This is an imaginary look at the treacherous intersection of Grand Avenue and Front Street — as reimagined by a national expert and presented to Fair Haven’s grassroots traffic-calmers.
A curbside extension that makes the corner suddenly pedestrian- and business-friendly — pictured in a slide presented Saturday morning by Dan Burden — was one of dozens of traffic calming solutions on display. Some are surprisingly cheap and as within reach as a coat of visible paint on a bike lane or an appropriately pruned tree. And they may be coming our way. If
If Fair Haven Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale and the traffic calming pioneers she leads can get the city to pay attention.
Or the corner of Front of Grand will remain the frequently gridlocked, unattractive, dangerous intersection it is today.
Burden (pictured below with Sturgis-Pascale and urban planning activist Anstress Farwell), is a consultant hired through a grassroots Fair Haven neighbors’ fundraising campaign, with matching grants from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the city. He finished his survey of Fair Haven’s dangerously speedy streets (click here for a previous article), and presented his master list of solutions to an excited group of 50 neighbors Saturday at the Quinnipiac Terrace community house.
These included medians, roundabouts, painted lanes, parking at diagonals, curbside extensions, chokers (a curb extension and circle equals a choker), plantings that screen speed-tempting straight-aways. The sense of hope he elicited was palpable.
A citywide “safe streets” movement has been building in town. It started with Sturgis-Pascale’s efforts in Fair Haven. Recent hit-and-run deaths of pedestrians at York and South Frontage and on Whalley Avenue have sparked campaigns in those areas, too.
A man who has introduced a wide range of traffic-calming measures in some 46 cities nationwide, Burden paid Fair Haveners a compliment: “Never have I been to a community more eager and better prepared to move on these important measures.” Because Fair Haven’s plans were the first in the nation to be so grassroots, that is, “to begin with a coffee can,” Burden said his company allowed him to contribute 30 more hours of his time to complete the master list of suggestions.
It was a session full of revelations for non-TC (traffic calming) aficionados. For example: “Your area,” said Burden, “is overwhelmed with signs, stops signs and many others. They don’t work, they are reactive to bad street design. It’s well established that when you make people stop, they feel violated, and they will just speed the next stretch.”
Well-designed traffic circles or roundabouts, eliminating lights, he went on, slow people down without stopping them, add a high measure of safety for pedestrians, and with plantings improve neighborhoods so that traffic-calming raises property values.
“And when cars slow down,” added Sturgis-Pascale, “it’s good for business too, because drivers can see where to stop, all the choices. The speed-induced tunnel vision is cured.”
Sturgis-Pascale’s vision is that neighbors — and not city or, perish the thought, state Department of Transportation officials — know what’s needed. Of the more than 40 locations and measures Burden suggested, attendees chose five priority areas on which to focus.
These included Grand and Front (above), inserting a raised crosswalk in front of Fair Haven Middle School, speed-reducing medians and painted bike lanes along Clinton Avenue and perhaps on the Grand Avenue Bridge, and other locations.
Gabriela Campos asked if to the list might be added a safe way for kids to cross the street to the new Columbus Family Academy at Grand between Blatchley and Fillmore.
That idea was added to the list after an assembly-wide groan that not a dollar of the large pool of state school construction money is earmarked for these safety issues.
What will be the next steps to institute these changes (such as a noticeable bike lane on the Grand Avenue Bridge)? Where will the cash be found, even for inexpensive solutions like greenery (Burden considers trees and shrubs the traffic-calmer’s best friend) and tennis court paint?
Sturgis-Pascale said the coffee can is now empty, after $10,000 being spent on Burden, and every dollar, it appeared, worth it.
She asked for a steering committee of eight to advance the measures discussed; more than 12 were noticed signing up.
Sturgis-Pascale also talked to Sue Weisselberg, the coordinator of school construction. Weisselberg said she might pow-wow with the state powers that be so that a grant, called Safe Routes to School, which the city will be submitting, might include the raised crosswalk in front of the schools.
“Great,” said Sturgis-Pascale. Local developer Fereshteh Bekhrad (bottom left, with neighbor, Crystal Manning, seated) wanted to be sure that the several narrow medians proposed for Front Street, where she is developing property between Oyster Cove and the Warner Building would not compel homeowners to drive way up and around.
“Oh no,” the alderwoman responded. “By definition a median will not block anything; it will lower speed.”
“In that case,” said Bekhrad, “sign me up for the committee.” She also expressed an interest in more durable features for the medians and circles. “Plants require a lot of maintenance. I’ve done this kind of design before. We should consider low maintenance furniture too – like benches.”
And Sturgis-Pascale is moving on other fronts: “Maybe we can pursue bonding for this, because the school construction is winding down, and this is so important.”
Also, locally, and because she profoundly agrees with Burden that a good design is worth a dozen speed bumps and stop signs, she’s gathering aldermanic allies to introduce what she calls complete streets legislation.
“When new streets are planned, like in the Route 34 infill area, they should be incorporated following best practices as we’ve seen here, not straight-aways that scream, Come drag race here. Peoples lives are at stake!”
And the city’s role in this? “Well,” she answered, “it’s true that Fair Haven is kind of a pilot, but we’re all in this together. Look how that little girl was killed recently on Whalley. We need allies in City Plan who can help us make the case that traffic calming is good for all aspects of city life, especially business. “Unused land, even corners of a park, or parking lot, can be used for roundabouts or circles, and the developers can benefit if, for example, they contribute to cost. This is a very exciting moment.”
Next step will be, she said, in addition to the legislation, maybe a chalking event. Meaning? “That’s where we go to one of these dangerous stretches (such as this curve on Front Street where a vegetation-filled medium keeps drivers from “slingshotting” across the yellow line) and just chalk in the roundabout or the traffic circle and show the difference it could make.”
Those interested in contributing money to this effort, or time and energy, contact Sturgis-Pascale here.