New Haven Independent: Sturgis-Pascale: Try The Wave

Sturgis-Pascale: Try The Wave

by Georgia Kral | June 13, 2007 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Erin Sturgis-Pascale offered her traffic-weary neighbors an idea Tuesday night. It wasn’t a speed bump.

“When someone is zooming down your street and you want to shake your fist at them — don’t,” said Sturgis-Pascale (pictured). “Wave instead. They’ll slow down thinking they may know you!”

Sturgis-Pascale, a Fair Haven alderwoman, spoke at the Fair Haven branch library on an issue central to her election to office: traffic-calming.

She said that safety is the main reason to tackle the issue of traffic calming but congestion, noise and pollution are also important. She suggested ways to calm traffic in both top down and bottom up approaches. Neighborhoods need to reclaim their streets and use them for all purposes and speed bumps, traffic circles and curb extensions, or chicanes, should be used to slow down traffic.

But the way to make this work, she said, is to calm down drivers and not arbitrarily slow them down.

The more than 20 people in attendance Tuesday night — including Fair Haven Heights Alderman Alex Rhodeen, East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar, and city traffic chief Mike Piscetelli — listened to her presentation intently and then actively discussed what they could do to alleviate various traffic woes.

Two teachers from Cold Spring School, located at Chapel and James Streets, expressed concern about that exact intersection. They want to slow down the traffic.

Sturgis-Pascale discussed one option, the raised intersection, which was used successfully by a school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The next step for residents, she said, is a “do-it-yourself” tactic.

“The main responsibility is on us, we have to reclaim the streets,” she said. “And we have to bring people into the process.”

Sturgis-Pascale also encouraged people to call elected officials and find out how neighborhoods can fund traffic calming programs.

Mike Piscitelli said the city is taking the next step toward traffic calming and looking at a broader palette of solutions.

Sturgis-Pascale introduced some “radical” ideas to the group as well. One is the idea of “less is more,” which argues that fewer markings and the removal of curbs and signals actually makes for safer driving, because the driver is paying closer attention. “Maximum safety is achieved when the street sends a message of high unpredictability.”

“We have to change the norm in our city,” she said.

Comments

Posted by: charlie | June 13, 2007 9:48 AM

All you have to do is narrow the streets, like they do in city centers in Europe, and add bicycle lanes. That will slow down 99% of the people driving above 25MPH. If people have to pull over to the side to let trucks or fire trucks through, fine. Also speed limits on narrowed streets should be reduced to 15 or 20MPH. Going 20MPH you get there almost as fast as going 25MPH so I don't see what the problem would be in doing that.

Posted by: Alder Erin Sturgis-Pascale | June 13, 2007 3:38 PM

Charlie, you are exactly right. Our problem is that traffic engineers have been trained to build streets as wide as possible in the misguided (and increasingly disproved) notion of "safety".
Just how narrow do streets need to be so that drivers will drive at 25mph? The answer is 8.8 feet per lane. Car tires need to be a certain distance from the curb to slow speeds. Go measure the road in front of your house, I bet it is larger than that. My street is 13 feet per lane, a design speed of probably 45mph. And that's about how fast the average car is traveling, which is dangerously fast for a residential street. Any pedestrian hit at that speed will be killed.
The roads in New Haven need to be put on a diet. All of that freed up space could be used for widened sidewalks, greenbelts, protected bike lanes and parking.

Posted by: Carole | June 13, 2007 5:12 PM

The roads in New Haven need to be put on a diet. All of that freed up space could be used for widened sidewalks, greenbelts, protected bike lanes and parking.

One more use for the extra space: bus-only lanes. Riding the bus would be more attractive if they didn't have to sit in traffic, and it would also cut down on the diesel fumes. Maybe then bus drivers could stay on schedule without speeding and cutting off bicyclists, as they so often do now.

Posted by: Taxed To Death | June 13, 2007 5:53 PM

Just spend more money. You voted against every single effort to tighten city spending...now that you have a huge checkbook -- accordingly to City Hall, our taxes will go up 12% this year -- spend it to tear up all the streets and make them narrower. If you run out of money, tap some more borrowed money and put it on our $500 million plus dollars you've already borrowed and for which we'll spend generations paying back. You spend it on fantasy schools -- now spend it on fantasy sidewalks -- and that way the hookers on Blatchley Street and the crack dealers under your window will have a nicer venue with which to do business.

Posted by: Bruce | June 14, 2007 8:22 AM

Great idea, and why not just be friendly? Here's another citizen-based initiative that won't cost a cent of taxpayer money: community members take turns driving "pace cars" up and down the streets. You wouldn't really need anything at all from the city or state to start this program (though they might help spread the word) since you are doing nothing more than driving the speed limit. Lots of cities are starting up these programs:

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Sturgis-Pascale: Try The Wave

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