Dozens of Injured at Treacherous Rail Crossing: Providence and Worcester Railroad (PWX) Facing Potential Liability and National Media Exposure

Original Post, 7/13/10: The Providence and Worcester Railroad is directly responsible for the treacherous stretch of road (i.e., the tracks themselves) at the Tomlinson Bridge, which we have previously reported on here.

According to ConnDOT, which has been working on the problem for over a year, the Railroad refuses to take or allow the state to take any meaningful action regarding their tracks. This despite the large number of documented crashes and injuries – including several in recent weeks – on Forbes Avenue on the PWRR's unused and unmaintained track. The crossing has caused dozens of serious injuries since opening in 2002.

Local citizens have guaranteed that every minor or major injury caused by the tracks will be communicated to the local, regional and national press as well as to a number of attorneys' offices throughout the Northeast. These include those recently causing New Haven police officers, professors at Yale University, and several citizens to fall, including one very severely breaking his leg on the track two weekends ago.

The location, heavily documented with information about injuries at SeeClickFix, Design New Haven, and Wikipedia, among other online websites, was the focus of a recent citizen protest that brought light to the unacceptable situation. The New Haven Independent covered the protest:

“This is unacceptable,” said Juli Stupakevich. So she and other angry and worried cyclists Monday evening bestrode the dangerous rails curving bumpily crossing Route One at the entrance to the port just west of Waterfront Street. After years of documented accidents at the spot due to protruding and curving tracks that topple riders, the tracks’ owners, Providence & Worcester Railroad, came up with a graphic response. It put up signs urging riders to dismount and walk.

The City of New Haven's economic development administration also weighed in, in an email message to the Independent's reporter:

We agree that the warning signs are not acceptable,” Piscitelli wrote in an email message after the rally. “A constructed physical improvement is necessary. As you know, this is a state road. At our request ConnDOT convened a working group in 2009, but there has been no follow-up to date."

Widely referred to by citizens as a "death trap," the location has also inspired literally dozens of open public letters over the past weeks from local advocates. The bridge is designated as the primary "recommended cross-state" bicycle route by the State of Connecticut, and is also the city's recommended route as a route that "connects New Haven's neighborhoods while enjoying as many calm, wide, and scenic streets as possible."

Excerpts from a few of the more recent letters, responding to the potentially even greater level of danger at the location (caused by the narrowing of the road for a construction project), are posted below:

Alycia Santilli: "I also find Providence and Worcester Railroad's 'solution' and the lack of adequate response to this issue extremely troublesome. Like many others in the surrounding area, my husband and I cross this bridge two times per day during our bicycle commute to downtown New Haven. The signage -- besides being poorly placed -- is an outrageously insufficient and inappropriate solution. As Mr. Kurtz points out, it is impossible to dismount to cross the tracks. Dismounting would be just as hazardous -- if not more so -- as crossing the tracks."

William Kurtz: "I know you have been made aware of the many serious crashes that have taken place at your railroad crossing, and that you have so far failed to take any meaningful action about this treacherous situation, despite more-than-adequate knowledge of the hazard you have created and allowed to exist. Just two weeks ago, there was yet another crash there and yet another experienced cyclist was seriously injured and now we are told that according to Russ St. John, who is P&W's representative on the Connecticut Public Transportation Commission that a "cyclists-dismount-and-walk" sign is the solution that is "acceptable" to Providence and Worcester. Please hear me clearly when I state that your sign is not an acceptable solution to the many residents of greater New Haven who cycle across that bridge regularly. For one thing, there is nowhere to dismount. The west-bound side is currently reduced to one lane because of the Q-Bridge construction. There is neither a sidewalk nor a shoulder and traffic on that stretch regularly reaches and exceeds 50 mph. It should be clear why any so-called "solution" which calls for a streets user with all the rights of any other vehicle operator to stop moving in the middle of 50 mph traffic is unacceptable.... I eagerly await your reply outlining your rationale for this clear disregard for human life and safety."

David Streever: "I have almost crashed there--I met a police officer tonight who crashed there due to the tracks--New Havens CAO crashed there--and dozens upon dozens of cyclists have crashed there. This is quickly turning into a huge liability for you as the crashes mount up and people are talking about civil suits & lawyers. To continue to callously ignore the crashes is your option, but I think you know that you have a responsibility to make this right."

Elaine Lewinnek: "Here is the U.S. Dept of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration plan for bicycles crossing slanted railway tracks: http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/05085/images/fig1416.gif. It is the best solution I know of to this basic and well-known challenge of traffic engineering. Here is the full website from which I pulled that illustration, figure 14-16: http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pubs/05085/chapt14.htm. I believe the reconstructed Tomlinson bridge cost $120 million. The percentage of Americans who bike to work is 0.5%. Far more Americans bicycle for exercise and pleasure and occasional commuting, but, even leaving all those other bicyclists out, if you simply spend 0.5% of your budget on bicyclist concerns, that means $60,000 for bicyclists. It is only fair."

Joe Jeffery: "Two weeks ago, I was somewhere around my 96th mile of a 100 mile ride in and around New Haven. To return to my New Haven destination from Connecticut's beautiful shoreline, my only direct route was to cross the Tomlinson Bridge. Among the many hazards on this bridge is a set or railroad tracks that cross at an angle dangerous to cylists and motorcyclists. Angled rail crossings catch thinner tires and throw cyclists. Negotiating that angled rail in summer weekend traffic was one of the most dangerous things I've done on a bike-- and I bike commute daily from New Haven to Bridgeport in all weather."

Commenters on the New Haven Indy story point out the level of danger and the need to do more to make the Tomlinson a "Complete Bridge". Though the Tomlinson, like its neighboring Q-bridge, is part of ConnDOT's billion-dollar New Haven Harbor crossing mega-project, it has very little in the way of usable bicycle or pedestrian infrastructure:

In no way am I absolving the P&W Railroad from their responsibility to implement acceptable safety measure on this crossing, but I want to point out that the miserable design of this roadway is a contributing factor. ConnDOT also has a responsibility to respond with funding to complete this street by designing and rebuilding it to include safe and accessible options for all users: pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicles.

It is grossly unjust to spend billions of dollars on a bridge expansion project that is legally limited to motor vehicles, while leaving other users to risk their lives for access to downtown New Haven. P&W must come up with a short term solution, but in the end, the buck stops with ConnDOT.

Unfortunately [especially with the narrowing of the road from 4 lanes to 2], this isn’t just a problem for cyclists—if a cyclist flips on the tracks (highly likely, in fact has happened again just in the past week), they are likely to hit an oncoming car. That car may swerve in avoidance or surprise, striking several oncoming cars or trucks. We’re talking about the possibility of a half dozen driver deaths here, to happen in the very near future, not just the death of one or two cyclists.

Update 7/14/10: The issue of the bridge is covered in the New Haven Register. Excerpt:

Cyclists are “gravely concerned” about the area where the Providence and Worcester rail line crosses the road just before the bridge, going west toward downtown, Connecticut Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Board member Jason Stockman said. Bike tires are routinely stuck in the angled rail grooves and riders are injured; Stockman, who lives in New Haven, said he saw a cyclist break his thigh bone there two weeks ago. "The conventional wisdom is, there are two types of (riders): The ones who have fallen (there), and the ones who are going to,” said William Kurtz of West Haven.

Update 07/15/10: Channel 3 TV news covers the large number of protestors out today, some holding large placards reading "ConnDOT Cares Not." Despite the ongoing number of injuries, no actions have yet been taken.

Update 7/21/10: The New Haven Register continues to cover the story, highlighting yet more recent injuries at the tracks, including a report of a woman breaking her pelvis. A reply on Elm City Cycling focuses on the comments made by ConnDOT's spokesperson in the article, and the lack of progress on the issue:

The latest critics to weigh in on a strip of Route 1 where cyclists have been tripped up by an angled rail line are a surgeon who has treated more than one person hurt there and a Yale professor. Dr. Connor Telles, the orthopaedic surgery chief resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital, warned: “This is a lawsuit waiting to happen,” in a letter to state and rail line officials.

Update 10/27/10: Despite a number of meetings involving literally hundreds of hours of volunteer citizen time and the time of city and state officials, no real progress has been made on improving safety in the area.

New Haven Halloween Traffic Safety: A Message from Keep Kids Alive

According to a study over a 20-year period by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, four times the number of elementary and middle school-aged children were killed by a car or truck on Halloween when compared to all other evenings.

Please sound and send out the Halloween alert in your community to "Be Aware! Drive With Care," and to "Stop! Take 3 To See" at every stop sign, and every point in the road where children are, or might be, crossing. Slow down and scan the roadways and sidewalks for children of all ages out and about. The life saved may be that of a neighbor child. And remember, "Don't let the 2 minutes you 'save' be the last 2 minutes of someone's life." - David Townsend (Tia's dad).

Tom Everson, Keep Kids Alive Drive 25, 402-334-1391.

Crumbling State Street Bridge to Close for One Year: Questions Linger on Pedestrian Access

The crumbling State Street Bridge, one of the first issues ever reported on SeeClickFix (Issue #10 out of over 60,000 now reported), is now just beginning to go into construction. The bridge - a major conduit of vehicle and pedestrian traffic - will remain closed for an entire year.

However, as indicated on the issue, major questions remain regarding pedestrian access during construction.

Why were the sharrows installed recently throughout Downtown New Haven not added on the route to New Haven Union Station?

While bicycle racks are now apparently in the works for one of New Haven's most critical economic assets, Union Station (see SeeClickFix issue here, and Design New Haven article here), actual biking access to the station remains a serious challenge.

Union Avenue, the road to the station is currently a 4-lane road with no bicycle facilities, high speeds, and parked vehicles on either side.

Vote on the SeeClickFix issue to begin to resolve this here. (Short answer to the question above: The area is a state controlled stretch of road and did not authorize sharrows).

Sharrows or bicycle lanes, like those recently placed throughout Downtown, would be a good first step towards bringing the street into line with the city's and state's new laws that require complete streets accommodations. However, ultimately providing access to the train station for road users of all ages and abilities will require a protected/buffered bike route or extension of the greenway (perhaps to be built in the space between the rail yard and the station property itself). Design New Haven previously reported on this issue in an article last year.

Request for public feedback on proposed New Haven Streetcar: 9/23 Meeting

DataHaven has a post about the upcoming public meeting on September 23rd.

Related documents, including maps and planning diagrams, are available on the city's streetcar website . Early stages of planning are paying particular attention to how the streetcar would integrate with the Downtown New Haven streetscape, as well as bicycle and pedestrian access.

The proposed streetcar route would connect Union Station, Downtown New Haven, Yale University, Science Park and neighborhoods to the north.

CDC Epidemiologist "Misses the Point" on Averting Traffic Deaths

Responding to an article in the New York Times Science section this past week, New Haven-based author and urbanist Phil Langdon published the following op-ed on the New Urban Network.

Langdon argues that public health professionals need to pay more attention to road design if they want to have any meaningful impact on reducing the 40,000 traffic deaths each year in the United States.

Though this point was made by a recent CDC report outlining methods that will work to reduce obesity in the United States, it apparently hasn't filtered its way down to epidemiologists and journalists who study traffic fatalities. The article, which originally appeared here, is reprinted with permission of the author.

Missing the point on how to avert traffic deaths

Motor vehicle accidents cost the US $99 billion a year, or roughly $500 for each licensed driver, The New York Times reported Aug. 31 in its Science Times section.

That includes $17 billion in direct medical expenses and much more in lost wages, productivity, and disability, The Times said, attributing the figure to Rebecca B. Naumann, lead author of a study by epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a country where the automotive way of life often goes unquestioned, it’s useful to be reminded of the horrendous toll inflicted by motor vehicle crashes.

“Teenagers and young adults, who represent only 14 percent of the population, account for almost one-third of injuries and fatalities and almost one-third of the costs,” reports Roni Caryn Rabin. “Pedestrians and motorcyclists, who represent 11 percent of the injuries, rack up 22 percent of total costs, because of the severity of their injuries,” she says, noting that the study first appeared in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.

But what are we to make of the final paragraph in the Times article? It states: Among the interventions proven to reduce the toll are strict seat-belt laws, more enforcement of speeding laws, educating parents about child safety seats and using devices that lock out drivers who have been drinking alcohol, Ms. Naumann said. Policies that restrict inexperienced teenage drivers also significantly reduce crashes, she said.

The report makes no acknowledgement of the impact of faulty design of the nation’s streets, roads, and communities. It seems strange that an epidemiologist at the CDC — which recently has shown a strong interest in the effects of community design — would not point out the role played by roadways that practically invite motorists to speed.

Planning consultant Peter Swift and others, in a study that was first presented to the Congress for New Urbanism in 1997, amplified in 2002, and amplified again in 2006, identified an important reason for serious traffic accidents: Many residential streets are too wide.

After studying the conditions under which nearly 20,000 accidents occurred over eight years in Longmont, Colorado, Swift and his co-authors came to an unambiguous conclusion: “narrow streets are safer.” They declared: “Clear relationships are evident between accident frequency and street width. The findings support the premise that narrower, so called ‘skinny’ streets, are safer than standard width local streets.”

If you build narrower streets and provide them with a sense of enclosure (by planting lines of street trees, allowing cars to be parked on the streets, and perhaps bringing houses and other structures closer to the roadway), most drivers will naturally slow down. The physical environment can be richly outfitted with objects and dimensions that result in fewer life-threatening crashes. In the Longmont study, the difference between a typical 36-foot-wide residential street and a 24-foot-wide street was found to be “a 487 percent increase in accident rates.”

Speed is a critical factor in whether a person who is hit by a car will live or die. “A pedestrian has a 5 percent chance of being killed at 20 mph,” Norman Garrick, a transportation specialist at the University of Connecticut, told New Urban News in an article published in January 2007. At 40 mph, the pedestrian has “an 85 percent chance of being killed.”

Another key to reducing traffic injuries and deaths: Give people opportunities to drive less, in part by developing extensively connected street networks. Todd Litman, in a 1999 study for the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, recommended laying out neighborhoods so that they have a grid-like organization of narrow streets with short blocks, many T intersections, and other devices that cause motorists to proceed more slowly and that make it possible to go places without even getting in a car.

When there is a grid of streets, people can reach destinations with shorter drives — and in some cases they can travel by bicycle or on foot, which is better for them in many respects. When the streets are properly designed, the environment will be comparatively safe. A generously connected, relatively slow-paced circulation system is a far cry from the more typical suburban practice of funneling traffic from cul-de-sacs onto collector roads and then onto large arteries, requiring people to go long distances, at higher speeds, to reach stores, schools, and other elements of daily life.

Garrick and fellow transportation researcher Wesley Marshall analyzed the facts surrounding more than 130,000 vehicular crashes in California cities and discovered that the communities built since 1950 had the worst traffic fatality rates. As reported in New Urban News in January 2009, the post-1950 cities tend to have more branching, tree-like street networks that include many cul-de-sacs and not many intersections. This limits the movement of traffic through residential areas but forces people to travel longer distances, ultimately exposing them to higher speeds and greater danger.

A report from Europe has found that when average vehicle speeds drop by just 5 percent, the number of injuries drops by 10 percent and the number of fatalities falls 20 percent. Extensively connected street networks may not have fewer crashes over all, but the crashes that occur are less likely to leave someone dead.

Finally, “Dangerous by Design,” a study released in November 2009 by the advocacy group Transportation for America, found that during the previous 15 years more than 76,000 pedestrians were killed. Most of the deaths, 56 percent, occurred on arterial roads — focal points for sprawl, often combining substantial width, high traffic speeds, and few or no facilities for pedestrians.

It is odd that an epidemiological team at the CDC would fail to beat the drum about these factors, and would instead emphasize interventions such as greater enforcement of speeding laws. Does anyone really believe that ticketing speeders is going to bring about lasting change in how fast traffic moves? How can that be, when so many roads are designed to facilitate speeds that cause accidents to be lethal?

The fact is, others in the CDC have become intensely aware of the effects of community design on health and safety. A number of CDC personnel participated in the Congress for New Urbanism conference in Atlanta last May, which looked at the connections between community and physical and mental health. The effect of community design on Americans’ well-being has also become a focus of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a major financial supporter of health initiatives.

Granted, interventions in community design may take longer to carry out than programs aimed at enforcing seat-belt laws, educating parents about child safety seats, or handing out speeding tickets. Unlike enforcement of speed laws, they don’t produce an immediate payback for government through tickets and fines.

Nonetheless, changing the physical environment has to be at the core of any campaign to avert traffic injuries and death. Change the physical environment, and you alter behavior — not just for a few months but for years to come.

To judge from the story in The Times, not enough people in either the health fields or in journalism are aware of how much can be accomplished by more intelligently designing America’s streets, roads, and communities. We have some serious educational work yet to do.

--

Also see: New Study: 20MPH zones greatly reduce injuries and fatalities

Studies: Active Transportation Leads to Better Health

Although not surprising given recent CDC reports and literature reviews, a new study in the American Journal of Public Health provides more concrete evidence linking active commuting and reduced levels of obesity.

Streetsblog DC reports on the study here:

The study found that there are significant connections between having a low obesity rate and a high rate of walking or biking to work. The same is true for diabetes. In statistical terms, about 30 percent of the variation in obesity among states -- and more than half of the variation in diabetes -- was linked to differences in walking and cycling rates.

A recent brief prepared by Todd Litman for the American Public Transit Association (APTA) also provides even more evidence and research. For example, the brief emphasizes research showing that transit commuters average 30% more walking, and are 4X more likely to achieve the 10K steps/day recommended for health than car commuters. You can download the PDF of this brief here.

Another Whalley Avenue Hit and Run Crash Leaves Pedestrian Dead

Reporting from the New Haven Independent:

Police are looking for a driver who hit a pedestrian early Sunday and fled the scene, leaving a 52-year-old man in critical condition. The collision took place at Sunday at the intersection of Whalley Avenue and Carmel Street, according to city spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga.

A patrol officer came across the scene at 1:44 a.m. and found the man lying in the street, unresponsive, she said. The victim was taken to the hospital to be treated for life-threatening injuries. The man was apparently hit by a car, whose driver fled, Mayorga said. The police accident reconstruction team is investigating. Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact the police at 203-946-6316.

Update 8/23: The victim died from his injuries soon after the crash.

Update 8/27: Police are seeking clues on the hit and run. The New Haven Register profiles the victim in a news piece and offers more details on the crash:

On Sunday, he was at the Scorpio Lounge on Norton Street. His friend gave the family this account: The pair was walking back to her home, stopped by a gas station for some snacks and were crossing Whalley Avenue. The woman made it across safely, but Chatman, who was a step behind, didn’t. She heard the impact, then saw the vehicle run over Chatman and flee the scene.

The crash is just one of several recent hit and run pedestrian injuries on Whalley Avenue, which has been rated one of the most dangerous roads in the State of Connecticut for crashes. Traffic speeds on the Avenue regularly exceed 50 miles per hour, despite the fact that the street passes through neighborhoods that have the population density of Brooklyn, New York.

Members of the community recently wrote an open public letter regarding a SCRCOG and city proposal to redesign this section of Whalley Avenue.

Traffic calming comes to Long Wharf Drive; later removed due to construction

Original Post, 11/19/08: New Haven Independent reports on the city press conference here. In one of many stories on the Long Wharf Drive drag racing issue, which has involved driver injuries and fatalities, the NHI had previously posted some background on the plans, including links to download the plans themselves and an online discussion.

Update 7/16/10: The road-narrowing barriers have been "temporarily" removed due to construction in the area, according to the New Haven Register. There are already reports of drag racing and very high speeds on the roadway. Though city police patrol the area, it is unclear how many speeding tickets they are giving out given the general difficulty of the police department in enforcing the city's speed limit. If drag racing continues at all hours of the day and night, like it did prior to the barrier installation, additional fatalities would not be a surprise.

SUV flips over after cars collide on Downtown New Haven section of Route 34

See coverage in the New Haven Register:

Both vehicles were driving east on Route 34 when a 1993 BMW driven by Victor Bell, 50, of 81 William St., lost control and struck a 2007 Toyota RAV4 driven by Crystal Neuhauser, 41, of 218 Rose St. Ext. in East Haven, state police said. Neuhauser’s vehicle then struck a Jersey barrier in the median and rolled over onto its roof.

The crash once again highlights the unsafe traffic conditions on the connector and surrounding roads, particularly travel speeds that are too high for a densely-populated downtown area with thousands of children, elderly and disabled residents.

Mismanaged traffic in the area has led to several serious pedestrian injuries and fatalities, as well as repeated, but unfulfilled, requests for change by thousands of local residents. For more coverage of Route 34, click here and here.

The ongoing crashes on Route 34 not only cause severe physical and psychological harm to residents, they also each create hundreds of thousands of dollars in shared costs, through insurance, emergency response and police investigations. These costs are socialized, with each family paying more than $1,000 each year for them whether or not they drive to work each day -- in total amounting to nearly $200 billion per year.

Driver Runs Red at Derby and Boulevard (Again), Two More Hospitalized

See here for excellent reporting by Tom MacMillan at the New Haven Independent. The photo at left was taken by Paul Bass of the Independent.

At around 1 a.m. on Thursday, there was a car accident at the intersection of Derby Avenue and Ella T. Grasso Boulevard. Witnesses told police that a Honda Accord sped through the intersection, ignoring the traffic signal, and hit another car. The driver, a 24-year-old man was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital with serious injuries. The car’s passenger, also 24 years old, was taken to Hospital of St. Raphael with non-life-threatening head injuries. No one else suffered major injuries in the accident.

The crash occurred near the same location where there have been over a dozen deaths & severe injuries just in the past few years. Red light running has been identified as a major concern at the State Legislature, with groups such as the Connecticut Livable Streets Campaign proposing legislation enabling Connecticut municipalities to use automated cameras (already widely-used in hundreds of other U.S. cities) that issue parking tickets to violators.

Safe Routes to School Expands to Fair Haven, Foreshadows Citywide Approach

Elizabeth Benton's excellent article on the Safe Routes to School Program, a Federal program that will be implemented at a school in Fair Haven beginning this year, was published today by the New Haven Register.

The work reported on here builds upon the extensive public involvement in the Fair Haven traffic calming master plan, completed in 2008 with assistance from the City of New Haven and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. That process resulted in a series of very well-attended public meetings and "walkabouts" with Dan Burden, and in fact was one of the key events resulting in the creation of the citywide New Haven Safe Streets Coalition (PDF here).

The Fair Haven implementation, combined with the increased national focus on how the built environment plays a critical role in obesity prevention and child health, has sparked an interest in the program within New Haven's other neighborhoods. For example, Elm City Cycling's 2010 Bicycle Plan recommends gradually expanding Safe Routes to School to other schools in New Haven.

Program Promotes Walking to School, New Haven Register, 2/11/09

By Elizabeth Benton, Register Staff
(Copyright New Haven Register)

NEW HAVEN — Fair Haven School gym teacher Travis Gale estimates as many as half of his students, from kindergarten to eighth grade, are obese.

And of the 650 kids that attend Fair Haven School, only about 250 walk to school, he said. “It’s a problem,” he said. “Students are more into the video games. And the environment I teach in, the parks aren’t playable or possibly not open. They need more exercise in their life.”

Gale has been part of a team pushing for safer walking routes to school in Fair Haven, spearheaded by former Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale. After almost two years of work, the team has secured a $477,000 federal Safe Routes to School grant, which will be used to improve walking infrastructure around the school, including new sidewalks and crosswalks along Grand Avenue and Exchange Street and two pedestrian islands on Grand Avenue at the intersections with Bright and Atwater streets.

“This summer, some very significant and aggressive traffic calming infrastructure remodeling is going to happen on Grand Avenue,” Sturgis-Pascale said.

The Safe Routes to School program originated in Denmark in the 1970s as the country looked for ways to reduce the number of children killed walking and bicycling to school. The effort has since expanded internationally, and in 2005, Congress created a National Safe Routes to School program, which included $612 million in grants to improve walking routes near schools. Of that, $16 million was set aside for Connecticut schools.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said the grant ties into the city’s broader Street Smarts campaign, aimed at improving safety for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

“As part of our Street Smarts campaign that launched a year and a half ago, we are committed to increasing awareness and making improvements in our infrastructure so that pedestrians, cyclists and motorists safely share New Haven streets,” DeStefano said. “This grant helps us advance this effort in Fair Haven, providing improved opportunities for children and their families to walk to school.”

According to Gale, there is currently one crosswalk on Grand Avenue in front of the school, manned by a crossing guard. But there is nothing to help children cross other nearby intersections.

In addition to the infrastructure improvements, Gale said he is considering starting a “walking train” this spring, where teachers and adults would meet children on nearby street corners and walk to school together. “This has to be partnered with educational and outreach programs,” said Sturgis-Pascale. “There are plenty of kids that live within one mile of the school who could walk to school. We hope to capture that, those children, and turn them from bus riders (and) children who are dropped off into walkers and cyclists,” she said.

This Friday: New Haven Press Conference on Red Light Camera Legislation

WHAT: The Connecticut Livable Streets Campaign is hosting a Press Conference to announce the introduction of Red Light Camera Legislation in Hartford.

WHERE: Corner of College Street and North Frontage, New Haven, CT

WHEN: Friday February 12, 2010 at 2:00PM

CT Livable Streets Campaign Press Release

CONTACT: Erin Sturgis-Pascale (203)530-0256 and Doug Hausladen (203)676-8330
ctlivablestreets@gmail.com and http://www.livablestreets.com/projects/ct-livable-streets/project-home

CT Livable Streets Campaign Holds Press Conference to Highlight the Introduction of Red Light Camera Enabling Legislation in Hartford

Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. and NHPD Chief James Lewis will join the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, members of the Connecticut General Assembly and the CT Livable Streets Campaign to announce the introduction of important life-saving Red Light Camera Enabling legislation in Hartford.

According to Mayor DeStefano: "This legislation will make New Haven safer. It will support the tough job our police have. This is a technology that is an efficient and effective tool that has proven successful in other parts of the nation. It will make New Haven streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. This is the third year that we have sought such legislation. At a time when we expect government to do more with less, I don't think this is too much to ask of our State government."

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), the statewide association of towns and cities, has long advocated for local governments to have the option to use traffic cameras to enhance public safety. "Enabling towns and cities to make streets safer is not only common sense, but also common practice across the country. It's now time for the Connecticut General Assembly to follow suit, and allow our communities the choice to decide for themselves if they could benefit from this life-saving technology," stated Jim Finley, CCM Executive Director & CEO.

The Connecticut Police Chiefs Association supports the use of cameras to monitor and enforce traffic laws because many communities are experiencing both shortages of police officers and heavier traffic on our roads.

Drivers realize that the chances of getting a ticket are slim, and the result has been a visible increase in disregard for traffic laws. Red-light violations are particularly dangerous; collision at right angles can cause injury or death despite seat belts, air-bags, crumple zones, and similar car-safety features. Technology can tip the balance back in favor of safety. This proposal will allow technology-a factor in so many aspects of our lives-to save lives by improving driver behavior.

New Study: 20MPH zones greatly reduce injuries and fatalities

A new study in the British Medical Journal: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/dec10_3/b4469. Many cities throughout the world, particularly in Europe, have been moving to slow traffic within their urban cores to 15-20 miles per hour, as it is the only effective way to reduce pedestrian casualties.

Similar data has been found in the United States (graphic here), but the new BMJ study provides even more empirical proof of the concept even after adjustment for other factors. From the new study:

Results: The introduction of 20 mph zones was associated with a 41.9% (95% confidence interval 36.0% to 47.8%) reduction in road casualties, after adjustment for underlying time trends. The percentage reduction was greatest in younger children and greater for the category of killed or seriously injured casualties than for minor injuries. There was no evidence of casualty migration to areas adjacent to 20 mph zones, where casualties also fellslightly by an average of 8.0% (4.4% to 11.5%).

Conclusions: 20 mph zones are effective measures for reducing road injuries and deaths.

The New Haven Safe Streets Petition has called for the introduction of 15-20 MPH speed zones around schools, hospitals and dense pedestrian zones, as well as along quiet residential streets where children play on the street. When will the city begin implementing them?

USDOT Policy Proposal on Complete Streets Breaks Down Silos; Defines "Livable Community"

Great news today for pedestrian-oriented communities from the US Department of Transportation. A new policy proposal would dramatically expand, and help clarify, the funding eligibility of improvements for pedestrian access -- currently often limited only to areas immediately surrounding a mass transit access point -- to anywhere within 1/2 mile of a station (3 miles for bicycle improvements).

For the entire article and additional details, see: "Proposed Policy Statement on the Eligibility of Pedestrian and Bicycle Improvements Under Federal Transit Law," Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 218 / Friday, November 13, 2009 / Notices.

If the policy change is accepted, a portion of federal transit (FTA) funding could be used to build complete streets that would connect train stations, schools, employment centers and residential neighborhoods. Researchers have found that these facilities dramatically increase the proportion of Americans able to walk or bicycle on a daily basis, while promoting transit use. The Safe Routes to Transit program is one example.

In New Haven, FTA station access funding is currently being applied to a bicycling route from Downtown to Union Station. Although the route is taking time to build due to bureaucratic obstacles and bicycle parking is an issue, the first round of street improvements should be completed in Spring 2010.

The USDOT's proposed change may help allow the federal government to funnel additional construction funding directly to transit-rich communities. Given the proven impact of complete streets on transportation access, the fact that taking a single one-mile trip by foot each day would save families hundreds of dollars per year, and the fact that $5.6 billion in national costs would be saved if just 10% of Americans were able to walk more each day, we believe that this this policy change will pay for itself many times over.

Incidentally, the Federal Register piece cites studies used by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as well as other agencies working to build a healthy, energy-efficient and economically-vibrant nation. This is good evidence that our Executive Branch is working to break down the longstanding agency silos in Washington.

A succinct definition of livable communities -- which closely ties in with CDC's public health priorities -- may be found within the announcement:

A livable community is ‘‘a community where if people don’t want an automobile, they don’t have to have one; a community where you can walk to work, your doctor’s appointment, pharmacy or grocery store. Or you could take light rail, a bus, or ride a bike.’’

According to Secretary LaHood, ‘‘[l]ivable communities are mixed-use neighborhoods with highly-connected streets promoting mobility for all users, whether they are children walking or biking to school or commuters riding transit or driving motor vehicles. Benefits include improved traffic flow, shorter trip lengths, safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists, lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduced dependence on fossil fuels, increased trip-chaining, and independence for those who prefer not to or are unable to drive. In addition, investing in a ‘‘complete street’’ concept stimulates private-sector economic activity by increasing the viability of street-level retail small businesses and professional services, creating housing opportunities and extending the usefulness of school and transit facilities.’’

To illustrate the Secretary’s point, more than half of older adults who described an inhospitable environment outside their homes would walk, bicycle, or take public transportation more if their streets were improved.

Pedestrian Deaths are Preventable: Demand Safer Streets! (Partnership for Prevention)

This article is reposted from Partnership for Prevention, a nationwide public health advocacy group: http://preventionmatters.blogspot.com/2009/11/pedestrian-deaths-are-preventable.html. Sean Barry explains Dangerous by Design, a report released yesterday from T4America and Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, which is receiving significant national attention.

The following guest post was written by Sean Barry with Transportation for America - a national coalition seeking to align our national, state, and local transportation policies with an array of issues like economic opportunity, climate change, energy security, health, housing and community development.

In the last few years, health advocates have increasingly urged Americans to walk, bike and exercise more often, noting regular physical activity is paramount to good health. Unfortunately, a new report released this week by Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership reveals that walking in many of our communities is far more dangerous than it should be.

Dangerous by Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths (and Making Great Neighborhoods) shows that the level of pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. is roughly equivalent to a jumbo jet going down every month. But there is no national sense of urgency about pedestrian safety.

Under current federal transportation law, projects that benefit pedestrians and bicyclists are labeled “enhancements” and attacked by some as luxuries that detract from core road and highway building.

Current transportation policies vastly shortchange people who walk or bike. Less than 1.5 percent of total federal funds are ultimately spent on pedestrian safety, despite walkers comprising 11.8 percent of all traffic deaths and a comparable percentage of all trips. In this decade alone, 43,000 Americans have died preventable deaths while walking or crossing a street in their community. Although members of every demographic group are affected, ethnic minorities are suffering disproportionately, with African-American fatalities 70 percent higher than whites, and Hispanics 62 percent higher.

It should not come as a surprise that our inadequate investment in roads safe for all users adversely affects safety and health. For many Americans, daily physical activity is no longer a part of their daily existence. Seniors, the disabled and low-income Americans who cannot or chose not to drive face limited alternatives. Lower rates of physical activity are linked to rising obesity and pollution from automobiles increases the risks of asthma.

Dangerous by Design ranks America’s major metropolitan areas according to a Pedestrian Danger Index that measures how safe they are for walking. The report also profiles communities across the country that have successfully stepped up and reversed current trends.

In St. Petersburg, FL, for example, a “Vision 2020” planning process resulted in 13 additional miles of sidewalks and 32 rapid-flashing signals at crosswalks, improving driver-yielding compliance by 83 percent. In Charleston, SC, two-thirds of area residents say they are getting more exercise after the launch of a three-mile pedestrian and bike path. And, the installation of 1,600 speed humps in residential Oakland, CA led to a 50 to 60 percent reduction in the odds of injury or death among children walking.

There is growing movement for action in Congress as well. Last year, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) introduced the Complete Streets Act. This legislation would ensure that new road projects emphasize safety and accessibility for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders.

Transportation for America is working to arrange a meeting with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, perhaps as soon as next week. At this meeting, we plan to deliver the message from our hundreds of partner organizations and thousands of supporters across the country that safer streets must be a priority.

Sign our petition today and help us send a strong message to the USDOT!

We hope the release of this report will fuel a greater sense of urgency about pedestrian safety and the need for a more balanced transportation policy. With health care remaining in the headlines, let’s convey to our representatives that making our streets safer is no longer just an “enhancement,” but an essential.

Finally a Conclusive Literature Review on Cycling Infrastructure and Safety

Finally a decent, conclusive literature review on cycling infrastructure! The researchers at UBC did a great job with their report, which reviewed several dozen English-language studies and was released just a few weeks ago. Check it out: Winters, Meghan et al. The impact of transportation infrastructure on bicycling injuries and crashes: a review of the literature. Environmental Health 2009, 8:47. There's a PDF link at the bottom of the page. A hat tip to Elly at Bike Portland for the heads-up.

Of course, many studies have been done on infrastructure, but they have been mostly limited to specific situations. Although in the end, a large proportion of the data that these authors reviewed still turned out to be limited and inconclusive (proving that much more rigorous study is needed), they did conclude the following:

"The principal trend that emerges from the papers reviewed here is that clearly-marked, bike-specific facilities (i.e. cycle tracks at roundabouts, bike routes, bike lanes, and bike paths) were consistently shown to provide improved safety for cyclists compared to on-road cycling with traffic or off-road with pedestrians and other users. Marked bike lanes and bike routes were found to reduce injury or crash rates by about half compared to unmodified roadways."

When it comes to understanding the impact of infrastructure on transportation safety, access and promotion, this is the equivalent of a breakthrough. In light of the research, it is no surprise that so many communities are passing Complete Streets bills and that the CDC is specifically recommending bike lanes and crosswalks as a cure for the nation's still-expanding obesity epidemic.

Pedestrian Killed in Crash Near New Haven Green

Excellent reporting from the New Haven Independent, on yet another Downtown tragedy, can be found here.

Bryan Neff collided with a moving car at 8:30 p.m. Friday. Neff was pronounced dead around 1:45 a.m. Saturday due to head injuries suffered in the crash.

Ongoing safety problems at this high-pedestrian-volume intersection were reported a year ago on SeeClickFix: http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1738 -- and are well known among local residents and business owners.

A number of the reader comments on the New Haven Independent article highlight the general consensus among New Haven elected officials and residents, expressed in the New Haven Safe Streets Petition and elsewhere, that specific actions must be taken to improve the safety of our transportation network:

AndersonCooper: "These downtown "T" intersections are a problem, and we're going to continue to have fatalities until they're addressed. The simple solution is the City Hall fix. Do what they did in front of Mayor DeStefano's office and put in a traffic light, along with a crosswalk, and pedestrian call buttons."

Streever: "It comes down to if you think the risk should be death or not. I am a big fan of calculated risk & being responsible for one's own well-being, but I question that the car was going 25 mph here. It'd be one of the few cars on Church street going the speed limit in my experience. Again, why not try to mark the road leading up to the crosswalk? I'm sure it could work, and it'd be worth trying. Make the whole section a pedestrian area & put in-road markings before the hill warning people to slow down. Drop the speed limit for that block to 15 mph. Seriously, the most impact that will have on travel time is probably 15 seconds."

Norton Street: "Look at New Urbanism, green architecture, look at what NYC has done on Broadway. This country is moving in a direction of smart growth, consolidation, walkability, and mass transit. If you aren't helping this transition, then you're evenutally gunna get run over by progress."

SeeClickFix: Bike Corral Needed in New Haven

Interesting issue reported by a citizen on SeeClickFix (http://seeclickfix.com/issues/8847), next to the Yale campus. Bike corrals, aka on-street bicycle parking areas, are widely used in Portland, Oregon and many other cities.

SCF is a "Gov 2.0" website and mobile technology tool, initially based on FixMyStreet, that is now being widely-used nationwide by citizens, advocacy groups, governments and media organizations to foster the collaborative resolution of civic issues.

Here is one of the comments on the issue:

A ‘bike corral’ would be great to have at the NW corner of Elm and York. What’s great is that it could help pedestrians, too.

The curb at the NW corner should be extended to reduce the crossing distances across York, similar to what was done on the SW side during the mid-1990s rebuilding of Broadway.

A curb extension would significantly slow the traffic that currently flies around the corner, endangering pedestrians. A shorter distance would also make the street easier to cross. Just past that, in front of ABP, could be a perfect spot for a corral.

Currently, there is a lack of bicycle parking in this area, and bikes tied to meters reduce the space available for pedestrians on what is a very busy sidewalk.

If you agree this area should have a bike corral, please leave your testimony on the SeeClickFix "ticket" under "Add a comment."

CEOs Study: Walkability Raises Property Values

Original Post 9/8/09: Click here for an analysis of a recent CEOs for Cities study, posted on Planning Pool. An excerpt:

CEOs for Cities just released a study showing that homes located close to shops, schools, churches, offices, libraries, parks, and restaurants are worth more than similar homes in less-walkable neighborhoods.

The report, “Walking the Walk: How Walkability Raises Housing Values in U.S. Cities” by Joseph Cortright, analyzed data from 94,000 real estate transactions in 15 major markets. Cortright found that in 13 of the 15 markets, higher levels of walkability, as measured by Walk Score, correlated to higher home values.

Update 10/7/09: From Streetsblog reporting at the Walk21 conference this week in New York City, more information that when it comes to walkability, money does indeed "grow on trees":

For every point on the PERS scale, neighborhoods saw a 5.2 percent increase in residential prices and a 4.9 percent increase in retail rent. Attracting more retail and consumers also means more jobs, though there should be incentives to maintain local businesses and affordable housing, Gaventa said. Having proof that making a space more pedestrian friendly will add value to it is a great way to convince those in power that change -- and a more comprehensive strategy -- is needed.

That strategy, Leinberger said, should be the development of more places where residents' everyday needs are within a maximum of 3,000 feet. We've largely run out of room to build more in the busiest urban areas -- it would be difficult for Manhattan to get much denser than it already is -- so the solution to fill that demand for pedestrian-centric space is to transform outlying areas, such as suburbs, into walkable places. ....

Having more walkable places also makes sense on a personal financial level. According to Leinberger's data, car-friendly suburban households spend anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of their income on transportation, whereas urban households spend only about 9 percent. That extra money can go into paying for housing, or even -- as Leinberger puts it -- that most Un-American of things: savings.

Knight Commission: Free Information "As Vital as Safe Streets"; Public Space Design Media Needed

A tweet today about the need to eliminate the "digital divide" (37% of Americans still do not have internet access at home!) by implementing national free broadband service, from urbandata:

Knight: Free information flow "as vital to healthy communities as safe streets" http://bit.ly/qfayF #gov20 @seeclickfix #gov20 #knightcomm

More on the Knight Commission report, from the AP coverage -- and more transportation parallels:

The nation needs to give the same urgency to making sure all Americans have broadband access as the Eisenhower administration did in building an interstate highway system a half-century ago, a report released Friday concluded... ''You have to have access in order to be socially first class, economically first class and politically first class,'' said Alberto Ibarguen, former Miami Herald publisher and president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation..

Retweet this and support the call for information equity... and safe streets, too. Given new mashup online 311 websites like SeeClickFix, the two are now closely related. In fact, one of the report's 15 specific recommendations is to create new media that supports public space design.

Update: SeeClickFix provides a link to the report via Twitter:

RT @seeclickfix #knightcomm recs: new media for com'ty info & public space design, transparent gov http://ow.ly/slQh eg @mashable @govwiki

Updated List of New Haven Petition for Safe Streets Sponsors and Supporters

The following groups and individuals have elected to officially endorse the Petition:

12 of 12 City of New Haven Community Management Teams (CMTs):
+ Downtown-Wooster Square CMT (listserv link here)
+ Fair Haven CMT
+ Westville-West Hills CMT
+ Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills (WEB) CMT
+ Hill South CMT
+ Hill North CMT
+ Newhallville CMT
+ Quinnipiac East CMT (QEMT)
+ East Shore CMT
+ East Rock CMT
+ Dwight CMT
+ Dixwell CMT (DECMT)
These endorsements per official member voting.

Advocacy Organizations and Nonprofits:
+ Yale Medical Campus Traffic Safety Group (listserv link here)
+ Elm City Cycling / (listserv link here)
+ CT Livable Streets Campaign
+ New Haven Urban Design League
+ DesignNewHaven
+ Tri-State Transportation Campaign
+ Transportation Alternatives
+ America Walks
+ Keep Kids Alive Drive 25
+ Yale Public Health Coalition
+ New Haven Environmental Justice Network (listserv link here)
+ Connecticut Bicycle Coalition
+ Sierra Club - Connecticut Chapter
+ Safe Kids Connecticut - Greater New Haven Chapter
+ Connecticut Public Health Association

Neighborhood Associations, Business Improvement Districts and Religious Organizations:
+ Chatham Square Neighborhood Association
+ Christ Church - New Haven
+ Church on the Rock - New Haven
+ Coalition for a Livable Whalley
+ Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel
+ Edgewood Neighborhood Association
+ Edgewood Park Defense Patrol
+ First Unitarian Universalist Society of New Haven
+ Friends of East Rock Park
+ New Haven Bioregional Group
+ New Haven 828
+ Quinnipiac River Community Group (QRCG)
+ Ronan-Edgehill Neighborhood Association
+ Town Green Special Services District, per unanimous vote of Board of Commissioners
+ Upper State Street Association
+ West River Neighborhood Services Corporation
+ Westville Village Renaissance Alliance
+ Whalley Avenue Revitalization (WAR)
+ Whalley Avenue Special Services District (WASSD)
+ Yale College Council (per resolution)

Individual Residents and Businesses:
+ Over 2,000 area residents have signed the petition (paper copies also available on request), along with a number of small businesses.

Local and State Elected Officials:
+ New Haven Ward 1 Alderwoman Rachel Plattus (Downtown/Yale)
+ New Haven Ward 2 Alderwoman Gina Calder (Dwight)
+ New Haven Ward 3 Alderwoman Jacqueline James (Medical District/West River)
+ New Haven Ward 5 Alderman Jorge Perez (Hill)
+ New Haven Ward 6 Alderwoman Dolores Colon (Hill)
+ New Haven Ward 7 Alderwoman Bitsie Clark (Downtown)
+ New Haven Ward 8 Alderman Michael Smart (Wooster Square)
+ New Haven Ward 9 Alderman Roland Lemar (East Rock)
+ New Haven Ward 10 Alderman Allan Brison (East Rock)
+ New Haven Ward 14 Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale (Fair Haven)
+ New Haven Ward 15 Alderman Joseph Rodriguez (Fair Haven)
+ New Haven Ward 16 Alderwoman Migdalia Castro (Fair Haven)
+ New Haven Ward 17 Alderman Alphonse Paolillo Jr. (Annex)
+ New Haven Ward 18 Alderwoman Arlene DePino (East Shore)
+ New Haven Ward 19 Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards (Newhallville/Prospect Hill)
+ New Haven Ward 20 Alderman Charles A. Blango (Newhallville)
+ New Haven Ward 21 Alderwoman Katrina Jones (Dixwell/Newhallville)
+ New Haven Ward 22 Alderman Greg Morehead (Dixwell)
+ New Haven Ward 23 Alderman Yusuf I. Shah (West River)
+ New Haven Ward 24 Alderwoman Elizabeth McCormack (Edgewood)
+ New Haven Ward 25 Alderwoman Ina Silverman (Westville)
+ New Haven Ward 26 Alderman Sergio Rodriguez (Westville)
+ New Haven Ward 27 Alderman Tom Lehtonen (Westville)
+ New Haven Ward 29 Alderman Carl Goldfield (Westville)
+ New Haven Ward 30 Alderwoman Michelle Sepulveda (West Hills)
+ New Haven Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Susan Voigt
+ State Senator Toni N. Harp, Deputy President Pro Tempore, 10th Senatorial District (New Haven/West Haven)
+ State Senator Martin M. Looney, Senate Majority Leader of the General Assembly, 11th Senatorial District (New Haven/Hamden)
+ Representative Juan Candelaria, 95th Assembly District (New Haven)
+ Representative Patricia Dillon, Assistant Majority Leader, 92nd Assembly District (New Haven)
+ Representative Gary Holder-Winfield, 94th Assembly District (New Haven)
+ Representative Robert W. Megna, Assistant Majority Leader, 97th Assembly District (New Haven)
+ Representative Toni E. Walker, Deputy Majority Leader, 93rd Assembly District (New Haven)

Local and State Candidates for Elected Office:
+ Katie Harrison, Candidate for Ward 1, New Haven
+ Mike Jones, Candidate for Ward 1, New Haven
+ Minh Tran, Candidate for Ward 1, New Haven
+ Justin Elicker, Candidate for Ward 10, New Haven
+ Moses Nelson, Candidate for Ward 21, New Haven
+ Lisa Hopkins, Candidate for Ward 22, New Haven
+ Greg Dildine, Candidate for Ward 25, New Haven

Additional sponsors will be posted as they are officially confirmed.

Video Posted of Dangerous ConnDOT Bridge Crossing

See this post at Bike Bridgeport for a good summary and link to the YouTube video. See here and here for more background on the Tomlinson Bridge. NHI has added coverage here.

YDN: Yale Considers Amending Traffic Safety Policy

Click here for today's excellent reporting on Yale University's new traffic safety initiatives from Victor Zapana of the Yale Daily News.

Several bright yellow fliers taped on boards across campus earlier this month greeted students with dire news, although many have since been covered or removed. “Third pedestrian killed in Downtown New Haven,” the fliers blazed in capital letters. “How safe are the streets surrounding Yale?”

Although it is unclear whether students on campus reacted to — or even saw — the fliers, a half-dozen students interviewed said they were surprised and disgusted by the flier’s statistics. “That’s terrifying,” Travis Gidado ’12 said of the flier. “People dying arbitrarily like that? It’s a problem that should be addressed by any undergraduate institution.”

Several students have approached University officials over the last year. In July 2008, 16 Yale students and alumni signed a letter to Levin asking for a “high-level traffic safety commission” to fix problems with on-campus traffic. In response, Levin arranged a traffic meeting to be held two months later, in November, between the group members and officials. Four months after the meeting, the group, which is affiliated with the New Haven Safe Streets Coalition, submitted a report (PDF here) to Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs Bruce Alexander ’65. The group highlighted existing University programs on traffic safety and provided a list of recommendations for improvement — from a “no-tolerance” policy on cell phone use in cars to the requirement that Yale Police Department Chief James Perrotti send campuswide e-mails about traffic incidents.

The article follows in the wake of increased activism for traffic safety on the Yale Campus, including a YDN masthead editorial calling for specific changes to be implemented immediately, an op-ed by a Yale student about the need for specific improvements on Elm Street, and numerous other reports and op-eds. Click here for our ongoing thread about these.

Sylvia Bingham, 2009 Yale Graduate, Killed in Cleveland Crash

News today of a tragic loss in Cleveland, Ohio, at the hands of a hit-and-run truck driver. The local Fox News affiliate reports that Cleveland Police say 22-year-old Sylvia Bingham was riding in the curb lane of Prospect Avenue at East 21st Street around 9 A.M., just a few blocks from where she was to start work that morning. A large truck turning onto East 21st hit Bingham, knocking her off of her bike and running over her. The truck didn't stop (though the driver was later found).

Fox also features an interview with Sylvia's colleague and photos of the scene, which is clearly not a "complete street" despite being in the heart of a dense urban district.

Details are still sketchy, but unfortunately, the facts of the story sound painfully similar to a 2006 incident in which Alex Capelluto (who was one class ahead of Sylvia at Yale) was killed by a truck while bicycling in West Haven, on the way back to campus from the Yale Boathouse.

A native of California, Sylvia had just moved from New Haven to Cleveland to serve as an AmeriCorps volunteer, and was extremely passionate about improving her new city. Until her recent move, she had frequently been observed bicycling around New Haven. More about Bingham from Cleveland.com:

The 22-year-old Yale University graduate was killed Tuesday as she rode her bicycle to work at the Hard Hatted Women office, where she helped tradeswomen become mentors.

"She rode her bike to work from Ohio City to promote being green and encouraged others to do the same," said Terri Burgess Sandu, executive director of Hard Hatted Women in Cleveland. "I only knew her for a short time, but she was everything -- the shining example of what is best in American adults."

"I am passionate about eliminating urban poverty, particularly by creating job opportunities in the skilled trades," Bingham described herself, on her LinkedIn page.

On Sylvia's intelligence and excitement about cities, New Haven historian Anstress Farwell wrote:

I was lucky to meet Sylvia, and witness the blooming growth of a person of exceptional intelligence and a good heart. She was taking a course with Doug Rae, and contacted me when scouting for a local development project to research. She chose Dixwell Plaza. In addition to reading about the history and architecture of New Haven's redevelopment period, she interviewed store owners and customers about their use of the place. She had great talent for field work because she could put herself in other people's shoes. She was destined to do great work in the world. Her death is a tragic loss.

Also see coverage by the Yale Daily News. Another Yale Daily News post interviews students and faculty about her life:

Bingham, who just moved to Cleveland for a job at organization that helps impoverished women, was a vivacious and dedicated woman - an inspiration to all who crossed paths with her. Effervescent, vivacious, and compassionate, Bingham lived her ideals, striving to improve the world while always taking the time to care for her friendships.

Yale Senior: Safe Campus, Unsafe Streets

An excellent op-ed from a senior at Yale University about traffic safety issues on the Ivy League campus: http://www.yaledailynews.com/opinion/guest-columns/2009/09/10/ellison-safe-campus-unsafe-streets/.

Timothy Ellison's article focuses in part on the elimination of right turns on red (RTORs), a concept many other pedestrian-rich cities throughout the United States have adopted. Eliminating RTORs was a key recommendation in this year's Nelson/Nygaard gap analysis study of Downtown New Haven. An excerpt from Ellison's op-ed:

In fall 2006, a Yale student, Kaila Queen ’07, was struck and injured by a car at the similar intersection of Elm and High streets. According to the report in the News, Queen said she remembered seeing the “Walk” signal, and the next thing she knew she was lying in a pool of her own blood by the post office. The intersection at Elm and High shares a problem with that at Elm and York: a “No Turn On Red” sign that drivers often ignore.

Queen was disabled for several days and fortunately recovered quickly, but we may not always be so lucky. Having lost a brother to a fatal car accident in 2002, I know what pain an accidental vehicular death can cause a family. What a tragedy it would be to lose anyone here at Yale to negligent drivers when the problem could be rectified.

Among the comments that follow this article:

- Yale students are constantly telling anyone who will listen how threatened they feel by reckless drivers, and yet nothing is ever done. Yale and New Haven, this is a life and death issue. Please take it more seriously!

- But I also agree that drivers in the city have gotten increasingly willing to drive through red lights, and when on a bike I am also aware of how crazy traffic and drivers have gotten. So its a complex problem. Traffic calming and more pedestrian friendly routes are for sure needed.

- On several occasions I've witnessed that a police officer ignoring red light violations, in particular when drivers ignore do-not-turn signs. Of course, drivers have every incentive to violate traffic laws when they don't have to fear the consequences.

- The situation on the streets around the campus, which were designed in the 1950s for high-volume auto traffic and never converted back into pedestrian-friendly streets, is completely unacceptable. Numerous students and Yale affiliates are injured or killed every year. Yale already pays tens of millions a year for security - they've done a great job increasing the feeling of security on campus late at night, and in terms of street crime, the campus is now the safest urban university in the United States. Next, Yale needs to immediately 1) step up the traffic enforcement, 2) following the model of Cambridge, MA or any number of other cities, step up and commit to financing the reconstruction of safe crosswalks throughout the campus, as they have in the past in areas where students have been killed, and 3) publish and implement a bicycle and pedestrian master plan that makes the campus accessible for everyone, not just drivers.

Traffic safety has been an ongoing concern on the Yale Campus; see here for more info and here for one of Yale's responses to the problem. In the past, Yale has contributed to infrastructure and traffic calming improvements around its campus, for example, in the rebuilding the entire Broadway district (shown in the photo above) at the heart of the campus to prioritize pedestrian travel.

For a good overview of the issue, you may download a copy of the Yale College Council and Yale community's Report Re: Traffic Safety at Yale University, released in March 2009 by a group of students, staff and alumni, here (PDF File).

If you'd like to add comments to a particular problem on the campus, here are a couple examples from SeeClickFix, a national forum where people can post non-emergency issues that they would like their neighbors, governments and communities to take action on: 1) Dangerous intersection and videos of red light running at the corner of York and Elm; 2) Need for a mid-block crosswalk on Elm Street near High, which is the main pedestrian route across the campus; 3) Improved crosswalk needed at the corner of Hillhouse and Sachem, near Yale's Science Hill; 4) No pedestrian signal on Route 34 crossings, also known to local residents as the Route 34 "Death Zone." Dozens of similar issues can be found by scrolling around the map.

Four Speed Humps Replace Choker in Fair Haven

The New Haven Independent covers the new traffic calming installations along River Street (NHI photo at left):

The four humps differ from their shorter yet higher, more axle-breaking cousins, the traffic bump usually found in parking lots. The humps will replace the temporary traffic choke at Blatchley, which has failed to slow speeders....

Cars should also slow to about 15 miles per hour before each hump. If properly placed in a series, humps should slow cars down on the street to 25 to 35 mph.

James Mahon, who has worked at Fair Haven Furniture at Blatchley Street for two years, agreed that four humps are well worth one choke.

Fair Haven Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale, the city’s expert on traffic calming, said she hadn’t yet seen the humps but that she was in principal pleased the city was making the effort. However, she cautioned against using speed humps as a standard practice. “Their installation,” she said in an email message, “is a reactive measure that doesn’t add value to our city streets the way a properly designed complete street would do.

Texting While Driving: Engineering Solutions?

Psychology Today blogs here on some of the new engineering methods being used to stop texting while driving, and comes to an interesting conclusion regarding "shock" video PSAs:

Gory shock films (fear appeals) sure are effective. Everyone knows that. Except if you look at anything remotely approaching a scientific standard of testing, you know that these persuasion tactics have little or no effect on actual behavior leading to fewer accidents and deaths. They just make the folks doing the scolding feel good about themselves.

Crash Sends 14 Year Old to Hospital in Critical Condition

Reporting today from the New Haven Independent about a very severe crash on a section of Quinnipiac Avenue notorious for crashes and speeding, but scheduled to be rebuilt over the next year using Federal stimulus dollars. An excerpt:

But neighbors also said that the intersection has been unsafe for years, with unpainted crosswalks, a dim light, and unenforced speed limits. This is the most recent of a number of bike- and pedestrian-related accidents in the city.

The three girls who had been biking were “sobbing” together on the corner near Stahl’s house, she said. When she went over to talk to them, she realized that they were standing on the spraypaint memorial for Mike Padua, the boy who had died in 2005.

While Tuesday’s accident seems to have been the boy’s fault, Stahl indicated that the fact that it is the second accident at the corner suggests a need for action. “If it happens once, shame on them. If it happens twice, shame on us,” Stahl said.

She suggested that a speed bump near the bottom of Clifton Street might serve as a deterrent for daredevil youth. Stahl has other ideas about how the intersection could be improved also. She and Rose said that they have contacted the city repeatedly to try to have crosswalks repainted. “They haven’t been repainted in ten years.”

Pedestrian Struck; Killed in Downtown New Haven

A woman struck by a van driver at State and Elm Streets Wednesday died of her injuries Thursday morning. The accident occurred Wednesday around 1:17 p.m.

The woman, Margo DeMaio, 68, of Hamden, died at 8:45 a.m. Thursday at Yale-New Haven Hospital, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Avery. DeMaio suffered “severe head trauma” in the accident.

Avery said an investigation continues into the accident. No arrest has been made in connection with the incident.

Reported in the New Haven Independent, August 6, 2009: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/08/pedestrian_hit.php

Also see NH Register coverage here.