The indispensable DFA New Haven weighs in on freshly painted bike lane on long-delayed Edgewood cycletrack.
When the light at Osborn and Whalley turns from red to green, Hilda Kilpatrick counts to ten.
“You’re going to get at least three cars blowing through that light onto Whalley, you’ll see them coming and they’re going to try to make it,” said Kilpatrick, at the monthly meeting of the Whalley Edgewood Beaver Hills (WEB) Community Management team on Tuesday night on Sherman Avenue.
With City Engineer Giovanni Zinn updating the group on a laundry list of concerns, much of the discussion among the 12 community members — and six via Zoom — focused on tools for traffic calming.
City engineer Giovanni Zinn.
“Red light cameras will really cut down on that behavior at least at intersections,” Zinn told Kilpatrick. In March, the Elicker administration proposed to the Board of Alders the installation of red light cameras in 11 locations and “speed safety” cameras in eight locations across the city. The intersection to which Kilpatrick referred is not on the list.
Lt. Brian McDermott, district manager for the area, pronounced himself a “firm believer” in the efficacy of red light cameras. For a crash at Whalley and Boulevard, “there’s sometimes six cops tied up,” he said. “[The cameras] will reduce the number of motor vehicle accidents and free up our understaffed police force to do more proactive work in other areas.”
Zinn sounded a similar refrain. “It’s so easy in a modern vehicle on a modern street to drive too fast, and the red light cameras and the speed cameras are a way to multiply the effect that our enforcement can do and hopefully teach people better habits,” he said. The cameras, he said, “are very dispassionate whether you’re driving a Bentley or, like me, a 2004 Sienna.”
Nadine Horton sang the praises of speed humps, and asked for more. “I live on Winthrop and I will not turn left onto Sherman because people just fly down and blatantly run red lights, and I’m terrified of getting t‑boned,” she said. She said she noticed “on longer stretches the speed humps are very effective in slowing people down.”
“Speed bumps are probably our number one request,” Zinn said, adding that the number of speed humps in the city is at 200 and counting. “They are the blunt instrument of traffic calming, and they are not without their downsides, but I think their upsides are great, and they do a lot of really great things.”
Among the other traffic-calming updates:
- The longstanding bike lane project on Edgewood. In the next two weeks, Zinn said the city is expected to finish striping to indicate where cars can park. Once everyone gets used to the stripes, the city will start putting in delineators to direct traffic around the bike lanes. The frustration in the delays on getting the needed equipment has been “mind-blowing,” he said.
- The unfinished sidewalk on Crescent Street. Describing it as a “top priority,” Zinn said the city was about to start reconstruction of the approximately 550 feet of new sidewalks on the oft-traversed stretch between Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and Colony Road. He added that the city has talked to the homeowners who are “understandably surprised that parts of their front yards are in the public right of way.”
- Bus Rapid Transit on Whalley. The city has a commitment from the state for $150 million to fund the project. It continues to look for other sources of money. They are currently working with design consultants. There will be an update in the latter half of the year. Construction should begin in 2026 and be completed by 2029.