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.

Student Hit By Car While Biking to School: Are Road Injuries "Minor"?

Original Post 6/16/09: The crash was reported in the New Haven Independent last week:

A 17-year-old student was struck by a car while riding a bicycle on the way to Wilbur Cross High School Tuesday, police said. The crash took place on Willow Street near the I-91 exit ramp at 7:35 a.m.

The press piece indicates that the boy suffered "minor injuries," thankfully, and was able to continue to bike to school before an ambulance was called to take him to the hospital. We hope that the student will fully recover as soon as possible.

However, in the broader scheme of practice, the word "minor" is often misused when describing traffic collisions. Many studies like this one from Oxford University (Psychological Medicine (2002), 32:4:671-675 Cambridge University Press) show that the impact over time can actually be much greater than initially realized. An excerpt:

Replies were received from 507 (66%) subjects. Although 76% of injuries were medically minor bruises and lacerations, 132 (26%) reported symptoms of psychiatric disorder and 104 (21%) moderate or severe pain at 3 years. There was little evidence of improvement in prevalence between 1 and 3 years, with continuing physical symptoms, psychiatric disorder and reported consequences for everyday life.

Home to Interstate 91 on-and off-ramps, the stretch of Willow Street where the student was hit is known as an extremely hostile, high-speed environment for bicyclists and particularly pedestrians, despite the fact that it is one of the only road connections between the East Rock and Fair Haven neighborhoods of New Haven (it is not exactly like one of the bridges in Portland). The condition of the road prevents thousands of children in the Fair Haven neighborhood from easily using East Rock Park, effectively creating a wall between two directly adjacent neighborhoods. Unfortunately, ConnDOT would have to approve any changes to the current configuration of the roadway.

Apparently, ConnDOT doesn't believe that "minor" road injuries are that big of an issue, considering that they have done nothing to install a simple fix to the situation on the Tomlinson Bridge even after dozens of cyclists have reported being seriously injured crossing its 30-degree railroad track crossing.

Does it take a few deaths before they take action?

A few reactions posted on the Independent article:

Yet we have a responsibility, a moral obligation, to ensure the safety of those students who do walk or bike to school.... The Willow St bridge was constructed in anticipation of the (thankfully scrapped) East Rock Connector. This is a perfect example of excess road capacity leading to unsafe conditions. THIS ROAD NEEDS A DIET.... Anybody want to help me write the Safe Routes to School grant?

It is a good thing the driver was going under 25. When I drive in an urban environment, I try to keep my speed at about 15 mph or below..... I have had several close calls with pedestrians, but luckily have never hit one, and I attribute this in part to driving at a speed that isn't likely to kill.

Making East Rock school more accessible from Fair Haven, via a better pedestrian connection, is crucial. Willow + Blatchley Street, between the school and Erector Square, is currently an unattractive pedestrian "no go" zone, even for able bodied residents. Ask people who live in the area. To say nothing about how a handicapped, blind, elderly or disabled person would feel.

Update 6/18/09: According to reporting in the NH Independent, another student near Fair Haven, this one an 11-year old child, was hit by a car on Tuesday. The crash gave the child "abrasions." According to other reporting the driver was not "at fault."

Ask Connecticut's Senators to Co-Sponsor the Safe Routes to School Reauthorization Bill

On May 21, 2009, Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Richard Burr (R-NC), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Susan Collins (R-ME) joined together to introduce the Safe Routes to School Program Reauthorization Act (S. 1156). S. 1156 would expand funding for SRTS to $600 million per year, include high schools, simplify regulatory compliance to improve project delivery, and strengthen research and evaluation. All of these changes will make SRTS grants more widely available, and help more schools and communities across the country make it safer for children to walk and bicycle to school.

This is an exciting step forward, as these five diverse Senators have agreed to champion the program. Now, Connecticut's Senators need to hear from more constituents about the importance of strengthening the Safe Routes to School program in the next transportation bill.

Please take a few minutes to contact Senator Lieberman and Senator Dodd to ask them to show their support for the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program by co-sponsoring the legislation. If you do not already have personal contacts within their offices or do not wish to make a direct phone call, one way to do so is to follow this link: http://capwiz.com/lab/issues/alert/?alertid=13424291. A list of national supporters can be found here.

It is a good idea to personalize your message with a sentence or two about Safe Routes to School needs in Connecticut. Connecticut's school districts have participated in the program in a fairly limited way so far, but interest has been growing over the past two years, and an application for the program is expected to be submitted for New Haven in the coming year.

For more details on the legislation, including a summary of the bill’s provisions, a list of supporting organizations, and the text of the legislation, please visit http://www.saferoutespartnership.org/national.

Hat tip to Keep Kids Alive Drive 25, one of New Haven Safe Streets Coalition's partner organizations, for information that this post was adapted from.

Complete Streets Experts, and Fourth Graders, Call for Livable Streets in Hill Neighborhood

[Photo at left courtesy New Haven Independent.]

Experts aim for streets safe for all users, New Haven Register, 3/31/09:

The “complete streets” specialists visited the Hill Monday, scoping out ways to strike a balance among walkers, bikers and autos so they can all safely share the neighborhood’s main roads. Engineers from CHA, a consulting group, Ian Lockwood, an early guru of the “complete streets” movement and James Travers, deputy director of transportation for the city, led the short field trip for a handful of citizens and officials.

The aim is to make streets safer and more walkable through roundabouts, curb bump outs, tree plantings, on-street parking, bicycle lanes and even a raised intersection where needed, to slow down drivers. All of these things have the effect of calming traffic, Lockwood said. Basically, they act as visual clues to drivers to slow down, that they are in an urban environment. “It helps drivers behave themselves,” rather than necessitating more traffic police, he said.

Lockwood said the whole intersection at Congress and Howard avenues could be raised to slow traffic, something other states do around elementary schools as safety measures.

“Complete Streets” Begins in the Hill, New Haven Independent, 3/31/09:

Last year for their science project these three fourth-graders clocked an oil truck at 52 miles per hour and even a school bus racing at nearly 40 by their school, John C. Daniels Elementary. On Monday afternoon, they joined city officials and others on a “walking audit” of their Hill neighborhood to help planners calm traffic and make the streets safer for kids, pedestrians, and bicyclists.

Near Congress and Howard, the crew paused to hear Lockwood suggest safety could be enhanced by the addition of bump-outs at bus stops, and lifting the crosswalk to the level of the sidewalk. “This ramping up puts motorists on the level of pedestrians. It also raises the heights of kids four to six inches when they cross, making them more visible, and therefore safer,” he said.

All along Congress, leading toward John C. Daniels School, Sousa suggested that long curb cuts, such as inappropriate driveways, most holdovers from a previous era when big trucks were making deliveries, should be eliminated. “You want to reward walking and incentivize it with sidewalks that attract pedestrians, not cars.”

The John Daniels students said their this year’s science project would be to expand their own traffic study from the immediate area of their school to all of the Hill.

Article: Perils for Pedestrians

http://www.pedestrians.org/articles/riskmanagement.html
"Promoting and encouraging the development and use of safe walkways near schools helps improve fitness, fosters a sense of community spirit and reduces the risk of accidents and injuries. The number of students walking to school in the United States has fallen from 70 percent a generation ago to barely 10 percent today. What are the implications of this enormous change? What caused it? What can be done to reverse it?"

Safer, more livable streets affect school quality, too

"Teacher migration studies show that high-quality teachers move toward better school facilities and more centrally located [ed.: i.e., walkable], safer areas. This trend occurs even when schools with more negative neighborhood effects offer better monetary compensation. Thus, because researchers agree that teacher quality has by far the greatest impact on student achievement, the attractive environment.... can be a crucial factor in maintaining and improving school quality."

- Urban Land, March 2006, "New Urban Synergies" by Andrea Christie Pizziconi

Daniels' pupils push for better street signs

New Haven Register
Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Daniels' pupils push for better street signs

(excerpt)

By Elizabeth Benton, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — John C. Daniels School third-graders are pushing for better street signs at their Congress Avenue school after their prize-winning science fair project found few drivers obeying the 25 mile-per-hour speed limit outside the building.

Third-graders Melissa Ernstberger, Hannah Melchinger, Ejoel Molina andGleimy Rodriguez and their teacher, Heather Treciokas, stood outside John C. Daniels earlier this year, pointing a radar gun at cars zooming along Congress Avenue.

The team captured the speeds of 110 vehicles, including an oil truck that was being driven at 52 mph and a school bus zipping by at 37 mph. Back in the classroom, students crunched the numbers, finding cars drove an average of 29.9 mph during school hours, and a statistically
identical 29.8 mph after school.

After capturing second place in the district-wide science fair, the students' work caught the eye of the city's director of Transportation, Traffic and Parking, Michael Piscitelli, who recently visited the classroom. "I'm really impressed. This is almost the same way we do our analysis in our office," he said.