New Haven Independent

May 23, 2006

Somehow on my drive to school tonight, I managed to get lost. It takes real talent to get lost only two minutes from your house. But I wrote down the wrong address, ran into a closed bridge and before I knew it, I was on a tour of the Elm City.

An hour, three phone calls and a traffic jam later, I walked into class only to discover that tonight we were talking traffic. Paul Wessel, the city’s director of traffic and parking, was already fielding questions from the class.

“Why can’t we get better public transportation?” “Do parking enforcement officials have an incentive to write a certain amount of tickets?” “How do those strange new parking meters work?” “Why do people eating at my neighborhood restaurants get to take up all my on-street parking?”

The questions went on for almost an hour—and Paul Wessel answered every one as if he’s heard them a thousand times before. But one of his most interesting answers came from a question about crosswalks. A classmate asked why drivers don’t pay more attention to the striped white lines in the road. Wessel replied that “there’s a culture of non-compliance around crosswalks here in New Haven.” But why?

I went to college in Vermont, where folks never had to think twice before stepping out into the street. Everyone stopped at crosswalks—and not just Vermonters, but out-of-state plates too. Cars halted for people, cats, even a stray cow or two. But it wasn’t just the law, it was a way of life. Vermonters always honored the crosswalk. So why don’t they in New Haven?

Then there’s my partner Brian. Take a road trip with him and it doesn’t take long to figure out he’s a Massachusetts man. He actually thinks it’s his duty to zip up the “Exit Only” highway lane—even though he has no intention of exiting—and cut off the miles of cars politely waiting their turn. Why do “aggressive drivers” and “Red Sox fan” often fit in the same sentence?

And don’t forget about London. There’s a woman in our class with a brilliant British accent that asked why New Haven couldn’t institute a commuter tax similar to the U.K.—people have to pay more to drive during rush hour. It cuts down on the number of cars, encourages the use of public transportation and is surely much better for the environment. Why is something that seems to work so well in London create such a cry of disgust here in the United States?

On my unexpectedly long ride into class tonight, I’d witnessed it all. I’d sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic with honking horns and plenty of road rage. I’d pulled illegal U-turns and snuck in a few speedy blocks. I’d slammed on the brakes at least twice for folks who clearly could care less about crosswalks. And though I’m still not sure how to classify the “New Haven driver,” I realized that maybe tonight we were asking all the wrong questions.

Sure we can ask for fancy new meters and put up clearer parking signs. We can praise Vermonters for crosswalk etiquette and curse Massachusetts for rush-hour mania. But maybe instead of asking for all the bright new signs and fancy flashing lights we should ask instead—how do you change a whole city’s attitude?

I’ll let you know just as soon as I pull this illegal right on red…

(To read the previous installments of Kara Arsenault’s Democracy School diary, click here, here and here.)