OK Stan, just the other side of the coin here. What happened to moving your a** a bit crossing the street? Try a pleasant drive through any popular shopping center and see what I mean. Better yet, take a trip to NYC and try the "take your time" approach while crossing. We need to take a lesson here in New Haven.

The best solution when you do not have time to drive through pedestrian areas is to avoid them. Common sense should tell you to choose a major traffic artery instead of a pedestrian zone or a residential zone with children. Everyone who goes through this area frequently knows it's full of children and school teachers from the Peabody plus teenagers and professors from Yale. The maps call it a "historic zone" not a highway.

If you drive through here, you have a legal obligation to monitor your surroundings and also to respect the rights of pedestrians. Drivers have no right to speed through a crossing like Stan describes. I see that happen here too, a few times every week. I hardly ever see the Yale kids or anyone else taking their time unreasonably at the crossings. They don't seem to have all day to cross the street.

And if a long stream of them all want to cross one after the other and block the street for five minutes, that's their right. We drivers have to stop and wait for them. If you don't want to wait, think ahead and take a different street.

Pedestrians have every legal right under the described circumstances. I guess the problem is the DMV is giving out licenses to too many people who can't drive. You're right, Idonthaveallday, we need to take a lesson here in New Haven.

Traffic calming would reset both pedestrians' and drivers' expectations here, making them more likely to yield and be courteous to their fellow citizens.

The street is currently designed as a highway, rather than a livable street that balances the needs of road users of all ages and abilities. So it is no surprise that it is dysfunctional at many levels.

A simple solution here would be to narrow the lanes to 9' and add a temporary pedestrian refuge median (until funding allows the construction of a permanent median, or better yet, a "tabled" intersection). Adding a temporary curb extension would also help, by increasing the visibility of pedestrians trying to cross. Drivers currently fly around the corners with little regards to children (who are hard to see) who might be there.

Also, crosswalk stings would be great. Has the city done any? Many other cities do these - they have plainclothes officers cross, and issue tickets to drivers who blatantly ignore the law.

I walk by here almost daily at lunch and try not to cross at this intersection specifically because of the danger I see every time I go by. Ever since the closing of Prospect Street between Trumbull and Sachem, Sachem has become a war zone of frustrated cars, construction vehicles, lunch trucks and badly maintained roads full of patches and holes.

It will take several improvements to make this safe for everyone (drivers and pedestrians) and since the vast majority of foot traffic here is Yale students and faculty going to/from Science Hill, perhaps it would be a perfect opportunity for Yale and the city to work together to achieve the safety of everyone! New Yale students (and new New Haven drivers) arrive in August - let's try to get something in place before then!

My suggestion: no more parking on Sachem until Prospect is open again! Traveling cars will see pedestrians better and perhaps a few more will obey the law and stop...

The underlying problem is that drivers think of this as a highway instead of choosing other routes while pedestrians have no choice and are deprived of their basic rights.

One simple solution would be to close Sachem St to through traffic except perhaps for school bus access and the Yale shuttle. Bring the cars down Edwards St instead. That's where I drive, and I hardly ever see pedestrians or clogged traffic there. Then I too can stop worrying about my children being hit near the Peabody, and maybe the city can worry less about that new bridge.

This problem is always going to be with us until we reduce traffic density in the area.

@ adult

Hey Pal: I'm not familiar with the intersection Stan is referring to - just a comment in general. Obviously there is some kind of special circumstance with this particular intersection. So, for the most part I stand by my original comment. Whether a pedestrian has "every right" to block an intersection while crossing doesn't make it "right" to do it. As the saying goes, if I had a dollar for every time I encountered somebody deciding to walk through an intersection after that crossing thing turns red - or be in the middle of it when it turns red... It's really obnoxious.

I want this fixed too. This whole street is a problem area with too much traffic going too fast.

@ moveyourbutt, if your original comment is not about this particular intersection, it should be posted at another place where it does belong. Reports in seeclickfix are for specific locations only.

My own experiences at this intersection are that pedestrians are usually careful and considerate of drivers, unlike at the Grove/Prospect intersection. But it can be hard to see them because of the road gradient and cars parked close to the corner, and the crossing is badly faded. I drive through here about once a month because I have business in the area. Normally I take other routes because Hillhouse and Sachem are not suitable for through traffic.

Most Yale students don't have classes this far up, it seems that the annoying jaywalkers stay closer to central campus. Maybe that's where you could post your comments about them, and maybe something will get done.

The worst pedestrians here are the tourist groups looking at everything except traffic and other pedestrians, following their tour group leader who directs them to stop in the most inconsiderate places. I've even seen a whole mob of them stand and stare at someone in a wheelchair instead of moving out of the way.

Separately from rights, there are also obligations. If someone wants to cross at this intersection, drivers are obliged to stop. That's in the social contract that goes with accepting a license in this state and being a citizen in this country. There is no crossing light at this intersection so your comments on making money from one are irrelevant and unproductive.

I went through here earlier today and the problem seems to be poor visibility from Hillhouse. The crossing is signed along Sachem but the view from Hillhouse is more difficult since cars parked close to the corner make it necessary to creep out into the intersection just to see whether cars are approaching. I am not surprised that some people would not notice the crossing especially on the west side where the road is a bit depressed. Suggestion: prevent parking within 10 yds or so of corner.

Has the city considered stop signs on Sachem Street?

With the volume of pedestrians and vehicles turning out of Hillhouse, it seems that a study would be warranted.

I agree with the post below that, in order to make the situation truly better for both drivers and pedestrians, major curb extension work is needed to reduce crossing distances and improve visibility.

This is traffic calming 101 and I'm surprised that improvements weren't considered in tandem with construction of the new business school, which will massively increase traffic in the area.

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