fact, she has devoted many hours and much energy to encouraging others to discover the joys of bicycling and working to make the New Haven streets safer for bikers.
The graduate student admits even she is surprised at how involved she has become.
"It all started when I complained to my then-alderman John Halle [associate professor of composition and music theory at Yale] about conditions for biking on Orange Street," she says, noting that the torn-up streets and traffic mayhem resulting from a sewer project had made biking there difficult.
"John said, 'We can change things along Orange Street, but we can also change things citywide,'" Lewinnek recalls. "And he said, 'I can't do it alone. Elaine, you should take over.'"
Lewinnek responded by "taking over" Halle's e-mail list of names of some 40 bicyclists, who became her core group of supporters in her efforts to make city officials aware of the concerns of bicyclists and issues affecting their safety. The group, formally known as Elm City Cycling, has since grown to nearly 200 New Haven community members of all ages and backgrounds, including Yale faculty, staff and students.
About two years ago, Lewinnek and other members of Elm City Cycling, along with hundreds of other bike enthusiasts, signed a petition calling for more bike-friendly city planning in New Haven. They presented it -- along with the gift of a bike -- to Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who agreed to appoint a commission to explore ways in which the concerns of bicyclists could be incorporated in the city's development plans.
The graduate student regularly attends the monthly meetings of that commission -- now officially called the GO-alition. The group, which promotes all non-motorized means of transport, meets with officials from New Haven's parking and transit, police and parks departments and other city administrators to stress the message that making the city more bike and pedestrian friendly "is the way to make New Haven better," Lewinnek says.
"Small college towns that are bike friendly are successful," comments the graduate student, citing as examples Northampton, Massachusetts; Eugene, Oregon; and Madison, Wisconsin. "New Haven was designed for horses. It's perfect for bicycles. It keeps people in their 20s in the town, and it's an amenity that people really appreciate."
Adept at citing statistics and facts that support her causes, Lewinnek says that the health, environmental and financial benefits of biking make the activity "an option that makes sense."
One of her first projects with the GO-alition was to create a bike lane on Orange Street, which cuts through a neighborhood that has the highest number of people who bike to work, according to the city's 2000 census. Now, Lewinnek and other fellow bikers are engaged in efforts to create lanes in other city neighborhoods.
"We work on getting bike lanes, bike racks, bike paths and bike-friendly city planning -- all these fronts at once," says Lewinnek, who also promotes initiatives to educate bike riders and motorists about bike safety and has met with Yale administrators about biking issues on campus.
An effort she is particularly proud of is a map of biking routes in the city that she and other Go-alition members produced with the help of other bicyclists, who shared their favorite routes, and city staff. The map includes locations of local bike shops and other designations.
"New Haven has some wonderful places to bike, but it has taken years for many of us to figure out good routes in the city, and we thought that this folk knowledge should be shared in a more permanent way," says Lewinnek. She solicited financial support from the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) and the city to produce the map, which is available at local bike shops and on the City of New Haven website at www.cityofnewhaven.com/ govt/greenways/Resources.htm. Lewinnek will now invite New Haven schoolchildren to draw some of the routes they know for a second version of the map. Dwight Hall volunteers working in the New Haven schools will also be engaged in the Elm City Cycling initiative by teaching schoolchildren mapping skills and safe cycling techniques by drawing on the map.
Lewinnek and other Elm City Cycling members also lead tours at major New Haven events such as the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and City-Wide Open Studios. She and other cyclists will take part in a city bike tour on Oct. 28 celebrating the release of the Yale University Press book "Bicycle: The History." (See related story.)
A 1995 graduate of Yale College, Lewinnek did not think of herself as a biker until she came back to New Haven for graduate school, where she is studying urban history in the American studies department. As an undergraduate, she used to take weekly Sunday rides to Lighthouse Point on the shore, trips which then seemed like a "big adventure," she says.
After her first year of graduate school, she decided to ride from New Haven to Vermont. "It was a way of processing my first year and figuring out what I wanted to do for my dissertation," says Lewinnek. She later made a trip along the coastline of Oregon and California, where she discovered that greater attention was paid to the safety and comfort of bike travelers.
"That's when I began to think, 'This is how New Haven could be,'" Lewinnek recalls.
Today, she takes weekly Sunday group rides of about 65 miles, organized by Devil's Gear bike shop owner Matthew Feiner.
"The Sunday rides have gotten me through graduate school," she says. "I've always noticed that the people who are the happiest in graduate school are the ones who have some physical activity."
On the last Friday of every month, Lewinnek gathers with an informal group of bike enthusiasts, including many from Elm City Cycling, for a ride around New Haven neighborhoods as part of Critical Mass, a worldwide grassroots initiative devoted to promoting bicycling and bringing attention to bicyclists' right to the road.
Lewinnek, who has experienced all of the difficulties of urban bicycling -- including being told by angry motorists to "Get on the sidewalk!" -- calls the Critical Mass ride a "reclaiming" of the streets. She points out that, by law, bicyclists have the same right to be on the road as motorists (and must also obey the same rules of the road as car drivers), and says that Critical Mass is one of the ways in which bicyclists can become a visible presence in the city.
In addition, she says, the monthly ride has helped to create a "community of bicyclists" by joining together people who otherwise might never have met.
Lewinnek says she has gained knowledge of the workings of government through her activism, and has even found an indirect correlation between her work and the topic of her dissertation: suburbanization and urban planning.
"I've come to understand how change works, how democracy works," comments Lewinnek, adding that the results of her activism are clearly visible. There are now more "Share the Road" signs on New Haven streets; new bike lanes are in the works for both Cedar and Peck streets; Elm City Cycling has become affiliated with both Dwight Hall and the McDougal Graduate Student Center; and the number of bicyclists interested in community advocacy is growing.
Lewinnek was recently reminded of the importance of promoting safe bicycling when she was hit by a car while biking. Her bike (one of three she owns) and her helmet were destroyed in the collision, and she suffered minor injuries.
The accident happened to fall on the day of a Critical Mass ride, and although shaken up, Lewinnek decided she would go anyway.
"I didn't want to let any fear of bicycling take hold of me, and it seemed especially important for me to go after having been hit by a car driver who said she hadn't expected to see a bicycle on the road," says Lewinnek. "Besides, one of the people who happened to come by and help me after the accident was someone who goes to the Critical Mass and Sunday rides, and so I just felt grateful for the whole New Haven biking community.
"The fact is," adds Lewinnek, "Good people bike."
-- By Susan Gonzalez
Those interested in bicycling and in promoting safe riding in New Haven are welcome to join Elm City Cycling at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elmcitycycling.
T H I S
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