Finally something positive being said about The Pike from local news.
http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-cruiseandgas.artjul05,0,1134109.story Still Preening On The Pike
Saturday Night Is Cruising Night, Despite High Gasoline Prices
July 5, 2006
By SUSAN CAMPBELL, Courant Staff Writer If your social life revolves around your ride -- performance vehicle, classic auto or low-rider - what do you do when you must mortgage the house to pay for the gas?
The answer is on Connecticut's Berlin Turnpike, that legendary, 11-mile stretch between Meriden and Wethersfield. Since the '40s, when the road was widened, the strip has been the gathering spot for the well-wheeled driver. By some estimates, a typical Saturday night draws as many as 500 cars; regulars say the pull of what's known as the Pike far outweighs the cost of a barrel of oil.
"I probably won't be taking as many Sunday drives as I'd like to, but I don't see myself restricting cruises/car show events," said Robert Heim, president of the Connecticut GTO Club.
He said the club has 46 members from around the state - all of whom spend winters aching for the open road. (Information on upcoming cruises is on their website,
www.ctgtoclub.org.)
"It's hard to keep a cruiser confined," Heim said. "We spend half the year locked inside, dreaming of nice weather, so when it gets here it's hard to hold us down."
Philip Langdon of New Haven, author of "A Better Place To Live: Reshaping the American Suburb," once wrote an essay on the Pike for The Courant calling it "bawdy" and "boisterous," and "the most entertaining commercial strip in Connecticut." Wrote Langdon: "Neatly painted little '50s establishments like Johnson's Motel sit next to topless joints like Centerfold's, which sit next to miniature golf courses adorned with statues of polar bears and rearing horses. Titillation and wholesome family fun coexist, seemingly oblivious to each other."
A little pinch in the wallet isn't enough to dim the allure.
"I don't know if there is a breaking point," Langdon said. "I think it depends on the price staying very high and doing that consistently. We haven't seen that yet."
If cruisers scoff at gas prices, other businesses along the Pike are taking notice. At CJ Auto Sales in Berlin, a spokesman said the owner was out trying to buy up any available smaller import. Customers, the spokesman said, want to trade their SUVs for gas-saving, four-cylinder cars. And at Avis Rent-a-Car in Newington, more customers are asking for smaller cars. Elsewhere in the nation, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, some rental agencies are charging more for smaller, fuel-efficient models than SUVs. That hasn't happened at Newington's Avis.
Nick Kamm, who runs websites about the Pike, including
www.the-pike.net, said, "If anything, it's getting more crowded there. It's a lot crazier now than it was when I started going," roughly six years ago.
He said at most, gas prices might have moved drivers to drive to the Pike and then park. The cruise part of the cruise is curtailed.
"For a lot of people, it's their social part of the week," said Kamm.
So it's Makris Diner to the Siesta Motel, Bowl-O-Rama to USA Motel. Past the gone (and much lamented) Krispy Kreme building to Taco Bell in Berlin, and then back again.
Kamm said the Pike is attractive to cruisers because it's centrally located, easy to get to, and it's a long-enough stretch of road with plenty of places to pull off and hang out, Kamm said.
Kevin Nursick, a Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesman, said that although gas consumption has dipped slightly, it's not significant enough to mean fewer cars on the road.
"I just saw another report that says the biggest SUVs are still selling like hotcakes," Nursick said. He said the state has noticed more people taking trains, but "when you have 1,000 or 2,000 new train riders, and each one [was] driving a car, you're only taking 2,000 cars off the road in the entire state of Connecticut. You're not even going to notice that."
Certainly not on the Pike on any given Friday or Saturday night.
"You hear some people talking about it, that they're only going to certain events that they know are big events, but it hasn't affected me," said Ralph Barbagallo, who organizes cruise nights at the Pike's Burger King. "Ten years ago, I would put $20 in and that would get me through the weekend. You'd motor up and down Berlin and on the way, give it the gas - always doing the speed limit, of course. Now, $20 will get you to Berlin and then you're back on empty."
Although Barbagallo's cruises emphasize Chryslers (Barbagallo owns a '70 Hemicuda, a muscle car), all makes and models are welcome.
"It's really a melting pot for the automotive crowd," Barbagallo said. "Everybody has been into cars for the past 50 years, and they always come to Berlin to hang out and have fun."
He said cruising isn't just about showing your car, he said, but it's a way to meet new friends.
"It's like going to a Starbucks in Avon," Barbagallo said. "People go in and have a coffee and do nothing but sit there. We do the same thing, only our hanging out includes a big piece of iron. That's one of the biggest things - seeing other people's cars, or attracting new cars. You meet people you've never met before. It's a social event around cars." He said cruisers range in age from 18 to 70.
"On a given Saturday night, you may get 150 cars," said Barbagallo, who is the general manager of a Lenscrafters on the Pike. That means he understands that some business owners don't like increased traffic, but that increased traffic can bring more business.
"We're not there to hurt anybody," he said
