New Haven Independent: Will Downtown Plan Worsen Traffic?

Will Downtown Plan Worsen Traffic?

by Melinda Tuhus | February 28, 2008 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

laura%20cahn.jpg The mayor’s plan to transform Route 34 and reconnect downtown to the Hill sounded great to this woman But she wanted to know: Can the transportation infrastructure keep pace?

To about 40 people gathered Wednesday night in the media center at Edgewood School, Mayor John DeStefano rolled out for the third time the PowerPoint presentation of his “Future Framework” that calls for “infilling” all available space downtown with retail, housing, and other appropriate uses, as well as ripping up Route 34, what he calls “the highway to nowhere,” to make the city’s most desirable real estate available for development. Click here and here for past stories detailing the project.

future%20crowd.jpg After detailing the kinds of tax revenue-generating construction he’d like to see, he asked a rhetorical question: how does his plan to bring the tax-exempt Gateway Community College right downtown fit in with those plans?

mayor%20future.jpg “I happen to believe, like furniture in a room, there are certain things you put in downtown to create activity, and density, and traffic.” He said Gateway fits that bill.

He said the Nine Squares define downtown, but several other things do, too: “the rail tracks, I-95, I-91 and Route 34. “I think for ill, more than for good, these pieces of infrastructure define how the city works in a lot of ways, because they often create dead-ends.”

After his 45-minute presentation the mayor fielded questions from the audience about transportation alternatives, how to protect current homeowners in the face of the foreclosure disaster, and how to improve the city’s pitiful recycling rate.

Laura Cahn (pictured at the top of this story), who lives in Westville, asked: “Are we going to get more buses, or trams? Now you can barely pass on Whalley Avenue with all the trucks.”

Of his talk, she added, “Everything is great, by the way, I’m glad we’re going to grow the city, but…”

DeStefano responded, “On a macro level, the best thing we can do is have improved Metro-North service on the New Haven line. Number Two, would be commuter rail service to Springfield, Mass. A third thing would be increased Shoreline East service. The state hates the bus system; it’s unfortunate, and it’s something we will continue to argue for. They’re in love with trains right now. We’ve tried, not as successfully as I would like to have, connected the downtown trolley route to the major employers and the train stations (Union Station and State Street). My view of highways is that highway improvements generally create more traffic.” He added that he’d like to have streetcars on a few routes, but that’s expensive.”

Also, “The [Tweed] airport is really important. The goal is Chicago, Atlanta, Cincinnati - I’d be in heaven.” Finally, he pitched his plan to deepen the harbor - already the second busiest in New England after Boston — and make it “a reasonable container port.”

He also mentioned traffic-calming efforts on a few streets.

kate%20bradley.jpg To a question about making New Haven a “bicycle-friendly city,” he said he put cyclists in the “future” images in his PowerPoint presentation, and the city is looking at more bike lanes.

Kate Bradley (pictured) asked how aggressively smart growth strategies, like green buildings and multi-modal transportation — like making the bike/train connection — will be pursued over the 20-year span DeStefano laid out for his proposed changes, “as opposed to sandwiching them in as you go along. This is definitely the wave of the future.”

The mayor said many buildings, both privately owned and taxpayer-funded, will incorporate energy-efficient technology in the future. Barnard School just received its LEED certification. “I think you’ll see this idea of smart growth, which to me is growth along transportation nodules.”

The city’s efforts — or lack of efforts — to make New Haven more bike-friendly is the subject of this week’s cover story in the Advocate. Read it here.

The mayor’s fourth and final presentation on the city’s future will take place at Martinez School in Fair Haven on March 18 at 6:30 p.m..

Comments

Posted by: on whalley | February 28, 2008 1:50 PM

"I happen to believe, like furniture in a room, there are certain things you put in downtown to create activity, and density, and traffic."

Uh-oh. I don't know which would be worse: bringing in some uppity, full of himself and his fantasies "urban planner" or hiring a feng-shui hippie guy to plan the project.

Maybe the feng-shui guy would cost less and at least knowing the failed miserable mess was caused by some feng-shui guy would be funny. Having it be some self-righteous "form of expression" by an overpriced fancy pants "urban planner" would just be sad.

Yes, I am expecting this will all fail.

Posted by: DingDong | February 28, 2008 3:27 PM

I hope the mayor can commit to providing other ways of getting around downtown that are safer and more sustainable. Let's get the results of the streetcar study and let's commit to making New Haven a least a silver-level bicycle-friendly city.

Posted by: JMAC | February 28, 2008 3:38 PM

I agree with DINGDONG...

Lets make New Haven a really bike friendly city!!!

Posted by: charlie | February 28, 2008 3:45 PM

New Haven needs to be more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. This means investing in infrastructure and actually thinking about urban design issues, before rubber-stamping every project. Maybe the city and state need better oversight commissions, made up of representatives who are people who actually walk, bike or take transit to work. Currently it seems that much of the planning is done by people who rarely get out of their car.

We also need "stop for pedestrian" signs and enforcement at every crosswalk!

Posted by: nfjanette | February 28, 2008 8:18 PM

We also need "stop for pedestrian" signs and enforcement at every crosswalk!

We need pedestrians that wait for proper signaling to walk into those crosswalks. That's just as big a problem, especially around Yale.

Posted by: nfjanette | February 28, 2008 8:20 PM

Will Downtown Plan Worsen Traffic?

Yes, and that's fine with some advocates of pedestrian and bicycle riders, but not with me. A well engineered traffic system can take the needs and safety of all users into account; what we currently have fails on many of those accounts. No plan for new construction should be allowed without fixing the infrastructure first.

Posted by: Chase D | February 29, 2008 12:45 AM

Well, an intellectual Mayor DeStefano ain't, but his plan for downtown certainly sounds like the right direction. Sure, there's plenty of room for disappointment if proper tenants aren't found or if they aren't willing to spend the money to get good architects, urban planners, and traffic planners. But in any case, whatever happens will be much better than what we have now. Fixing dead ends and stitching up the Oak St. Connector will do marvels towards making the Hill and everything else on that side of Rt34 more integrated with the city. The more development downtown, the better - we should fight suburbanization and the ugliness of Boston Post Road!!

Posted by: Alex | February 29, 2008 2:22 AM

Stopping for pedestrians is nice but cars that are standing still are getting ZERO miles per gallon at that time and causing pollution while pedestrians are not. So there must be a balance here. We need more flashing signals at night when traffic is low to keep cars moving. Smart lights that don't keep cars waiting when there is no opposing traffic also save gas and polution. New Haven is not yet good at keeping cars flowing so they are not getting zero mpg. Would be great to have a safe way to bike down Whitney Ave and pave it please. Rough roads also cause lower gas mileage and pollution.

Posted by: Ned | February 29, 2008 8:51 AM

Every time you fill your tank, you're giving money to the Saudis - the Middle Eastern lovers of human rights - so ladies if you hate your genitals, love the niqab, and think that you should be whipped after getting raped, please buy a turbocharged V8 monster SUV and drive everywhere. Exxon needs the money! Sponsor a few rockets into Israel while your at it too.

Posted by: Streever | February 29, 2008 2:22 PM

way to ask the questions!!! Will the city become more bike-friendly? It's doubtful. We have a plan that doesn't seem to be followed, except after we complain incessantly: suddenly we get a bike rack on State street. Wow! Meanwhile, the mayor is buying 3500 dollar coat closets. Hmmmm.

What's the skeleton in his closet? That it's all lip service? I'm really curious.

Posted by: charlie | February 29, 2008 5:15 PM

Don't worry, Ned -- the Superintendent of Schools, with his $90K city-funded gas-guzzler (the one that he has so that he can get to a school in a snowstorm, and kill any teacher/student/resident/transit user that he happens to slip into along the way, while staying completely unscathed! yay!) has us covered on that front!

Posted by: Chris Gray | March 2, 2008 1:50 AM

This is really odd. In some way or another, I agree with every single post here.

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Will Downtown Plan Worsen Traffic?

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