Adam Ganser is an architect and urban planner. He runs a not-for-profit in New York, focusing on parks and open space. For 10 years, he was vice president of planning and design for the High Line.
He and his family moved part-time to Westport 2 1/2 years ago. An avid cyclist, he was surprised to feel less safe on a bike here than in the city.
Filmmaker/photographer Markus Marty grew up in Switzerland, where from age 4 on he biked everywhere. He spent 15 years in New York, and rode somewhere every day of the year.
He and his family came to Westport in 2020. Recently, on Meet Your Teacher Day, he took his 5-year-old on a bike trailer to Kings Highway School.
Planning to ride with his child every day, Markus asked a staff member where the bike rack was. “She looked at me for a long time,” he says. “She had no idea.”
Markus Marty, with 5-year-old Miles and 3-year-old Ellis, ready for the commute from Saugatuck to Kings Highway Elementary and Earthplace preschool. (Photo/Greta Schmauzer)
The 2 men — introduced by mutual friends — quickly bonded over their shared passion for bicycles.
They also realized that Westport is not exactly bike-friendly.
In many ways in fact, it is bike-hostile.
Markus and Adam are young and energetic. They love much about their new town. Now they want to make it even better.
They are both idealistic and realistic. They are not zealots. But they also are doing whatever they can to raise awareness, advocate, and get things done.
Along with Peter Gold — a Representative Town Meeting member, Westport Transit District director and a cyclist, and an integral first member — Markus created BikeWestport. Adam has no formal affiliation, but offers support and advice.
The non-profit’s mission is to build “a community of people who desire more, safer and better cycling and walking options in Westport”; work with town and state governments to improve bicycling infrastructure and connect neighborhoods to areas like downtown, Saugatuck, Longshore, the beaches and schools, and educate riders and drivers on safe biking practices and laws.
It’s a big mission. It’s crucially important, to the quality of life of every Westporter.
But a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.
Or one turn of a pedal.
As relative newcomers, with years of experience on bikes in crowded city streets, Markus and Adam are surprised that many residents are “scared to leave their property without a car. Kids won’t ride a bike, or walk to schools.”
There are good reasons: a lack of sidewalk, narrow streets, dangerous drivers.
Markus Marty and his kids ride wherever they can. Here they’ve walked their bikes across the Saugatuck River pedestrian railroad bridge and are on Ferry Lane East, headed to Compo Beach.
Despite a broad movement — across the nation, and the world — to encourage environmentally sound modes of transportation, Westport is heading the opposite way.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Adam notes. “But everyone has an anecdote about why they’re scared.”
Because of those concerns, he says “we have a huge opportunity. Residents want to bike to school, the library, the train station. We have to strike while the iron is hot.
“This town is so well regarded. It’s a great location. People are passionate about the library, schools, beaches. They’re all relatively close. What’s missing is a way for people to get to them without a car.”
Beckett Lohs bikes to Saugatuck Elementary School.
In July, the RTM approved an appropriation for a $562,500 “Safe Streets for All Action Plan.” The goal is to identify the most significant safety concerns, and devise strategies to address them.
Adam and Markus want bicycle and pedestrian issues to be not only part of the study, but priorities.
That has not been true in the past. The recent Downtown Plan Implementation Committee discussion mentioned bikes in passing; they seem more like an afterthought than a central part of the project.
The Bike Westport team (from left): Imke Lohs, Adam Ganser, Markus Marty.
Markus — who grew up cycling in Switzerland, then continued every day, in all weather in New York (a typical ride was from his Upper West Side apartment down to the pool at Chelsea Piers) — says, “I’ve never been as inactive as I am in the suburbs.”
His 5- and 3-year-olds both ride bikes. (The one due later this month will too, he promises.)
To ensure their safety — and encourage others to ride too — he and Adam are learning how this town works. And a bit about its transportation history, too.
“So many people say ‘it can’t be done,'” Adam notes. “‘You can’t use eminent domain for sidewalks.’ ‘You can’t widen the roads.'” They’re out to prove it can be done.
They hear, “These roads were made for horses and wagons.” Markus counters, “Europe is even older. They don’t have wide roads. But the smallest ones have room for sidewalks and bike lanes.”
BikeWestport is not just about kids and fit adults riding bicycles. With the advent and affordability of e-bikes, Markus says, people of any age can ride up a hill, or in a suit to the train station, without breaking a sweat.
Markus and Adam have already met with police officials and parents to discuss “bike buses” (group rides to school).
Westport Police officer Craig Bergamo leads a safe biking class at Saugatuck Elementary School. (Photo/Imke Lohs)
Still ahead: a survey. Continued advocacy around the issue. Ensuring that any discussion about traffic safety includes not just drivers, but bicyclists and pedestrians too.
“If the ideas are good, you can always get to ‘yes,'” Markus says.
He welcomes all comments, ideas, and offers of help. Click here for the BikeWestport website. To contact them, email info@bikewestport.org.
(There is potential for a bike store in Saugatuck too — complete with e-bikes. Any bike repair or technician person interested in being part of the venture should email info@bikewestport.org too.)
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The full RTM meets monthly, usually on the first Tuesday of each month. During COVID, the meetings are via Zoom.
While many RTM members felt that expanding the resolution diluted its impact by taking the focus off racism, many others felt that all forms of discrimination, including sexism, anti-Semitism and discrimination against LGBT people are equally reprehensible, and should be condemned too.
