Description
There is rampant speeding along Chapel St between Olive and Franklin. For the second time in the past week my wife and I have nearly been run over in the crosswalk exiting Wooster Square to DePalma. There needs to be greater traffic-calming measures along these blocks which is a heavily trafficked residential neighborhood - the one crosswalk at DePalma and Chapel is not enough. Police need to enforce speeding along this route (I saw a police car ignore an SUV run the light at Chestnut and Chapel recently). This is unacceptable. Residents of this area should not feel frightened to cross Chapel Street. There should be either more crosswalks with pedestrian signs, speed bumps, and greater enforcement.
25 Comments
Janna (Registered User)
concerned (Guest)
lbeehner (Guest)
concerned (Guest)
I have lived in new haven for years and my experience is that no-turn-on-red signs are respected for the most part. Drivers and pedestrians not only in New Haven but in Connecticut are conditioned to them, very aware of them. Some will deliberately ignore them, but most don't,
Changing a tradition, an established method just creates confusion.
crossing with traffic might work in nyc where there is a critical mass of pedestrians crossing, not in new haven where one pedestrian is expected to negotiate with a giant dump truck.
So, I wouldn't want to upend this approach for one that is more dangerous
joe_nahed (Guest)
concerned (Guest)
I think we are going to have to make a much more organized effort. I think neighborhoods can apply to city hall for some kind of safe-streets thing. There is an application process.
Maybe we should get together, and partner with Wooster block watch and management team and just get this done.
I would like to not only see improvements to that cross walk, but I really adamantly want to see speed bumps on Chapel between Olive and Hamilton.
You only have to look at the history of these issues on SCF for Wooster Square area to see we are spinning our wheels. It was good to try but it's clear now that we need to organize and make a much more concerted effort. We are not getting what we want and need, and others are:
There are speed bumps further down Chapel near James.
Speed bumps went into Front Street on the river and totally transformed that street from a racing track into a neighborhood road.
I am tired of risking my life at certain nearby intersections. For me, it is Olive and Chapel, and Brewery at Water St., plus just crossing chapel anywhere in Wooster Square.
Brewery and Water is a joke: the cross walk poll on the Brewery side is actually in the street, not on the sidewalk, so to press the button you actually go in the street.
There is no sign preventing a right turn on red and i know of no intersection in new haven that needs one as badly as this one. No one cares.
concerned (Guest)
concerned (Guest)
PS:
Another benefit of speed bumps is it would divert commuting traffic from neighborhood streets to the behemoth highways the state DOT and City of New Haven, and YNHH insists on having in the form of route 34 and Frontage roads. The commuters are speeding through our neighborhood treating pedestrians as an annoyance in order to avoid their peers on Frontage Road and get home that much sooner. They are a nuisance. We need to push back with speed bumps, brightly painted crosswalks, and median cones with pedestrian signs on them.
They need to get the message that if they want to tailgate and speed while hanging on their cellphones they can use Frontage Road, which was specifically designed to cater to road warriors. If they want to take Chapel and Olive, they'll have to be forced to relax and chill out.
Tony (Guest)
Jeff (Guest)
concerned (Guest)
concerned (Guest)
OK, I volunteered to look into this and am reporting back. I checked with the management team and they have not initiated a complete streets application for our neighborhood and welcome someone taking the lead if interested and bringing it to them for support. I am pulling the guidelines from the city website and will call city hall to see how the budget is doing for fulfilling applications these days.
Now how do I leave my name and contact info without publishing my email address? Hmm. Will figure this out and post back - any suggestions welcome. Maybe the best way is to contact stake-holding groups with my contact info in a couple weeks -- block watch, management team, bicycling group -- and get the word out that way and post any resulting meetings here too?
-- is there interest in an effort to do a complete streets application? Things that are possible: Speed bumps, pedestrian improvements, etc.
abgoode (Registered User)
concerned (Guest)
thanks abe.
I will shoot you an email too so you have my email address. You and I know each other already and I think I have your email address.
I've already checked out the website and have been reading other applications.
I volunteer to draft a starting-point complete streets application to kick off the effort. Neighbors, Block watch, local businesses, management team, elm city cycling, the neighborhood schools and a few people in the city who know this stuff well -- I will reach out to them and am willing at some point to go door to door once we have a late draft to gather more input.
concerned (Guest)
Tony, I agree. The Depalma/chapel crosswalk works when the crossing guard is there for the farmer's market. The rest of the time, it is a rare driver that respects it
Sometimes I wish there was a traffic light there just for pedestrians. Not everyone knows this secret but there is a phenomenally cool cross walk in the city at Church St. at the Green, between city hall and the federal court building.
It is for pedestrians only -- it is not an intersection.
As far as I know, it is the only crosswalk in the city where pushing the button causes the yellow caution light to go on immediately, then the red light.
I don't know if this is because it is at city hall or because it is at the courthouse or because it is not a traffic intersection. Probably the latter.
Check it out next time you are crossing Church.
Erin at Wooster Sq Watch (Guest)
concerned (Guest)
concerned (Guest)
Chapel/Olive resident (Guest)
I agree with everything said about Chapel and Olive (my intersection)--which I've seen run several times. But in my experience (I'm there every day) most drivers there DO respect the no turn on red sign, at that intersection at least.
Engineering Department (Registered User)
Hello, this post was just brought to our attention. I see there has already been some talk of submitting a Complete Streets Application. Does anyone know the status of the application? For your reference, below you will find our intro message for the program with the links you will need. If you have any questions about the application, please call our office at (203) 946-6417.
Original Complete Streets Message:
Please submit this issue through New Haven’s “Complete Streets” program. To do this, please visit the Engineering Department’s “Complete Streets” website. Link Below:
http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Engineering/completestreets.asp
There you will find a “Complete Streets Manual” and “Project Request Form”. On October 23, 2008, The New Haven Board of Aldermen unanimously passed an order creating a nine member Complete Streets Steering Committee to guide the development of the following elements for the purpose of addressing the status of city streets: policy document, design manual, public process, educational campaign and traffic enforcement.
A focal point is to include feedback and ideas for street improvements from members of the community. You will also find previously submitted project requests from other community members. Please submit a “Project Request Form” for this issue through the link above. As a resident, you are not required to design anything. Instead, use the "Complete Streets Manual" as a showcase of the different types of traffic calming measures that may be used.
Acknowledged Engineering Department (Registered User)
zed (Registered User)
Mahfouz (Registered User)
rmfarmer85 (Registered User)
Closed Manager of Operations, Process Improvement - Transportation, Traffic, & Parking (Verified Official)