A series of entries designed to capture the ongoing adventures of NINA! See how we came to be where we are today, and follow along as we enter the new century of social media!
Category: News
These photos highlight why the two traffic lights get out of sync – it’s the pedestrian crossing signals. The light at Farmington is green, while the light at Asylum is red – and over on the right side of the intersection, the pedestrian crossing has seven seconds to go.
The solution, it seems to me, is to make the pedestrian crossing longer so that a pedestrian can get through the entire Trident in one cycle. When a pedestrian requests a crossing, they do so only for one street, be it Farmington or Asylum. They then have to request a crossing again at the next street. This throws the traffic lights out of sync, and it takes several cycles with no pedestrians for the traffic lights to come back into sync.
A simple solution, right? But it seems that our city would rather spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants to come up with a much more complicated and convoluted traffic pattern ….
I’m not really sure if this counts, but it is a regular occurrence, as trucks come down through the Trident en route to Interstate 84.
The problem, of course, is that the lights on both sides of the Trident are out of sync, but it should also be noted that, despite the signs, the prohibition against blocking the box is never enforced.
Not to be a downer or anything, but the new traffic pattern eliminated one parking space in front of 207 Garden Street. That matters because those parking spaces also serve as a loading zone for Kent Pizza, and the truck here today had less room for that. A big deal? Not probably, but a different driver could see the new pattern differently than this one did.
The city installed new traffic slowing elements at the intersection of Ashley, Garden, and Fraser Place. The goal is to reduce speeding down the hill, as cars headed north on Garden can pick up quite a head of steam.
The funeral for Wethersfield firefighter was held today at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph. Both Farmington Avenue and Asylum Avenue were closed for the funeral.
More photos are available at the Courant.
Today, NINA was featured on the MetroHartford Alliance's Pulse of the Region podcast. Our executive director, Ken Johnson, appeared on the program along with board chair Lynda Godkin and board president Andrew Daly. Ken, Lynda, and Andrew discussed NINA's past, present, and future in a wide ranging conversation with Kate Ballman, the host of the program. The program remains available to listen to online, and I also tried adding the "iframe path" to this entry. We'll see if that works!
Many thanks to board member Susan Winkler for making this connection for NINA and for all of her efforts to make it happen.
I was doing some research at the American School for the Deaf today, and I was surprised to come across this memorial plaque. Last time I saw it, it was mounted to a cement wall on the MDC’s property at the corner of Gold and Main. I’m not sure of the circumstances, but really, it should be back up on the wall.
Perhaps I’m a bit obsessed, but: this was a fun one, what with the truck in the box and the trailer not.
