Descrizione
Since the new School of Management building opened, there have been increased and routine car/bike/pedestrian conflicts, especially during morning rush hour, evening rush hour lunch hours, and periodically with class times . The signaled pedestrian phase is helpful but many problems at the intersection remain. Problems include:
A. Frequent pedestrian crossing against signal into fast-moving traffic
B. Illegal right turns against the light from Sachem to Whitney, endangering pedestrians
C. Inadequate bike parking (<10 spots); bikes are affixed to street signs and sometimes interfere with vehicle lanes on Whitney.
D. Pedestrian/bike conflicts; new bike path to Pearl St requires riders to use sidewalk for ~30ft stretch, most do not dismount.
E. Elementary school groups visiting Peabody often crowd the northwest corner and endanger children, especially when school buses are parked on Sachem.
This problem extends the existing pedestrian/car conflicts south of Trumbull (e.g. 55 Whitney). Traffic calming seems to be increasingly importantly along this stretch.
Whitney is narrow and fast at that intersection, so bump-outs are not feasible. Solutions could include:
A. Better defined pedestrian crosswalks (like Chapel/York)
B. Traffic calming measures north of intersection, like "Reduce Speed Ahead" signage
C. Enforcement of no-right-turn-on-red rules
D. Increased bike parking at School of Management
E. Segregate bike path from footpath
F. Require alternative parking for school groups at Peabody, possibly in the Humphrey lot.
I'm not sure refuge islands are possible along Whitney, but they would usefully signal to southbound traffic that Whitney is becoming increasingly pedestrian-heavy.
11 Commentos
eb (Utente registrato)
Red light running has been a problem on Whitney for a long time, in part because the design of the road encourages high speed and marginalizes pedestrians.
nickoftime (Utente registrato)
EZC (Utente registrato)
KRP (Utente registrato)
nickoftime (Utente registrato)
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Utente registrato)
Nick of Time,
Unfortunately, these are all things that many private citizens warned about long before the new Yale SOM building was approved for construction.
The conflicts taking place now -- which will become worse in coming years, and probably include fatalities -- are evidence that people who live here, and walk our neighborhoods every day, are usually right. It's too bad that we rarely listen to them.
As eb noted above, to make matters worse is the fact that the city did not listen to any resident input when it came time for the reconstruction of Whalley Avenue, about five years ago, despite the fact that hundreds of citizens gathered to push for a more pedestrian-friendly design. Our State Representative Roland Lemar said, at the time, "It’s everything you’d want out of a local access highway."
http://www.newhavensafestreets.org/2009/06/whitney-avenue-paving-everything-youd.html
The city should immediately install additional crosswalks and real traffic calming measures, and push aggressively for the redesign of the Yale SOM landscaping plan and curb cuts on Whitney, which present a serious risk to pedestrians.
mcraig (Utente registrato)
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Utente registrato)
I agree with mcraig. Significant engineering improvements are needed here to prioritize pedestrian travel and reduce the potential for injuries. From what I understand, a large group of neighbors in and around Lincoln and Pearl Streets met last year and various solutions were discussed.
With regards to risk reduction, the only real approach would be to dramatically reduce vehicular travel speeds within these side streets. Many other cities throughout the United States take this approach on side streets near schools, hospitals, and universities.
Riconosciuto NHPD: ARCHIVE 3 (Ufficialità verificata)
nickoftime (Utente registrato)
Chiusa Manager of Operations, Process Improvement - Transportation, Traffic, & Parking (Ufficialità verificata)