CHICOPEE – Just days after the City Council voted to restore downtown parking, the city has removed the controversial Center Loop bike path and the plastic u-shaped fencing and no parking signs that defined the experimental route.
City Councilors voted 12-0 on Thursday to have the path removed after they received complaint after complaint by phone, email and on social media from business owners and residents.
Business owners especially objected to the path, saying customers griped about having to circle the block to find parking and several said it made it difficult to deliver goods. Others said they felt they were not clearly notified of the bike loop before it was installed.
“Although we tried it, it just didn’t work,” Councilor Frank N. Laflamme said. “Basically we are getting rid of the loop and putting it back where it was.”
The Center Loop bike lane was created with a $76,000 grant provided by the state Department of Transportation as part of COVID-19 relief funding used to pay for quick projects designed to boost local economies. It is a pilot program and was going to be reviewed after it was taken down for the winter in November.
The bike lane, which was fenced off with plastic U-shaped barriers called wave delineators and barrels with no parking signs, was designed to make the downtown area more biking and pedestrian friendly. Instead, it created controversy, especially from business owners. Some people who rent apartments downtown also complained they had to park farther from their homes.
At the same time, they argued the bike path was rarely, if ever, used.
To eliminate the path, the City Council, which has the authority to oversee parking, voted to restore the 65 on-street spots along parts of Exchange, Center, Cabot, School and Springfield streets that were blocked to create the lane.
“This didn’t work out,” Councilor James K. Tillotson said. “The sooner they (the barriers) come down the better.”
Councilors and businesses said there were multiple unintended consequences from the idea. Elderly people who have mobility issues found themselves having to walk longer distances instead of being able to pull right up to businesses and the owner of a bakery said she found herself having to cross busy Springfield Street with three-tiered cakes that were being delivered to weddings and other events.
“This hurt not only businesses, but it hurt the Portuguese Club where there were many events,” Councilor Stanley Walczak said.
Bridal parties especially were concerned that they could no longer pull up directly in front of the banquet hall, making it more difficult for women wearing gowns, he said.
Planning Department employees argued businesses had been notified of the loop, although many owners said they either knew nothing about it or did not understand they would lose parking.
Studies also show that downtown Chicopee has more than enough on and off-street parking than needed for the volume of people who use downtown businesses, department officials said.
When one Councilor suggested one of the plastic delineators, which will be flattened and stored for another use, be kept in the Planning Department to remind staff of the debacle, Council President Shane Brooks said he does not believe that is necessary.
“I’m sure it’s seared in their memory,” Brooks said.
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