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DEEP RIVER — An impartial applied bookseller alongside the Connecticut River has designed a totally free bicycle fix station for cyclists that the owner hopes will stimulate extra folks to use alternate transportation.
The basic framework has a rack to keep a bicycle, connected resources for prevalent repairs and air pump. Available for the duration of daylight hrs outside of the bookstore at 171 Main St., Bennett thinks it’s a person of the couple of in the point out.
The services is obtainable to these who reside or go to the Sylvantide Valley, also recognized as the Reduced Connecticut Valley. It includes a quantity of other decreased Middlesex County towns, which include Westbrook, Old Saybrook, East Hampton, East Haddam, Lyme and Previous Lyme.
Earlier projects at the shop have provided a seed-sharing station, plant swap, the distribution of totally free guides to very low-earnings households and a group “Freedge” stocked with totally free food items.
“If there’s any cash still left right after shelling out our expenses, what’s remaining goes into the neighborhood — serving to folks by encouraging and fostering bicycle lifestyle listed here creating certain no kid goes to bed hungry, and young children have obtain to books,” Bennett said.
He’s in the system of implementing for nonprofit standing.
The task arrived to fruition via neighborhood aid. Equipment were being donated by companies this sort of as Airline Cycles in Colchester, and assistance from Wayward Woods in Haddam, as perfectly as suggestions from Essex Hardware.
“Bicycle fix stations are now available commercially,” the proprietor said. “Unfortunately, they price tag in the neighborhood of $1,000 each. With the assist of just a couple of people in Sylvantide, we ended up ready to produce this for much less than $200 — that helps make me pleased.”
Bennett is a big proponent of touring on two wheels.
“Bicycles are practically best equipment: They are enjoyable, they are fantastic for our bodies, they are exceptionally affordable, and, most crucial, they are excellent for the natural environment,” he reported. “Hopefully (and with work), we’ll see our streets get safer, and see extra and extra people today on bicycles.”
These “need to be an vital aspect of any upcoming we produce. They’re not realistic all the time for all folks, but ,each and every time an individual chooses to choose their bike to perform, the shop, or for a leisurely generate alternatively of their vehicle, which is a step in a constructive direction,” Bennett reported.
To stimulate far more individuals to pick out alternate transportation, there will have to be an overhaul of infrastructure in the state, he reported. “Courtesy stations are a element of that. Another massive factor that some communities take very seriously and other people really do not is building the road protected — for pedestrians, bicyclists and autos.”
In the long term, the bookseller is hoping to make a bicycle collective to educate riders how to make easy fixes and other practical capabilities. It would incorporate a nominal membership payment, these as $10, “to maintain the lights on and the payments compensated,” he described.
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