City government now has an officially adopted plan for how to overhaul New Haven’s bike, pedestrian, and public transit infrastructure to promote safe, connected, and car-free travel.
Next up: Applying for federal funds to help make that vision a reality.
That plan is called the Safe Routes for All (SRFA) Citywide Active Transportation Plan.
At Tuesday night’s latest bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall, local legislators voted unanimously in support of approving that plan. That vote also authorizes the mayor the mayor to apply for funding from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2022 “in a manner consistent with” SRFA’s recommendations.
Thomas Breen photo
City transit director Sandeep Aysola with active-transit advocate Caroline Smith after Tuesday's meeting.
“If awarded to New Haven, this grant will provide up to $1 million annually for five years to help cover the costs of improvements to make our streets safer,” East Rock Alder and City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) Committee Chair Anna Festa said in support of the order Tuesday night.
“The Safe Routes for All transportation plan will involve cyclists, pedestrians, drivers, and public transportation,” she continued, “Complete Streets improvements, sidewalk improvements, signal improvements for traffic and pedestrian cross signals, and more. The plan goals are for mobility, safety, equity, and access and health.”
City of New Haven images
Excerpts from the SRFA plan.
Some of the plan’s recommendations including expanding and upgrading 90 miles of bike lanes, and making many those lanes “protected” from cars; aligning car and pedestrian traffic lights so that pedestrians won’t have to press buttons and wait for four-way red lights before crossing the street; implementing traffic-calming interventions at dangerous intersections; adding sheltered bus stops; converting some one-way streets to two-way; and committing to a “Vision Zero” goal of eliminating pedestrian deaths.
Click here, here, here, and here to read previous Independent articles about the SRFA plan, and click here, here, and here to read the plan in full.
Thomas Breen photo
Alder Winter.
“Adopting the Safe Routes for All plan and gaining funding to implement it will make New Haven’s streets safer for everyone, particularly those who walk, bike, and take the bus,” Newhallville/Dixwell/Prospect Hill Alder Steve Winter said in support of the proposal. “This plan will help all residents, but particularly our neediest and most vulnerable.”
He said that 30 percent of New Haveners do not own a car; that number jumps to 50 percent in some parts of the city. “Residents who are hit or killed by vehicles are disproprtionately Black, brown and low income,” he added.
Alder Avshalom-Smith.
Newhallville Alder Devin Avshalom-Smith also threw his support behind the project, and singled out the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE) for their work in soliciting public input for this plan across various community outreach efforts over the past few years.
He thanked CARE for organizing a steering committee of 26 individuals that provided direction to the city and the city-hired consultant as they developed this plan. He said CARE representatives hosted four public workshops and eight walking and biking surveys, collected additional data through SeeClickFix, attended community management team meetings to discuss the proposal, and stayed in touch with alders via regular text messages.
TT&P Director Aysola.
After the vote, city Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TTP) Director Sandeep Aysola said that his department’s next immediate step for the SRFA plan is finishing up and then submitting the federal infrastructure grant application by the deadline of Sept. 15. Then the city will have to wait, likely at least until next spring, before finding out whether or not the grant application has been accepted and the city will get the requested $5 million.
If all goes well and the city gets the grant, Aysola said, his department will then put together another steering committee to figure out exactly how to realize the transit improvement recommendations included in the SRFA plan.
“It’s good to bring this to closure,” Aysola said with relief after the aldermanic vote on adopting the plan and authorizing the grant application. “We have a plan that we need to now make sure is implemented.”
Marchand: Alder Input "Essential" On Streetscape Changes
Alder Marchand.
Before the alders took their final vote in support of the SRFA plan, Festa and Westville Alder Adam Marchand emphasized that the adoption of this plan preserves the current city processes for approving streetscape changes — including city staff’s consultation with alders.
“All of the approval procedures, including getting in touch with the ward alder, will remain as it currently is implemented with no changes,” Festa said. “All policy procedures will follow what we currently do.”
Marchand agreed. “I have seen a number of fairly important and quite controversial streetscape improvement programs implemented near my ward,” he said. “No issue that I’ve ever dealt with in more than a decade on this board has generated more participation, passion, and heated disagreement than changing the streets and affecting parking. It’s amazing.”
Therefore, he said, it’s “absolutely essential” that the city staff collaborate with “advocates, community residents, and the alders of the wards affected by” such a street-change project before moving ahead with implementing such a plan.