Cars block sidewalk 24-7 on Tomlinson Bridge.

Ironically, Ian was HIT by a car while riding his bike on the bridge yesterday because of this very issue he reported a week ago. He suffered a separated shoulder and will be out of work for at least a week. He's lucky. The car never stopped, and the fishermen whose cars block the sidewalk showed no concern for his accident. Fishing might be fine on the bridge, but since when is parking on any sidewalk legal?

That's awful--I'm sorry to hear it Moira (and Ian)

I cross this bridge multiple times a week and there are always multiple cars parked on the sidewalk, all hours of the day.

There is not even enough room for a wheelchair to get by them!

How are cars allowed to park on a sidewalk??

Yes, it's absolutely insane that this is allowed to happen. Sadly, the sidewalk is often the safest way to ride across the bridge but that aside, one can barely walk it with all of the cars parked there.

If I'm not mistaken, both sides of the bridge are a no standing zone, and anybody parking is subject to towing with no warning. Let's help the city budget by bringing out the street sweeping tow truck brigade and tow everybody there at one shot.

I've run into this myself (I jump onto the sidewalk at the bridge on my bicycle as well). When I haven't, I've worried about getting doored by cars...on the bridge, parked on the sidewalk. Seems like an easy one for the city to enforce.

It is absurd that anyone without a car seems unable to cross this bridge safely. People on bicycles riding in the street as required by law get hit by cars who drive on. People on bicycles and pedestrians are unable to navigate the sidewalk, which is crowded with parked cars, and must move into the street... where they get hit by cars!
The terrible conditions for pedestrians/cyclists on the bridges in and around New Haven are shocking. Maybe some action on this, city?
Don't worry - soon it will snow and they'll plow the road snow up onto the bridge sidewalks and we won't even have to worry about clearing sidewalks of cars! All the pedestrians and cyclists will be in the street already trying not to get sideswiped as they cross a bridge to get to work or home.

Please also vote on http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1300.html to have the bridge fixed.

I agree with Jessica - it is absolutely unconscionable that, in a city like New Haven where far more than half of the total population does not drive to work every day, the only crossing from the east side of the city into Downtown would be so inadequate for pedestrians and cyclists.

The Dept. is aware of the problem with parked cars on bridges in New Haven and dispatches Parking Enforcement Officers to the sites, when they are available, to patrol these areas and enforce the parking regulations.

Thank you for nothing Transportation, Traffic & Parking Dept. not 30 minutes after your posting and what do we see???

Also, telling us you will patrol when people are available is telling us that you do not plan on patrolling. We all know you want your Parking officers downtown to ticket those cars parked legally by a meter and fill the cities coffers!

Any plans to patrol after 5:00pm?? Most of the traffic officers are off by then and thats when we all use the bridge to commute home.

I've seen a parking ticket or car get towed on the Tomlinson... Only empty parking spaces at the lot on the New Haven side of the bridge. Send one of the cars from the substation half a mile up the road to "patrol" the area.

Hey--
there is really no need for the nasty tone, unbelievable!
TT&P does ticket there--
I wish I had posted this a little sooner--
one of our (ECC) members has called in cars before & witnessed them show up & ticket.

Just calling it as I see it.
I wouldn't have been taken back by still seeing cars there if the Transportation, Traffic & Parking Dept. had not just posted that it was corrected.

But you are right, lets keep this positive and give them time to make a difference!

At 6:00PM last night, there were four vehicles parked here on the sidewalk.

A woman walking westbound, pushing a baby stroller, was unable to use the sidewalk. This is unacceptable.

Another person wants this fixed!

Parking on this bridge is a huge problem. Parking Code Enforcement is not really doing anything to resolve this problem. I have witnessed the The the New Haven Police drive by and not even ask people to move their cars, much less give a ticket.

I hate to say it, but it will probably take a serious injury, accident or death before something is done. This is very sad.

I agree, Juan.

Even if they don't have time to issue tickets, could the police (or other city vehicles) who regularly drive by at least ask the citizens to kindly move their vehicles to the public pier's official parking lot?

Hi Mark,

Yes they could do that! That is what is so funny, beucase they chose not not to.

If you can the Mayor's office or the Police Dept., they say well this is not a "priority". But is this not really shocking, because nothing we ask for takes priority.

This has been an ongoing problem and to get the City of New Haven to do what it is supposed to do is nearly impossible.

The parking lot on the bridge is still open... 3:10pm 9/4/2009

and at 5:30pm its still there, and has been joined by some friends...

Wow. That person has a lot of friends.

They must be fishing for dinner again. Hard times in New Haven, for most anyways. Maybe they can park with two wheels in the street and two on the sidewalk ?

I tend to agree with Ernest. I think that would be a good compromise, perhaps not entirely safe, but better than anything I can think of.

Whoever designed this bridge clearly did not take fully into account the needs of the local community. If it were up to me, I would get rid of a couple travel lanes to make room for sidewalk-level/protected bike lanes and a few legitimate parking spaces for use by the fishermen. Right now, Forbes Ave is way overbuilt, with capacity to safely accommodate two or three times the current traffic volumes. (That's my perception, at least, judging by the fact that the 60-ft-wide roadway has been practically empty every time I've ever ventured onto this bridge).

There is a parking lot 10ft before the bridge. There is NO reason for a car to be parked on a sidewalk.

I do not see any logical reason for people to be parking on the sidewalk. This is a hazard to the citizens that need to use the sidewalk and the handicapped.

Parking partially on the street and sidewalk is also not a resolution. Then you pose a risk to drivers especially durring high traffic hours. They need to follow the law like everyone else. There is a lot not far from the brisge or the can just find another place to do their fishing.

I realize that this is tought times in New Haven.

However, that does not mean you can be reckless and indanger everyone

Biked the bridge on Monday on my way in to the Road Race and on the way back. Cars on bridge both ways, even with Police at the end of the bridge blocking to road for runners.

Its easy to see this is not a priority or even on the radar of the Police as they were 100ft away from people parked on the sidewalk and did nothing.

Some well-placed bollards would improve pedestrian safety (cars often run off the road, endangering pedestrians) and permanently eliminate the possibility of illegal parking here.

That would free up police and traffic enforcement resources to focus on other neighborhood problems.

Until then, though, we need more enforcement here!

In terms of the risky situations it creates for other road users, I agree that parking half on the street and half on the sidewalk is just as bad as parking entirely on the sidewalk.

Mark,

I agree that would prevent people from parking on the sidewalk. Great idea!

why is the sidewalk here even car accessible? can't the city put up barriers to prevent cars from getting onto the sidewalk while allowing pedestrian use? Seems like an easy, realistic, and quick fix.

how about a sign that says no parking, cars must park in the lot, with a map showing people how close it is. maybe ppl dont park there because they dont know that the lot is where firshemen are supposed to park.

resident, its the same as at the top of east rock. there's a huge lot with lots of signage but people still line cars up on the side of the road to be slightly closer to the overlook. on east rock however there arent cars flying past at well over 50 mph so its not the end of the world, although it is annoying. these guys probably know there's a lot, its not hidden, but they also know they can get away with not parking there. All of this is very telling of the blanketing issue in new haven of cops not enforcing the law, i.e. doing their jobs, which is apparently status quo.

Ray - I agree, I don't think that the parking is a big deal in the case of East Rock Park since speeds along that part of the road are limited to 10 or 15 miles per hour (both by signage and by the width and curves of the road), and there are many alternate routes through the park for pedestrians.

Also, the top of East Rock is a park, not a major commuting route like the Tomlinson Bridge. What is commonly referred to as the "Bridge of Death" is the only connection from the eastern side of the city to Downtown, yet, as Brian Tang points out, is completely lacking from any multi-modal transportation perspective.

Article from NHI about Ian's accident here:
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/09/bridge_claims_a.php

Because bridge roadways are often especially dangerous, it is not at all uncommon for bikes to be routed onto the sidewalk (i.e. transitioning from a bike lane to a sidewalk-level bike path—a.k.a. “cycle track”). In fact, I had never seen it done any other way before moving to the east coast.

In doing this, the important thing is to make it 100% clear where bikes are supposed to be. For example, the street markings on the Broadway Bridge in Portland, OR direct bikes directly from the bike lane up onto the sidewalk (see aerial photo from bing.com/maps: http://bit.ly/lHAk1). The Morrison Bridge in Portland is currently being retrofitted to widen the sidewalk on one side from 5 ft to 15 ft by eliminating one travel lane. (shortened link to project website: http://bit.ly/1pDrea). This 15-ft sidewalk will serve bi-directional bike traffic and I think it would probably be the closest model for the Tomlinson Bridge.

Bike riders are not required (nor intended) to dismount while riding on cycle tracks, as they are basically considered bike lanes that just happen to be located at the sidewalk level as opposed to the roadway level.

So far as I can tell, there are two major engineering obstacles to accommodating bi-directional (non-dismounted) bike traffic on the Tomlinson Bridge sidewalk:

First there is the problem of safely getting bicyclists traveling toward downtown on the East Shore side of the bridge from the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side where the sidewalk/shared-use path is located. I recommend that this be accomplished using a bike signal at the RR crossing that would halt all traffic and permit bikes to cross Forbes Ave at a diagonal, riding from the right side up to the sidewalk on the left-hand side. Conveniently, this would also solve the problem of the awkward geometry of the RR crossing.

The second problem is that the Forbes Ave right-of-way narrows down substantially between the RR crossing and the bridge itself, perhaps to as narrow as 40–50 ft (don’t quote me on this, as I’m just eyeballing it from aerial photos). I honestly have no idea how to overcome this problem, seeing as how there are huge gas tanks preventing CTDOT from having any realistic prospects of widening the right-of-way. The only think I can think to do would be to eliminate at least one travel lane to widen the sidewalk. This would unfortunately leave us with a 60 ft roadway on the bridge itself and only two or three lanes to fill it. Perhaps the extra space on the bridge itself could be used for on-street parking for the fishermen? This seems unlikely, as you wouldn’t want to have a situation where you need to lift the bridge and there’s a car parked on it.

I, for one, am stumped. It’s too bad the ROW narrows down so substantially at the gas tanks on the east side of the bridge/the roadway widens so substantially on the bridge itself and on the west side of the bridge. ANON, any ideas?

There should be barriers separating the sidewalk and the roadway. That's just common sense! Would solve the parking problem for good, because obviously authorities are unable or unwilling to do anything.

It seems like at least 4 people here agree barriers would be a good idea, with several different reasons cited in support. Any reason not to put in barriers (other than the minor amount of physical labor needed to drop one there?).

Brian Tang, I completely agree that Portland should be used as a prime example for progressing New Haven out of the dark ages. A lot of people have commented on the New Haven Independent that cyclists are to blame for trying to ride on the sidewalk here, etc, amounting to its their fault there are so many bicycle accidents and the innocent drivers aren't to blame. In Portland the city takes cyclists riding inappropriately very seriously, but only because the city has given them no excuse to do so. Once New Haven has been brought to a point where cyclists have no reason to ride where they shouldn't, i.e. fear for their lives, the argument against cyclists will be validated and the city can then crack down on cyclists disobeying traffic laws with impunity.

Ray,
I fully agree. The rules need to be laid out in the form of accomodating infrastructure such as sharrows before there enforcement

Two cars on the sidewalk when I passed by on Monday. Seems like with New Haven's stringent parking enforcement, there is no reason there should constantly be cars parked here.

I could have sworn this would be some sort of HOMELAND SECURITY issue .Cars parked on a bridge ???????????????????????????????LEW

That's a great point Lew...

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Tomlinson Tipover video

Has enforcement increased here?

Bringing up the barriers, they don't even have to be concrete bollards, they can just be the plastic posts that are put in places like Ella T Grasso Blvd. It quickly and clearly says NO PARKING.

The reason people are parking is because no one is stopping them. Perhaps putting up these posts would stop that. Again, this is one of those cases where we are left spinning our wheels and speculating because there is ZERO WORD from the city. Even a 2 line post here telling us whether this is a priority or not would do wonders.

I haven't seen any cars parked on the bridge for the last couple months, and there is little to no fishing at this point (DOT guy I saw this morning said season is basically over for almost all once weather gets cold). This means the city has at least 4-5 months to plan on a solution for springtime.

What about big concrete planters?

I agree that City feedback would be good here.

What if a protected bike lane was put in here and the sidewalk cut in half?

I really like that idea! It would certainly hit two birds with one stone. It would only be in one direction, but it's at least a partial solution!