Young software developer mowed down, all 4 limbs broken, at corner of Bradley & Orange in New Haven's East Rock section

A woman hit a pedestrian with her car Monday night at Orange and Bradley streets 7:21 p.m. Monday and then drove away—leaving him with four broken limbs.

 The woman drove away from the scene of the crash but called 911, telling the operator what she had done and where she was. She said she drank two “Natty Ice” malt beverages before she hit the pedestrian, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman. Investigators found an empty can of the beer on the floor of her car. She was arrested and charged with “DUI, reckless driving, evading responsibility and assault in the second degree with a motor vehicle,” according to Hartman. The woman’s blood alcohol content was measured at .1707, more than twice the legal limit.

 The victim, a 29-year-old software application developer, remains in critical condition. He suffered severe internal injuries and breaks to all four limbs.

Source: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/drunk_on_natty_ice_driver_hits_and_runs/
August 26, 2015

50-year old man in crosswalk sent to hospital after vehicle runs red light in East Rock / Cedar Hill

An excerpt from coverage on Friday's crash, at WTNH:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- A pedestrian was struck by a vehicle while crossing the street in New Haven. The pedestrian, who is described as a 50-year-old Hispanic male, was crossing the street at Ferry and State.

Police said the man was in the crosswalk when a vehicle ran a red light and made an illegal left turn. The vehicle struck the man and fled the scene.

He was take to Yale-New Haven Hospital. No additional details are available at this time.

Speed Table and Curb Extensions Coming to Edwards Street in New Haven; Will Foster Community

Original Post 12/9/2010: East Rock neighbors are excited about a new traffic calming system that will be built at the corner of Livingston and Edwards Street in New Haven. Speed tables and curb extensions, like the one proposed here by the City of New Haven under its Complete Streets program, have been shown worldwide to be highly effective at reducing speeds, improving driver safety, and increasing pedestrian comfort levels. They are also used in many cities with much snowier climates than New Haven. The Livingston Street system will be located just one block from Whitney Avenue, which one of the neighborhood's elected representatives recently called a "local access highway" that contributes to speeding in the area. The neighborhood's Community Management Team has enthusiastically supported calls for more progressive traffic planning as well.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, prior a similar traffic calming improvement, the 85th percentile speed on Berkshire Street was 30 mi/h, and only 41 percent of vehicles surveyed were traveling at or below the 25 mi/h speed limit. After the improvements, the 85th percentile speed was reduced to 21 mi/h at the vertical traffic calming devices and 24 mi/h in between, and 95 percent of vehicles were going at or below the speed limit. Similar results have been found after the installation of speed tables in other cities. The photo shown here is an example of a tabled intersection with curb extensions (or bump outs), taken from an online Bucknell Traffic Calming library.

Interestingly, the New Haven Independent reports that neighbors asked the City of New Haven not to repave the street recently, because they believed that the lumpy pavement served as a traffic calming device. This is not an unusual solution: in many cities and towns throughout the world, local governments trying to curb the extremely deleterious impacts of speeding traffic on neighborhood health have allowed or encouraged dirt pathways (or lumpy asphalt) in the automobile travel lanes, while paving smooth sidewalks and bike lanes for pedestrians and cyclists.

The Indy article mentions that the new device will not only curb speeds, it will help build a sense of community. Furthermore, it sounds like some of the neighbors have ideas for what to build next. Frank Chapman, who has lived a couple doors away from the intersection for more than 30 years, is profiled in the story:

An architect and former deputy head of the City Plan Department, Chapman said he’s wholeheartedly behind the speed table. Edwards Street is about a mile long, with only two non-T intersections between State and Prospect Streets, Chapman said. “The blocks are long,” and drivers take advantage of that to step on the gas, Chapman said. “It’s an invitation for cars to go fast.” From his living room on Edwards Street, where he and his wife have lived since 1978, Chapman called the speed table a “brilliant plan.”

He said he and his neighbors are committed to maintaining flowers or evergreen shrubs planted in the new medians. “We think it will have a very positive effect on slowing traffic,” he said. Next, Chapman has his eye on the intersection of Edwards and Orange Streets, where he said a roundabout should be installed. “I laid it out and I know it would work.”

We hope that Chapman's vision, which sounds similar to neighborhood traffic calming master plans that have been under development in Dwight, Westville and Fair Haven, can be realized as soon as possible!

Update 7/28/2011: The large traffic calming project, which includes medians and a raised intersection, is now under construction. The related SeeClickFix issue has been closed.

Update 8/22/2011: The New Haven Independent has a story on the completion of the traffic calming system (see photo above). According to the Mayor of New Haven, "It’s the 360 State of Edwards Street. It’s a game changer." A neighbor living next to the intersection, who plans to help garden it, told the paper that she’s "delighted and thrilled" about the new intersection (but half-jokingly suggested that the circle in the middle could be a public park and fountain). For information on how successful miniature traffic circles have been in Seattle, both in terms of reducing injuries (virtually by 100%) and promoting community, see this excellent article in the Road Management and Engineering Journal.

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.

July 9: Future of Whitney Avenue Neighborhood-Wide Meeting

Original Post 7/8/09: For background on the issue, please see this previous post and open public letter.

From Justin Elicker of Friends of East Rock Park (and a steering committee member of CT Livable Streets): "Whitney Avenue is thankfully being paved as many of you have noticed. That said, there has been great concern among residents that virtually no additional pedestrian, bicycle or traffic-calming infrastructure has been included in the plan. As such, Roland Lemar, David Streever and I are hosting a meeting open to all concerned residents. The meeting will focus on creating a vision for the future of a Whitney Avenue that is safe and community-friendly. I urge you to attend this meeting to highlight the level of concern by residents. If you are unable to make it but wish to be heard, please respond [directly to Justin, or to newhavensafestreets at gmail . com and we will forward your email to him] and I will make sure to voice your concerns at the meeting." The meeting takes place Thursday, July 9, 7pm, at Wilbur Cross High School Cafeteria, 181 Mitchell Drive, New Haven.

Update 7/10/09: Coverage of the Meeting

New Vision Sketched For Whitney Avenue, New Haven Independent (photo courtesy of NHI), 7/10/09:

This father and daughter made it across Whitney Avenue with their lives intact. Will they be able to again once government finishes redoing the road? That was the question on the minds of 35 East Rock neighbors who showed up to a brainstorming session at Wilbur Cross High School Thursday night.

The meeting was called by East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar, safe streets activist David Streever and aldermanic candidate Justin Elicker to address what they see as shortcomings of a repaving project on East Rock’s main thoroughfare.

In the discussion in the school cafeteria Thursday night, a Willow Street mom recounted a routine struggle of taking her child on a walk. The crosswalk lights on Whitney are not long enough to make it across the street safely with a stroller, she said. Neighbor David Cameron agreed.

Whitney Avenue Paving: "Everything you’d want out of a local access highway"

Original Post, 6/24/09: Local elected officials and city officials recently announced that the section of Whitney Avenue into Downtown New Haven will not be rebuilt as a "complete street."

The street runs adjacent to the main Yale University campus, and is one of the busiest pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular corridors in the entire city. Reporting from the New Haven Independent can be found here, along with a previous story from January about the initial announcement (which also attracted numerous comments) here. An excerpt from today's piece:

At a meeting of East Rock neighbors, some said the project falls short of the city’s new policy of creating “complete streets” that encourage transit by bike, foot or bus. “It’s everything you’d want out of a local access highway,” quipped East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar at the neighborhood management team’s monthly meeting Monday evening. He said while cars and bikes alike will welcome relief from the treacherous bumps and cracks, the improvements will result in allowing vehicles to zip by at 45 miles per hour. “Only 45?” replied a skeptic in the crowd. “That’s a conservative estimate.”

Plans for repaving Whitney Avenue had been in the works for several years, but had been delayed until this year. In the intervening period, the amount of pedestrian and bicycle traffic on the Avenue has dramatically increased.

On the earlier NH Independent piece, a writer from the CT Energy Blog commented:

In addition to agreeing with Tom Harned's points, I would add that one of the goals of improving bicycle infrastructure would be to protect the lives of the cycling population that already exists. New Haven has the second highest percentage of bicycle commuters in the Northeast. These include not only Yuppies and Yalies (no offense), but children and countless people who can not afford the staggering expense of owning a car in the city. With the exception of highways and freeways, our roads were never intended to be used only by motor-vehicle traffic. Many existed well before the automobile was invented. We've had too many preventable traffic-related deaths and injuries here involving people who were just trying to get from one place to another. It's high time we got our priorities straight and started taking deadly traffic conditions seriously. Again, thank you New Haven for taking this seriously, but we still have a long way to go.

Today, "Truthtopower" writes:

When will the DOT realize that the age of the auto is over? Spending valuable tax dollars to replicate outmoded roads shows that no lessons have been learned from $4.00 gas, air pollution levels, the increase in obesity and the consumption of land by parking lots. People want to be able to walk, bike and take public transit, but money continues to be funneled into projects that continue the old car culture rather than a new 21st century vision. Clearly the people are again ahead of the government on this.

The Independent contains a bit of good news about a new traffic calming project right around the corner, at Livingston and Edwards:

Lemar reported that the city has money in hand to repave Edwards Street between Whitney and Orange Streets. As part of the road reconstruction, the city will incorporate traffic-calming measures at Edwards and Livingston Street, a hairy intersection where a combination of high speed and poor visibility around turns has led to recent accidents.

A member of the CT Livable Streets committee sent an open letter to the City of New Haven's engineer, Dick Miller, on February 23, 2009. Local elected officials also have met tirelessly with key city and state officials, but little progress was made.

Hopefully, further improvements to the bustling street can be installed after paving is completed.

The open letter to Mr. Miller is reprinted here:

Dear Mr. Miller,

Thank you for presenting to the East Rock Management Team tonight about Whitney Avenue and the various bridge reconstruction projects in East Rock. It is excellent that you would take the time to update the East Rock neighborhood with your department's progress, and I applaud you for the significant amount of work that your office has been able to push through state reviews in the past year. Thank you again for your tireless efforts to keep our transportation system in good working order.

As you suggested at the meeting, I would welcome an opportunity to stop by and review the repaving and restriping plans for Whitney Avenue, which are scheduled to begin construction in a month or two. I've copied a few individuals who have been following the design plans for Whitney Avenue for a few years. I am not speaking for them, but I think some of them may be interested in reviewing the plans as well. What times might work best for you?

Please do not take my concerns as criticism of your work to date. Whitney Avenue is an urban corridor through an extremely densely populated area, and I am encouraged to know that you are doing as much as possible to ensure the safety of the community through which it passes. My concern about speeding on the avenue stems specifically from the extremely high volumes of families, young children, elderly and disabled residents, mass transit users, and K-8 public school students who cross the avenue on a daily basis. The avenue has more pedestrians than almost any other street in the city. My concern has been highlighted by the fact that, on two occasions just within the past few months, I have witnessed pedestrians crossing the avenue at dusk (in areas where I think there should be a crosswalk), and have watched helplessly as they were nearly killed, just very narrowly avoiding speeding vehicles in both cases. In one case, a speeding car swerved illegally to try to pass a car (on the right side, not the left side) that had slowed in order to yield to the pedestrian.

Also, the avenue is also one of the busiest cycling routes in the city, connecting Hamden commuters to Downtown New Haven. Anecdotally, I work in an office of just 10 people, and at least three of them use this route to bike to work from Hamden. All three of them believe that the road is inadequate as a cycling route in its current configuration. In an era where people can afford to drive less and less, perceived obstacles like these threaten New Haven's ability to be the economic and social hub for the region.

If the latest design for Whitney Avenue allows the current average traffic speeds of 30-35MPH to persist (or increase following repaving), it is almost certain that there will be additional injuries along the avenue. A few years ago, a prominent Yale University faculty member in the Neuroscience Department was killed by a driver along the Hamden section of Whitney Avenue, and numerous other pedestrian injuries have been reported along the road as well. As has been pointed out in many public meetings in New Haven over the past year, designing a street for 40MPH travel, while expecting drivers to obey the 25MPH limit, creates a massive demand for traffic enforcement which will be an unnecessary future burden on the city's taxpayers.

In the case of Whitney Avenue, I believe that there is overwhelming public support for designing a street that contributes to property values, walkability and safety for road users of all ages and abilities. Based on standards used in other cities, such a street would be designed for strict maximum travel speeds of 20-25MPH, with very narrow travel lanes, and contain a highly progressive system of pedestrian refuges, crosswalks and cycle facilities, particularly in the most urban sections of the street between Edwards Street and Downtown. Given that the new paving standards you have ordered are meant to last 20 years, there may be limited opportunities to reconfigure the avenue once the pavement is poured.

I appreciate all of the time and energy you have put into this project over the past few years, and realize that there are a number of restrictions at play as well. I realize that the project starts soon, but am wondering if there is anything that can be done to create modest safety improvements now, or to ensure that they can be easily added as soon as possible following the completion of paving. Even measures designed to be temporary solutions would be an improvement over having a street perceived as dangerous by walkers, cyclists and transit users of all ages. If nothing can be done at this point, please keep these concerns in mind for future projects.

Best regards,
Mark Abraham
New Haven, CT

Update 7/10/09: Dozens of East Rock residents attend a community meeting to propose changes for the avenue.

Pedestrians struck on Whitney Avenue

News report here. Comment section discusses the need for crosswalks and more respectful road users.

Comcast Truck Runs Red Light, Narrowly Misses Baby Stroller at Whitney and Edwards

Comcast Truck with CT License 58C G55. See issue reported here: http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1042. License plates of vehicles breaking traffic laws can also be reported to the City of New Haven's new Traffic Safety Hotline at 203 946-6956, and more urgent situations (such as aggressive driving) should be reported to local police supervisors, city nonemergency phone number and other city officials in order to open investigations.

Please be careful crossing the street, even at crosswalks!