Treacherous Stretch May Get Crosswalk

A section of Whalley Avenue is in the running to get safer for pedestrians. All the city has to do is find some money to make that happen.

That section is on Whalley around Orchard Street. The Stop & Shop Plaza occupies a large section on one side of the road and a cluster of stores and Burger King sit on the other.

Currently, pedestrians don’t walk to nearby crosswalks on Orchard or Sperry Streets. Instead, they run across the wide avenue, sometimes weaving between cars and stopping in the middle of the road for oncoming traffic.

Orchard and Sperry are about a quarter of a mile apart, according to Doug Hausladen, the city transit chief. The city has monitored the area enough to know that many pedestrians don’t walk to the corners in either direction to get to a signal. Instead, they head into traffic and take their chances with turning and oncoming cars and changing stoplights to their left and right. 

That may change with the addition of a High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk, or HAWK beacon, between the Stop & Shop Plaza and the opposite side of the street. Like possible improvements to Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, the city’s department of transportation is considering the project for a Community Connectivity grant, proposals for which are due to the state by August 1.

Distributed through the state’s Office of Policy and Management, the grants are for $75,000 to $400,000 on single municipal projects. The city can only send one proposal.

If pushed forward as a proposal, the project would be about $100,000 for construction, said Hausladen Tuesday. Because Whalley is a particularly wide avenue, city engineers may have to dig deeper underground to secure the HAWK’s mast arms, which would bring the cost to about $200,000.

Hausladen said that the project may not go forward if it’s not selected for the Community Connectivity proposal, but that he sees it as a vital piece of infrastructure on a busy road.

“This is a real safety problem,” he said Tuesday. He added that ​“we should be promoting food access” by making it easier to get to Stop & Shop on foot.

Some New Haveners think so, too. Walking along that stretch of Whalley last Friday afternoon, friends Aaron Brownstein and Brent Lees said they would use it while walking from Whalley to downtown, instead of venturing into the street at the plaza.

“Yeah, I see people running across all the time,” said Brownstein, who said he goes to Stop & Shop for groceries once or twice a week, then walks to a bus stop (usually the New Haven Green) where he can get a bus back home. ​“I worry about them, and about people on bicycles.”

“I’ve seen lots of people running out there like a maniac,” added Lees, who lives downtown but finds himself on Whalley for groceries and errands. ​“They’re not paying attention, and the drivers aren’t paying attention.”

Waiting for the B bus with two armfuls of groceries, Cedar Hill-er Meg Ifill joined their conversation. She said that she too had seen several pedestrians cross the avenue at the plaza. She said she hadn’t just seen fast walkers and cyclists cutting across — she’s also observed ​“people crossing with baby strollers” and young kids.

While ​“I try to do it at the divider by Papa John’s” at Sperry Street, she said she was very much on board with the addition of a new, fast-responding crosswalk — even though she’s still a New Yorker at heart, and sometimes zips across the street because it’s faster. 

“If they are going to cross anyway, at least they can do it safely,” she said.

Kelsea Little and Janay Butler were walking that stretch of Whalley with their friends Lanaijah Atkins and Tiera Hart. They weighed missing the B bus for a quick stop at Burger King, which would require running into the street. They said they’d also use a crosswalk if it went in, but thought it would be a pain for drivers.

“I think it would be beneficial, but it would also slow traffic down,” said Little, who attends Hamden High but visits family on Whalley.

“It’s a good idea,” added Butler, a student at Wilbur Cross who comes to the plaza to cash checks and takes the B, F or G bus home. ​“All the time, I just be around walking here.”

Not everyone was receptive to the idea of a HAWK. On his 15-minute break, Stop & Shop employee Mike Groomes and a colleague (she asked that her name be withheld) wanted to buy a new pack of Newport cigarettes, so they jogged from the Stop & Shop to the small Afghan grocery and deli across the street. On their way across, one lane was clear. A car in the other, coming right at them from downtown, slowed long enough for them to make it to the other side.

Three minutes later, after buying a pack, they prepared to do it again. Asked about the crosswalk as he strode across the street, dodging oncoming cars, he said that the city should forego the proposal, and spend that money somewhere else.

“I just cross anywhere,” Groomes said. He said he thought the HAWK ​“won’t make a difference. Everybody got their own mindset. If they walk, they walk. If they cross, they cross.”

“They need to fix the roads,” he said. ​“Like Whalley, Dixwell, Grand.”