Government Seeks Safe Streets Solutions

Safe streets activists got a crash course in the methodical grind of local government as three city department managers presented their immediate responses and longer term plans for addressing the recent surge in traffic-related deaths and injuries.

That conversation took place Thursday night at the Whalley Avenue police substation at 332 Whalley Ave. during the latest meet-up of the Safe Streets New Haven advocacy group.

Around 20 people turned out for the group’s second public meeting of the year to hear how city staff have responded to a traffic safety crisis that has seen four pedestrian deaths in less than two months.

That’s not even counting recent non-fatal collisions, including an intoxicated driver seriously injuring a pedestrian on Dixwell Avenue, a vehicle knocking a walker from beneath a 57-year-old woman’s hands as she crossed at a Westville crosswalk, and a 40-year-old Yale professor fracturing her skull and breaking her hip after she was hit by a car while walking in a downtown crosswalk outside of a daycare center.

Downtown District Manager Lt. Sean Maher, City Engineer Giovanni Zinn, and Department of Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TT&P) Doug Hausladen came prepared Thursday night.

They didn’t bring promises to banish cars and allow pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation to take over city streets (see: Ghent, Belgium).

Rather, they came with data proving that police have stepped up law enforcement; short-term and mid-term plans for new traffic calming infrastructure, road redesigns, and intersection improvements; and details about state and federal grants, some already received, some to be applied for, that might help fund making New Haven a safer place to move around in.

“It’s a gut-wrenching moment, when you work in this and see that it’s not just a theoretical thing that happens, but something you see in front of you,” Zinn said about driving down Orange Street Tuesday evening and seeing first-hand a pedestrian-car collision just moments after it had taken place. ​“It’s a gut-wrenching time.”

Maher: Motor Vehicle Stops Up 65%

Maher (pictured) told those assembled that the police have not taken lightly the public’s call for increased enforcement of traffic safety laws alongside this recent rash of pedestrian fatalities and injuries.

He said that the police department had conducted 2,098 motor vehicle stops by this time last year. During that same time period in 2020, he said, the department has conducted 3,477 such motor vehicle stops. That includes over 500 stops for cars running red lights and close to 200 speeding infractions.

“Last year was a bad year, and it’s started off this year as a bad year in terms of death on the roadway and injury on the roadway,” he said. ​“And we’re addressing that by increasing our motor vehicle enforcement,” which is up by nearly 1,400 stops citywide.

Since the January Safe Streets New Haven meeting, Maher said, the chief has assigned an additional four officers to the department’s motor vehicle enforcement unit to work the B Squad shift from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

“We heard that we weren’t doing speed enforcement on evenings,” he said. So now, in addition to the eight full-time traffic safety officers assigned to the day shift, another four are enforcing traffic laws after dark.

He said that the same motor vehicle enforcement unit recently conduct a speed study on Orange Street and found that the average speed was around 25 miles per hour, with a low of 12 and a high of 37.

“So the majority of cars are traveling the speed limit,” he continued. At least on Orange Street.

That’s not the case nearby on Whitney Avenue, he said, where officers have recently pulled cars over speeding at upwards of 60 miles per hour.

Maher said that, starting on Monday, the motor vehicle enforcement unit will be re-starting a ​“targeted crosswalk enforcement” program in areas where police have seen the most pedestrian-car crashes, including on Columbus Avenue near the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center and the intersection of Whitney Avenue and Audubon Street.

“They’ll be out there specifically doing crosswalk enforcement of vehicles that have failed to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks,” he said.

East Rock cycling advocate Rob Rocke (pictured). asked Maher how residents should alert the police about a particularly dangerous intersection. Through email? Phone? SeeClickFix?

“It really starts with the district manager,” Maher said. Reach out by email to your neighborhood’s top cop, he said, and he or she will take a look into how best to deploy police resources to cover the intersection.

Is there any enforcement taking place on Ellsworth Avenue? asked Sabrina Whiteman (pictured). She said she sees cars tearing down the avenue from Whalley to Crescent Street every night while she’s out walking her dog.

Maher said that traffic enforcement officers have been out on Whalley a lot recently. He said the evening officer has made many motor vehicle stops at Whalley and Ellsworth for the reason that Whiteman just pointed out.

He added that he is working the city police’s grant writer to apply for money that would fund the acquisition of speed tracking devices currently used by the Milford Police Department. Those devices run day and night, calculating motor vehicle speeds in the area.

He said that those devices would allow the department to conduct traffic speeding studies without requiring an actual officer to be present. That data ban then be used to inform whether or not police need to step up enforcement in an area, or install a camera, or work with the city transportation department on installing a stop sign.

What about the recently revised state ​“vulnerable user” law? Wooster Square pedestrian advocate Aaron Goode (pictured) asked. He noted that police invoked that law when they charged the intoxicated driver who hit and seriously injured a 37-year-old New Haven woman on Dixwell Avenue last Sunday. Goode said that is the first time he’s ever heard of the police charging a driver with the vulnerable user law.

“How do you know in that case to bring the ​‘vulnerable user’ and not in other cases” where pedestrians have died or been seriously hurt?

Maher said that Lt. Rose Dell sent out a summary and memo to the rest of the department several weeks ago that described the updates to the state vulnerable user law.

He said that the Dixwell Avenue driver was charged after the department’s accident reconstruction scene went out to the scene and investigated, as it does after every fatal crash or serious injury.

The law is new, he said. Or, at least, newly updated. ​“We’re just adapting and learning how better to apply it.”

Zinn: ​“Trying To Be Data Driven”

Zinn said that the engineering department has also been busy working on traffic safety projects as of late: not in terms of pulling cars over, but in preparing to install a rash of new speed humps throughout the city.

He said the department recently bought 500 pads for delineators, 35 seats of speed hump markings, and two new torches to apply those markings to the pavement.

“We’re really gearing up for a big season of that,” he said.

Zinn pointed out that the department completed last year the installation of a new roundabout nearby at Crescent Street and Munson Street in the Beaver Hills neighborhood.

“I think it has done a very nice job of slowing down traffic on Crescent Street,” he said. Next up is finishing the newly installed protected cycletrack to extend up the rest of Crescent Street.

Zinn reminded the group that the city recently secured $3 million in state funding for traffic safety improvement on Whalley Avenue. He said his department will be leading some planning sessions this spring to hear from neighbors about what they want those improvements to look like.

“I think it’s really a transformative opportunity with the community to make Whalley Avenue into a street that this neighborhood really feels serves your interests,” he said, and not just a drive-through for cars coming from the suburbs or downtown.

And he said that the department will soon have Complete Streets request forms on the city website that users can fill out via a webform as opposed to the current method, which is a downloadable PDF. He said the city website will also soon house digital records of previously submitted Complete Streets requests, as well as status updates on where those requests stand.

How exactly does the city’s Resource Allocation Committee work? Goode asked.

Zinn said that that body, which the alders created in 2012, oversees the distribution of city funds towards street paving, sidewalk work, and tree trimming.

He said that every four years, the city hires a third party to drive around the city, look at sidewalks, and determine which ones are in most need of repair. That third-party review work was last done in 2016, he said, and will be happening again this year.

“We really are just trying to be data driven,” Zinn said.

Hausladen: ​“We Need To Get This Stuff Into A Plan”

During his section before the Safe Streets New Haven group, Hausladen took a step back from the more immediate recent fatal and serious collisions and spoke about a community-sourced planning project designed to help the city figure out which parts of the city’s street grid are in most dire need of repair.

He said the project is called the ​“Safe Streets for All” planning process, and is funded in part by three-year, $5 million federal grant the city secured in partnership with the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE).

Hausladen said his department kicked off the ​“Safe Streets for All” program last June with planning sessions at various public library branches followed by the installation of colorful traffic safety pilot projects that involved painting intersections bright colors to slow down drivers and narrow the roadway.

The next round of outreach meetings will focus on a different project: a comprehensive list of everything in New Haven that is currently failing pedestrians, cyclists, and bus riders in their daily bids to get around town with safety and ease.

“There is no document that tells me how many intersections do not have pedestrian lights,” he said. Similarly, there is no city-verified New Haven bike route map.

“We need to get this stuff into a plan so that we can knock it out, one by one.”

Hausladen added that his department has begun to act on the recommendations included in the recently completed Move New Haven transit study.

“The first step is bus stop consolidations,” he said, with a focus on Whalley Avenue, Grand Avenue, and State Street to start. ​“We’re trying to reduce the number of bus stops and then enhance the bus stops” with bus shelters, for example.

One problem, he said, is that ​“there is no budget to buy bus shelters.” He said he has eight shelters available for the 16 stops (eight on the north side of the street, eight on the south) that will be on Whalley Avenue if the consolidation goes through.

Safe Streets Bill Slated For State Legislative Hearing

In addition to the municipal-level updates from city department heads and managers Thursday night, East Rock resident Lorena Mitchell (pictured) reminded the group that New Haven city government isn’t the only public entity to put pressure on to achieve safer streets in the Elm City.

New Haveners must keep their attention focused on the state legislature in Hartford, as well.

She distributed print-outs she had brought about Raised House Bill 5324, proposed legislation co-sponsored by New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar that would, among other measures, allow municipalities the right to reduce speed limits on city streets to below 35 miles per hour, that would require motorists grant the right of way to pedestrians who ​“affirmatively indicate” that they will be entering a crosswalk, and that would increase fines for drivers distracted by mobile phones.

“This isn’t a perfect bill,” Mitchell said. ​“And there’s a lot more that needs to be done. But if we can show our state representatives that there’s an appetite for change, this can be a really important step to get people talking and [show legislators] that there’s a big constituency demanding action now.”

The state legislature’s Transportation Committee, which is chaired by Lemar, plans to discuss and hear public testimony on the proposed safe streets bill on Monday.