Thomas Breen photo
The new intersection, including red lights.
As a new traffic-calming intersection has reopened at Orange Street and MLK Boulevard, old driving habits have persisted, at least for now: blowing through red lights.
Aaron Goode stood at that intersection, with its new signals pedestrian- and cyclist-oriented redesign on the grave of the old Route 34 Connector mini-highway-to-nowhere, and he counted 27 vehicles exiting the highway and running the red light. In just 20 minutes.
Goode reported that statistic to 25 neighbors gathered over Zoom Tuesday night for the April meeting of the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team.
The new intersection opened Monday. It is the latest phase of the federally and state-funded $50 million Downtown Crossing project, the effort to reconnect the Hill and the medical district to downtown. The intersection itself connects Orange Street and South Orange Street across MLK Boulevard, South Frontage Road and the Air Rights Garage Service Drive.
As the intersection’s details were finalized over the last months, the city had flashing traffic signals in the Orange Street intersection allowing for through-traffic coming off the highway to continue unimpeded heading west towards Church Street.
As of Monday, the new signals went into effect. Now there’s a red light. You’re supposed to stop at it when you reach Orange Street getting off the highway.
So far, not enough drivers are heeding it, Goode said.
Goode’s countless volunteer civic activities include serving with the Democracy Fund board and helping to monitor usage of the Farmington Trail as it passes through New Haven — as well as advocating for safe streets.
When the intersection formally was rolled out on Monday, Goode took it upon himself to monitor that location as well.
“Some are flying through there at 50 miles per hour,” he reported.
“Obviously this intersection has great potential to reconnect neighborhoods, but it also has potential to be a death trap for pedestrians and bicyclists, which would defeat the purpose.”
At the meeting, Goode asked Lt. Brendan Borer, the district’s top cop, for immediate police intervention, now that the intersection is open for business, to redeliver the message that red really means to stop.
“Can we have some targeted enforcement to show drivers we really need them to slow down because they are entering a city and they can’t just fly through there?” Goode asked.
Borer was quick to respond: “I will email the sergeant in charge of the traffic unit tonight, and we’ll definitely have some special attention to curb some of that behavior. Not a problem.”
Here’s hoping.
"OBEY THE SPEED LIMIT"
On Wednesday afternoon, Downtown Crossing New Haven sent out an email update with “IMPORTANT UPDATE” written in all-caps in the subject line. That email reads in part:
Just two days ago, on the morning of Monday, April 18th, the new Orange Street intersection opened to the public.
The opening of the new intersection across the former highway corridor is both significant and historic.
Most significantly, it marks a new truncation of the highway environment and reclamation of New Haven streets designed for use by pedestrians and bicyclists as well as slower-speed motor vehicle traffic.
It is vital that drivers obey the traffic rules of the intersection in order to keep ALL users safe.
Drivers must:
- OBEY THE SPEED LIMIT and be prepared to STOP AT RED LIGHTS
- NOT ATTEMPT TO TURN LEFT as there are NO left-hand turns from any point in the intersection.
- NEVER TURN RIGHT ON RED
- NOT enter the middle of the intersection on yellow lights and “block the box”
The New Haven Police Department is conducting traffic enforcement at the intersection. Drivers who commit infractions will be ticketed. So please slow down, pay attention to your surroundings, and help keep pedestrians and bicyclists safe!