I have forwarded this request to Mike over at Traffic. I'll touch bases with him to see if his department can look into it.

Thank you.

Bruce at traffic and parking is taking a look at this.

I received a reply from Mike at Traffic -- it is posted above under my name (technical issue). Sorry for any confusion.

It would be really useful to have a number of roundabouts at the problem intersections in our neighborhood, perhaps with raised pedestrian crosswalks on each of the four sides to slow down speeders who would just blaze around the circle. There are so many traffic calming measures such as roundabout, curb extensions, and raised intersections that would bring the scale of the road down and make people drive more slowly and cautiously. Lets try some in our neighborhood! No, really, let's try some.

In Holland, nothing happened until people went out and built them themselves.

I guess the neighborhood has to decide what is better - waiting years if not decades for the city to do something and working through the political process, or taking their life and health into their own hands and making an immediate intervention this weekend.

Hmmmm. . . aside from standing in the middle of the road or throwing fruit at the offenders (which, mind you, I have contemplated). . .I'm not sure of how to intervene. I guess that I could pour my own speed bumps, but I think that would be frowned upon.

Joan & All

I live up on Atwater street and I agree the people with Cars and Bikes need to be stopped or slow down with there driven on our streets like it is there own personal race course.

A traffic light might slow them down but I have seen time and time again that these guys just blow thru them on the red. We all know the city is not going to run out and put up traffic lights, roundabouts or speed bumps anytime soon if ever.

What we need is for NHPD to step up patrols in the area and keep an eye out for these speeders. The stop light on this corner might slow or even stop these guys at this intercetion but the rest of the area will still be unsafe.

NHPD can start patrolling the area as soon as the order is given. Unlike the light which may never happen. All the NHPD needs to do is drive around or neighborhood during the day and see where the rubber is left on the street from these guys.

This document recommends curb extensions and/or a raised median at this intersection:
http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/TrafficParking/pdfs/FairHavenTrafficCalming0608.pdf

The curb extensions in particular would be extremely helpful here. Unfortunately they are quite expensive (though only about 1/100th the cost of a modern traffic signal). The only way I can see this happening would be through grant funds.

To my knowledge, New Haven does not currently have a program for neighborhood traffic calming grants. My mom has been quite involved with getting traffic calming in our neighborhood in Vancouver, WA. America's Vancouver has been on the cutting edge of neighborhood traffic calming for over a decade. According to my mom, in the early 1990s, they started a program to allow different neighborhoods around the city to apply for neighborhood traffic calming grants. The City would only put up a very small amount of money as seed money. This would motivate people to develop ideas. Once neighborhood groups had done all the work of documenting the need and community support, the City would keep them occupied jumping through more hoops while, meanwhile behind the curtain, the transportation department would use the work provided by the neighborhood, add it to their own analysis, and use it to apply for outside grants, mainly state grants and federal grants administered by the state. They would then pool this money, use it to leverage more grants, and actually construct the projects. From the sounds of it, it was a bit like Dick Lee's urban renewal grant-writing machine in the 1960s except at a smaller scale and not so destructive. (Actually, it's pretty hard for neighborhood traffic calming to be destructive. Constructive would probably be a better term. On the other hand, some members of my mom's neighborhood would take issue at that; they are quite upset with the City's recent proposal to get rid of on-street parking on one side of the local neighborhood arterial in order to make room for chicanes and bike lanes).

It would be nice if New Haven could start up a neighborhood traffic calming grant program like this. Perhaps it could be part of the Complete Streets program? With the exception of their Director, Mr. Piscitelli, I'm not sure if Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department has much experience in grant writing, however, so it may be necessary to find staff from other departments (that won't go over well), hire additional staff (not likely during a recession), or develop a different model for this.

Just a though. All I know is, even on the west coast, things like this don't just get built; it requires a fair amount of grant writing at the neighborhood level, at the city level, and at the state level (this could be a bit problematic here, perhaps less so under Commissioner Marie, but still a potential pitfall).

It's a matter of city priorities... not grant funds!

The city actually does have a traffic calming bond line item, of about $150-200K per year last time I checked, but it is very small relative to the cost of doing traffic calming work in a number of neighborhoods.

The city's traffic calming funding has paid for projects such as the roundabouts on Woodward Avenue, which were installed in a location that had seen a number of very serious crashes. Since the installation, there have been no fatalities and speeds have been significantly reduced, making that neighborhood much more livable.

In other words, these types of city investments more than pay for themselves.

Acknowledged By the Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department.

Thank you Dept of Transportation!!