Fair Haven Traffic Calming Plan Meeting

Whether or not you live or work in Fair Haven, please feel free to join and show your support for more neighborhood-friendly streets.

Fair Haven slates Saturday meeting for pedestrian-friendly neighborhood plan
By Victor Zapana
New Haven Register (Excerpt)

NEW HAVEN — After two years of pushing, Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale, D-14, may finally be able to calm her traffic jitters. New Haven — or at least northeast Fair Haven — will have its first-ever traffic-calming neighborhood master plan meeting beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday at 195 Front St.

At the meeting, local residents will help create a proposal for the Fair Haven area to add traffic measures such as speed humps and bump-outs to slow and reduce nearby traffic.

"It's really about getting the people who know the streets the best to come up with solutions that will work best," Sturgis-Pascale said.

The meeting, a full-day event, will be led by Dan Burden, director of the Florida-based Walkable Communities. Walkable Communities aims to provide neighborhoods with tools to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment, according to its Web site. Sturgis-Pascale said she hired Burden to serve as an outside traffic engineer to guide residents in the proposal process. The meeting is the first of two, Burden said Tuesday. He will use the residents' suggestions from the first meeting to create a formal city proposal. At the second, which will be in two weeks, Burden will present the plan for community feedback. The entire process will probably take three weeks, he added.

Although the two meetings will focus on only the small Fair Haven area, Sturgis-Pascale said she would like the initiative to grow citywide. Aside from the meeting, Sturgis-Pascale has sponsored a city petition to ask for legislation to immediately reduce traffic injuries by 50 percent by 2009 and 90 percent by 2015.