Let's not put speed bumps in please. Kam Lasater do you live near a heavily traveled intersection and would you want to add to that noise the sound of cars going over a speed bump? Speed bumps don't go away at night when you are trying to sleep.

The traffic at Audubon and Orange has become more confusing and it may be heavier because east bound Trumbull is blocked off. The whole traffic pattern is a mess with the sewer separation construction project. Cars are in a hurry because the drivers feel they have wasted so much time at the Trumbull-Orange intersection. Let's not base our traffic control system on an area that will go back to normal when the project is finished.

It is a surprise that no alternate routes were suggested when east-bound Trumbull was blocked. At rush hour, it seems everyone is just driving the streets closest to Trumbull just to get back to the Trumbull-Orange intersection.

It is also unfortunate that the mid-street Stop for Pedestrians signs have not been put back. Some drivers remember and do stop while others have actually come to the crosswalk and sped up. This certainly does not help things--it just adds to the confusion.

There certainly is a lack of a policy here and a speed bump is not the answer.

Tree Hugger,

I lived on that block for two years so I guess my suggestions come from feeling like cars drag raced down the block. My experiences have been prior to the sewer separation project. I wonder if the drivers know that they are in a school zone. There are no school zone signs there (from memory & google street view).

What other traffic calming techniques would you suggest?

Intersection is fine. The Eclectic Artsy Audubon dwellers just need to pay attention and stop "iPhoning" !

In my experience in this area (and maybe this is what you meant), the racing cars would come down Trumbull toward Orange and try to beat the light to get on the highway. I am unaware of cars racing on Orange. I cannot tell when the bars close at night during the project.

It sounds like MiniCooper is saying you need to pay attention because you will need to stay out of his/her way. Certainly cannot hurt to put those Slow-Cones back out there. Giving regard to pedestrians (who actually have the right-of-way no mater how stupid they chose to be) will slow the traffic.

In dealing with ramp traffic coming into New Haven, it is my view that the State will do anything to get the traffic off the highway--first and foremost. That leaves little time and distance to point out that you have two school zones north and south of Trumbull. There should be signage for school zones and speed limits--whether they help or not.

For now, Slow-Cones, that is all that I would do. Small steps.

I am not talking about where the construction is. I am talking about right in front of Aces and the Housing Authority at the corner of Audubon and Orange. Every week, it seems, cars soming down audubon crossing over orange goint towards state street get creamed by a car coming from downtown towards Trumbull. There needs to be a stop sign and a designated crosswalk.

Do you have more details on who was "run over" here or how/when it happened? That is good information to track.

Cones and bollards would significantly reduce speeds here, which is the key to preventing crashes. The in road signs should be made permanent, as they are in other cities and outside the State Capitol in Hartford.

Narrowing the width of Audubon where it meets Orange would also help significantly to improve driver and pedestrian visibility and perhaps reduce crashes. See http://www.sinoconcept.com/2012/01/10/neckdown/

Additionally, lower speed limits should be posted on Orange Street between East Rock Park and Downtown, though that needs to be part of a citywide conversation. Many cities are implementing 20 MPH or even 15MPH zones. Even without traffic calming, posting lower limits has been shown to have a significant impact on speeding especially if drivers are aware of the signage and/or marketing.

Finally, addressing the highway off ramp would change the "feel" of this area. The off ramp at Exit 3 was designed to be a highway connector (luckily, the highway that was planned to destroy Trumbull Street, loop around the cemetery and flatten Dwight Street to the ground was never actually built), so it actually is no surprise that drivers fly off of it at 50 miles per hour.

Please see http://seeclickfix.com/issues/3909 for additional discussion of the problems of the ramp, and how they can be solved.

The graphic here is just a sketch of one possible option. Potential new streets are shown in blue. The permeability created by these new streets would dramatically increase the walkability and bikeability of all three surrounding neighborhoods.

The acres of land that the City would gain could result in millions of dollars per year in additional tax revenue to support our youth programs.

(continued from below) A less aggressive, and cheaper, option that preserves a section of the ramp to maintain access to I-91.

Unfortunately, this has been a problem for years even before the construction. First of all, people apparently do not know that you are supposed to cross the street at the intersection. I guess we need to put in crossing signs and stop signs. Second, there is a sign that buses are not supposed to stop on Orange in front of the school, but they do anyway, which @#$% people off more because they are getting held up. They don't even dtop when there is an accident...everyone seems inconvenienced. Also, parking should not be allowed on Orange in front of the housing authority because people jump out from in between the cars and someone traveling at a high rate of speed down Orange from Trumbull going downtown don't have time to stop.

Convert Orange St., northbound, to two lanes, rather than three, from Audubon St.. Install on-street parking, on the East side of Orange St., with an abbreviated right-turn lane @ the intersection of Orange and Trumbull St., for cars turning onto the highway entrance ramp.

Part of the traffic mess is the closure of Trumbull St., and the State Street bridge FAIL concurrently, compounded by the city's lack of willingness to abandon failed traffic planning policies and gross errors from the 1950's.

The mystery of New Haven politics is why the city is obsessed with catering to people who don't live in New Haven, don't pay taxes to New Haven, and can't vote in New Haven. Politicians are generally needy people, so maybe they just want to be liked by people whom they see as more important than their constituents - wealthy suburbanites.

Where is Orange street three lanes? Where I'm talking about is one lane from Trumbull to Audubon then 1 lane into 2 lanes from Audubon to Grove, then one lane again from Grove to Chapel. And like I said before, yes there is more trafiice because of the detour, but I have been working at that corner for 8 years and traffic accidents were happening at least once a month then, and now they're happening once a week. This morning, one car pushed another car into a pole and the woman had to be taken by ambulance, last week a woman got run over crossng in the middle of the street instead of at the corner. I have had people walk in front of cars without looking and cars pull out of audubon trying to beat speeding traffic, I also have people turning audubon into a two lane road and blocking each others' site lines. The police know this because they're here all the time. We need stop signs and a crosswalk with light.

It was on March 20th around 9:15 a.m. that a woman got run over crossing Orange in front of the Housing Authority near Audubon. cars were parked illegally and when she emerged from between the cars, someone speeding hit her. Said thing is people didn't care, they kept honking for the police and ambulance to get out of the way.

Parking on Orange, three lanes down to two: will never happen.

Another accident today.....same senario, someone pulling out of Audubon onto orange and someone on orange coming from downtown going towards trumbull just hit the person getting out of audubon into thte same pole that someone hit 2 days ago. We NEED two more stop signs-one each way on Orange at the corner of Audubon. NOW NOW NOW!!!!

I work on Orange street, last week we heard the screams that a pedestrian was struck by a car, the past two weeks there has been the screeches and slams of car collisions head on. The intersection on Audobon and Orange needs a light, people's lives are at risk. I am sick of hearing the screeches and hearing the screams, enough is enough! The police are called to the scene, the city of new haven needs to do something about this before more people are hurt. I am so dissapointed nothing has been done yet and all these people are hurt in the process. Shame on the city.

As long as the only access from Whitney to Orange Street is Audubon Street until you get to Humphrey Street, of course more cars will be traveling on Audubon. Audubon was never designed to carry that much traffic and it was laid out to discourage traffic. The closure of Trumbull will last into 2013. Cars exiting I-91 onto southbound Orange Street can barely get off fast enough. The intersection of Orange and Audubon is the rock and a hard place. I would close Audubon to Local Access Only.

First of all, Audubon does not go to Humphrey Street, it goes to State Street, and even it was local access only, the problem isn't the amount of traffic on Audubon, it is that the people on Orange do not have to stop in either direction. Second, this problem has been happening for 8 years, way before the construction. Third, most of the accidents happen because people coming from Downtown on Orange towards Exit 3 ramp go too fast, and because they don't have to stop, they don't see the people pulling out of Audubon, and vice versa because the signs saying "No parking" on Orange Street in front of the Hhousing Authority apparently don't mean anything and so the people on Orange going north can't see the people on Audubon and the people coming out of Audubon have no site line to see the people going north on Orange Street.

Your reading comprehension is off and you keep writing the same thing over and over. Until Traffic and Parking starts to pay attention nothing will happen. Perhaps you should call them directly. I can say no more.

I wasn't looking for you to solve the problem. You commented on my post, not the other way around. The bottom line is, the cops are ignoring the problem, the parking authority is ignoring the problem and the City of New Haven is ignoring the problem, which by the way, has been a problem for years and years. Maybe if someone gets killed and sues the city, something will be done.

I just spoke with Lt Sweeney of NHPD. She has placed one of her officers at the location between calls for service for the next few days.

Additionally, I am asking the Department of Transportation Traffic & Parking for a crossing guard until the new in-street pedestrian road signs are delivered next week.

Would anyone like to help propose ideas for solutions for the intersection using the city's Complete Streets Design Manual: http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Engineering/pdfs/CS-Project%20Request%20Form.pdf

I would be happy to get together with anyone interested at Koffee and put it together. The city asks for any projects to be proposed in this manner so that they can do the appropriate follow-up.

Best,

Doug Hausladen
Alderman
Ward 7
203-309-2737
doug@dougward7.com

I just spoke again with TT&P department, and there will be an in-street pedestrian road sign placed into the road today around 1pm. This should calm some of the traffic speeds - and hopefully the additional police presence will help.

I'll make a point of stopping by the area the next 3 weeks and calling police if there are double-parkers that are causing any visibility issues.

I would like to submit a project request form, but will need some community input/help putting it together. Please email me if you would like to get together and work on this - doug@dougward7.com

Best,

Doug

From TT&P:

an old in-road sign will be placed there today - until the new ones come in

we are having the parks department trim the trees around the intersection

we will be remarking the crosswalks on Orange as soon as weather allows

we will also be marking STOP before the new textured crosswalk that was installed on Audobon last year

Thank you TT&P for your fast response today -

Doug

I appreciate all of your efforts. Just to calrify, I understand the crosswalks and the pedestrian signs. But what about stop signs making it a three-way intersection? while someonee did get hit two weeks ago, most of the accidents are cars t-boning each other.

There should be a police officer daily giving tickets to the people who are obstuting everyone's view. A pedestrian sign may help a little, as the tree cutting, but during morning and night rush hour, its going to take a lot more than a pedestrian sign. I have to come out of Audobon St. every night and turn onto Orange going towards the highway ramp and people are flying, no one lets anyone go, cars are parked blocking the view. It is horrible and until I see some stop signs or lights I wont be satisfied. If I hear one person get hurt I am going to take this further. People can die, this isnt just a case of bad driving, it obviously has to do with the town and they need to take care of it. The intersection is a problem and needs to be taking care of. How many people have to get injured before the Town wakes up and takes care of it. I appriciate the little improvments you are making but it is not going to help the intersection at all. Also you should find out the School, or Bus company that stops there everyday, another sign the public ignores. Something needs to be done.

Obviously the NHPD have no interest in helping all of us who use this intersection everyday. Why is this such a struggle for them to manage? Then at the other end of Audubon, at Whitney, where is the pedestrian crossing or light? This whole area is a mess. Please will someone get it together and come up with some ideas? The first solution would be to re-locate the Public Housing residents and offices in a building where people can actually park. Why is this building in the middle of a Arts District anyway? Everyone gets stopped by residents asking for money, and if you're on public assistance and in public housing, why do you have to constantly pester the same children and neighbors for money?

The crosswalk on Orange St @ Audubon has been painted this year.