As an aside, can anyone explain New Haven's policy of stopping traffic in all directions and then having all pedestrian signals in all directions light up simultaneously? I understand that this could work in theory; but in practice
1) cars turn on red anyway;
2) the pedestrian signals (especially the new ones) are designed such that pedestrians can only see them light up when they are standing face on; i.e. they cannot see the signals diagonally across the road. So unless they are familiar with the way the lights work at that particular intersection, pedestrians who need to get to the far corner have to cross the intersection on the "L" rather than diagonally;
3) but most intersections are timed to leave insufficient time for this, so those pedestrians then have to wait for another full cycle of lights before they can finish crossing;
4) and in any case, the intersections themselves (such as the new one being painted at Chapel and York this week) are striped so as to discourage pedestrians from crossing diagonally.

Does anyone understand the theory?

This has always puzzled me. Why not just do what most normal cities do: Pedestrian lights get to cross with traffic and turning cars yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Did I miss something? The result is cars backed up having to wait for these "phantom" pedestrians (when pedestrians hit the button, wait, cross as any normal person would when there's no traffic, then the rest of world in cars wait as nobody crosses). It also negatively incentivizes cars to run red lights and turn illegally on red lights because of how long intersections are here. Just a few thoughts.

Thank you for posting your concerns. This will be reviewed by the Signal Division in regards to your request of incorporating the crossing sequence as part of the automatic cycle and division staff will follow up.

The current setup will remain as designed. Some intersections do not have push buttons, some do. Pedestrians are familiar enough with crossing streets to look for the pedestrian button on the traffic signal pole. If a button is not present, they know enough to realize the pedestrian signal phase is automatic.

I don't understand why the pedestrian signals cannot be automatically added to the traffic pattern. Currently the intersection is very dangerous to cross with cars running red lights while going over 40 mph, making right and left hand turns at red lights and blocking pedestrian crosswalks at red lights. Also this is a major intersection to YNHH and Yale science facilities. Ignoring people's safety is a poor choice for New Haven. Also why did it take over a year to get response?

Thank you for your post. We are currently investigating this concern.

We are closing this issue as we believe it has been addressed. If it remains a problem, please create a new SCF request outlining the current details of the persisting issue. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.