Sidewalk for Chappaqua’s Douglas Road is Badly Needed
I am in favor of a sidewalk on Douglas Road. I live on Park Drive in Chappaqua, less than a mile from the train station. When I purchased my home, one of the selling points was that we could walk to the train. Today, many homes in my subdivision are sold with the promise that one could walk to the train.
Several of my neighbors own one car and do not take a parking spot at the station. In fact, my husband and I both commuted daily before the shutdown and only took one spot. We each walked in one direction so that we could more easily make our daily step goals and do our part to reduce the car congestion in town and the strain on our parking lot. Our walk takes us down a winding stretch of Douglas Road for about a quarter mile.
Walking down Douglas Road is the favored mode of transportation for many to get to the train station, Robert E. Bell Middle School and even the Saturday farmers market with strollers and dogs in tow. The former owner of my home prided himself on walking to town daily from when he purchased the house in 1964, until he passed away. Longtime neighbors talk about how their children found their first bit of independence walking or biking as teens to Bell or to their first jobs as lifeguards at the pool club on Hardscrabble Road. Back then, Chappaqua was less populated, and the sleepy rural roads could safely accommodate many modes of transportation.
Today, we have more residents and busier lives. Car traffic has increased, making it more dangerous for the pedestrians that share Douglas Road with cars and bicycles. Our infrastructure has failed to keep up with this growth making it more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists on our local roads. We need to add protected walking, and biking, infrastructure so that our residents can enjoy the same freedom to walk and bike that past generations have in New Castle.
I strongly support a sidewalk on Douglas Road so that the homes on Douglas, Park, Spring, Wynnewood, Dunbow, Martha, Begg and even Oak Hill and Elizabeth can continue to live up to their real estate billing as a “walk to the train.”
Jen Bounds
Democratic candidate for New Castle Town Board
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