Paul Bass Photo
City transit chief Doug Hausladen looks forward to the day when property owners to come to him asking for bus shelters, seeing them as an asset and not a liability.
That day might come sooner now that the city has launched its transportation study of the greater New Haven region, looking into low-cost, efficient alternatives to the current transit system.
The study kicked off Tuesday night with a community information session at City Hall, the first in a series of several conversations planned over the next two years to improve bus service in the region. Members from each community management team will work together to pick a consultant by the end of the year to spearhead the process of producing a comprehensive list of recommendations.
In a speech before the meeting, Mayor Toni Harp said the study could “lead to significant federal funds for transit in the future” and would help a “new generation of urban dwellers who need a better way to get around.”
She said New Haven qualifies for the study grant in part because of its proximity to three different rails — MetroNorth, Shoreline East and the New Haven to Springfield line still being designed.
The study has been many years in the making. The Board of Alders voted in August 2014 to accept the $760,000 Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant — after turning it down in 2011 and again in 2012, arguing the scope was too narrow. The earlier version focused just on bringing a “trolley” to serve downtown and East Rock.
The Harp administration expanded the scope to include all neighborhoods of the city and any form of transportation. The local match for the study is 20 percent, including $90,680 in city money and $100,000 from the state Department of Transportation (DOT).
“It’s a once in a generation opportunity to correct anything that might be needing the big work,” said Hausladen (pictured at the top of the story at the launch of the fall “goNewHavengo” campaign).
Hausladen discussed the study live on Monday’s episode of transportation show “In Transit” — starting at 22:52 in the below audio file.
“With the alternatives analysis, we have this opportunity to kind of throw out everything we have, at least mentally, at least through the study, and look at what is the best idea for the footprint we have?” Hausladen said.
After 18 to 24 months, the city will get a list of alternatives from low-dollar to high-dollar that it can choose from, and then apply for more funding to carry out.
Transportation is one of the biggest barriers to getting and keeping a job, he said. “We need to do the long term planning as well as the tincturing around the edges,” he said.
CTfastrak — the state’s first bus rapid transit line — was once a recommendation that came out of a similar alternatives analysis study, Hausladen said. The line was considered the fastest and most cost effective option for travel between Hartford and New Britain.
The Greater New Haven Transit District (GNHTD) is the project administrator, bringing in state and local funding sources.
The Board of Alders mandated extensive community input throughout the process of developing the alternatives. A community advisory committee of one person from each community management team will serve as the liaison between the consultant and people from each neighborhood.
Hannah Spreckley Photo
A technical committee of representatives from GNHTD, the city, state DOT, South Central Regional Council of Governments and CT Transit will advise the study throughout.
Kevin McCarthy, from East Rock’s management team, and Kurtis Kearney, from Quinnipiac East Management Team, volunteered to be liaisons between the technical and community committees.
Kearney said he volunteered because he wants to help make bus transit safer and easier for disabled people like him. “It could stand for a little improvement,” he said. Bus drivers “flat out left” him four times as he waited in a wheelchair at the stop.
McCarthy has a background in city and transportation planning, and said he has “some idea of what the constraints are” for transforming the bus system. “It all costs a lot of money.”