New Haven Independent

Westville Signs on to Safe Streets

by Melinda Tuhus | June 18, 2008 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Paul%20Chambers.jpg Drawing a “line in the sand” over the hit-and-run killing of an 11-year-old girl, Westville neighbors signed onto a citywide “safe streets” campaign and pressed for action on the fatal intersection’s traffic light.

The action took place at Tuesday night’s monthly meeting of the Westville Community Management Team, at the police substation on Valley Road. It was the first meeting since a hit-and-run driver took the life of Gabrielle Lee (pictured), 11, at Whalley Avenue and Davis Street. Her killing provoked the latest outcry in a growing citywide movement for “traffic-calming.” (Read about that here here, and here.)

Management team member Paul Chambers (pictured at the top of this story) has been studying that intersection since the June 5 accident. He reported on his findings at Tuesday’s meeting.

He said the light used to be on a continual green for Whalley drivers, with a trip for the occasional Davis Street motorist. But that changed after a city street crew milled Davis Street to repave it — and the result may have made the intersection more dangerous.

“The timing of the light invites contempt for the light,” Chambers concluded.

Chambers learned that city street improvement work wrecked the controls that trip the traffic light for Davis drivers. So now the light alternates red for 30 seconds on Whalley and then 30 seconds on Davis, a side street with little traffic.

“Many people go through there — 25,000 cars a day — and every 30 seconds they’re stopped on Whalley Avenue,” Chambers said. “And many people notice there’s never anyone on that side street when they’re stopped, so they develop a sense of entitlement to go through the light.”

tom%20l.jpg Chambers added that the state Department of Transportation told him it can’t fix the timing of the light until the city fixes the control loop. Beaver Hills Alderman Tom Lehtonen (pictured) said he’d follow up with city transportation chief Mike Piscitelli to see about the repair getting made.

Mark Abraham, one of the founders of New Haven Safe Streets, came to the meeting to ask the management team to endorse a petition calling for “immediate action to improve traffic safety within our communities.” Some of the “therefores” in the petition include strict enforcement of the city’s 25 mph speed limit and all other traffic regulations. Also, Abraham added, “It requests access to public safety information and policing information, so that communities like this can really advocate for what can be done to improve safety. It requests reviews at the city level to try to reduce the number of injuries by 90 percent.” He added that safe streets are a big factor in perceived quality of life and also in promoting local retail.

p(clear). Thea Buxbaum (pictured), with tears in her eyes, said the death of Gabby Lee “must be our line in the sand.” She also reported that a staffer at the Project for Public Spaces in New York City now lives in New Haven and has volunteered to do a traffic calming study and will be conducting a survey at the Edgewood Park farmers’ market every Sunday with an intern from the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance.

mary%20faulkner.jpg CMT chair Mary Faulkner (pictured) proposed that the group endorse the petition; it was approved unanimously, so Westville joined several other management teams in supporting the effort. And everyone was encouraged to sign it individually, thereby adding to the 800 names already gathered. Advocates of the petition will be addressing all the management teams and have so far won over 20 of the city’s 30 alders as well as several elected state officials.

Another point of discussion was the proposed widening of Whalley Avenue from Emerson to Ramsdell streets. Last week Rep. Pat Dillon sent a letter to DOT officials asking them to convene a meeting to discuss traffic safety and calming measures associated with the project and to postpone the bidding process on design work until after the meeting. CMT chair Faulker said she hopes the DOT will comply with that request. Dillon and Sen. Toni Harp are planning a public meeting on the issue for sometime in July.

When the fact emerged that virtually all the money raised through ticketing for moving violations goes to the state, not the city, many residents were shocked. “That’s right,” said Lt. Bernie Somers (pictured on the left). He explained the city gets the money from parking tickets but just a tiny percentage of the fines from moving violations. The administration of Mayor John DeStefano has been trying to get more of those bucks to come back to the city, so far to no avail. Some believe such a change would provide an incentive for city cops to issue more tickets for moving violations, i.e., the time these city employees spend issuing tickets could be “reimbursed” by the city getting some of that money back — a revenue-neutral proposal.

Somers also noted that the search is still on for the driver of the vehicle that killed Lee. Based on a piece of the car found at the scene, police believe it was a dark color VW Jetta. He said the police believe the driver was a local person.

At last month’s management team meeting, residents of Rock Creek Road were up in arms over the shooting of guns into their cars and homes. No one was injured. A smaller number of the streets residents came out for Tuesday night’s meeting, seeking more information. Somers told them there is undercover work going on to find the perpetrator(s), and that the head of the Patrol Unit approved an extra patrol from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.

debbie%20diane.jpg Rock Creek Road resident Debbie Prince (pictured on left, with neighbor Diane Samuels) asked, “What about a block watch?” Somers shot back, encouragingly, “What about one? I have all the information you need to get started.”

In other business, the team gave a vote of confidence to its current officers, re-electing the entire slate for another year.

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Comments

Posted by: ben | June 18, 2008 1:31 PM

Upper State Street Association also voted to sign the petition last night.

Posted by: hubcap | June 18, 2008 1:41 PM

So moving violation ticket revenue goes to the state? Not big news. Ever notice who you mail the check to? Centralized Infractions Bureau -- State of Connecticut. Ever notice what courts you attend to contest? State courts. Duh!

This is not an affront to New Haven, it is how the revenue and services system is set up and is true statewide. So Big John, if you succeed and more money flows from the State from moving violation revenue, you don't think it won't drop somewhere else? Who paves, paints and patches Whalley Avenue? The State.

OK, suggestion, big John goes to the State and says, we want to increase moving violations 20% as a safety issue. Will you give us 20% of the increased ticket revenue?"

I called friggin Public Works last year complaining that a home construction contractor had left a poorly patched ditch on Valley Street. Cars were going around, a bus nearly bottomed out... it was dangerous. The moron who answered swore to me that Valley Street was a State highway. Hey, that useless salary, there's $20,000 to keep the Whalley Avenue substation open!

Posted by: YellowMeansStop | June 18, 2008 1:47 PM

True or False:

The police report had determined that the driver of the black Jetta DID run a red light when striking Gabrielle Lee.

This fact should have been well reported long ago before this became all about ticketing light jumpers.

Posted by: anon | June 18, 2008 2:10 PM

WEB management team, Downtown management team, Edgewood neighborhood association and others also signed on yesterday

Posted by: Gary Doyens | June 18, 2008 2:38 PM

The problem at Davis Street is not that the light alternates too frequently - it's simply that motorists on Whalley drive too fast. If that light stays green, they will drive even faster through the next section of Whalley. There is nothing wrong with current signal fluctuation.

I came through there one morning earlier this week turning from Davis to Whalley making a left. A full 10 seconds after the Whalley side turned red - three cars plowed through that intersection at 35 - 40 miles an hour.

Park a cop there in the morning. Nail the pinheads and then move down the block to the convenience store on the corner and nail the nutcases who run that light by using the exit driveway from the convenience store to cut across three lanes of traffic on Whalley.

Posted by: anon | June 18, 2008 2:41 PM

How about an "enforcement revenue holiday", twice per year, at a time randomly chosen by each city/town in state of CT. Cities would get 100% of the revenue over each 10 day period.

Posted by: clark | June 18, 2008 3:50 PM

I find it deeply troubling to know that the traffic signal at this intersection was not functioning as intended and that the city was responsible for and aware of the problem. The potential legal liability issues this creates for the city are substantial.

I am also concerned about two other issues. First, the question of ticket revenue is a red herring. This is an issue of basic law enforcement, not revenue raising. The city does not get any revenue for locking up burglars or murderers, yet the police continue to arrest people for these crimes. Why should enforcement of traffic laws be any different. The revenue issue is merely an excuse for ignoring this particular type of crime.

Second, while I understand the importance of revisiting plans for Whalley Avenue improvements, I sincerely hope that this project is not abandoned. Whalley Avenue is a design disaster, with misaligned intersections, poor sight lines and great confusion over how many lanes there are in some places. It needs to be redesigned. Regardless of how the street is configured, people will speed there if they have no fear of being caught. Street design and traffic calming cannot make up for a complete lack of traffic law enforcement, which brings me back to my first point: IT'S NOT ABOUT REVENUE!!! The city of New Haven has chosen to make traffic enforcement its lowest priority. People are dying. the policy must change.

Posted by: new haven safe streets now | June 18, 2008 5:01 PM

"The revenue issue is merely an excuse for ignoring this particular type of crime."

Clark: I agree. And the fact is, this type of crime is far more deadly to the average city resident than any other type of crime.

It also erodes our neighborhoods, public spaces, retail district vitality, economy, public health...... people do not feel comfortable walking or bicycling, which forces them to spend money on automobile travel that could otherwise be used for education, health care, entertainment, or providing the kinds of social infrastructure that would prevent all those "other" types of crime.

It is time to enforce the traffic laws now. And it is time to stop accepting the status quo when it comes to how our city and town centers are designed. It is absolutely unacceptable that the state funds new schools, but then does not fund any way for the kids to be able to safely cross the street to get there.

Posted by: -fairhavener- | June 19, 2008 10:15 AM

Not enforcing traffic laws because the city doesn't get to keep all the money is despicable. The people in charge of this decision might as well just take steamy ones on all our faces.

There are other monetary rewards (if that's what it needs to be about) from enforcing traffic laws besides the revenue generated from tickets. For instance, constant violations of traffic laws affect our quality of life. (It obviously has, as anyone, resident or not, can deduce in about 5 minutes being here.) And our quality of life is much worse because of it, which affects property values, which affects tax revenue.

Posted by: DingDong | June 19, 2008 6:02 PM

Of the course revenue issue SHOULD not be an excuse, but the fact is that it has been. And frankly, New Haven and the NHPD are short on money. That's why state legislators should act now to make the fines from moving violations go, at least in part, to the municipality that issued them.

Posted by: Gary Doyens | June 20, 2008 8:43 AM

New Haven is short on money because New Haven spends too much money; is unfocused about the services it delivers; spreads itself too thin, almost never uses well known best practices in terms of management and staffing; and has a nanny mentality about providing city services.

Traffic hotspots where life, limb and property are at stake are a basic and clear responsibility. There is no excuse not to assign officers to these well known problem areas.

Posted by: Q | June 25, 2008 6:49 PM

How much longer can the New Haven 500 auto races take place on our street. Just yesterday i watched 2 cars doing at least 80 up Chapel St. in Westville, and i don't even have to mention Whalley Ave.

I am starting to feel like the NHPD sees whats going on but just does not want to get out of the car to write the ticket. Crosswalk signals, yellow lights, even red lights, mean nothing to alot of drivers in New Haven. Who knows, maybe by doing a traffic stop someone could be helping out a neighborhood.

Westville Signs on to Safe Streets

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