Court Street Contra-Flow En Route

The city’s second downtown contra-flow bike lane is on track to be implemented by the end of this year, and will also come with traffic safety improvements at the intersection behind City Hall.

Michael Pinto, the deputy director of the city’s traffic, transit, and parking department, gave that update on Tuesday night to the roughly 50 neighbors who showed up for the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSCMT) meeting on the second floor of City Hall.

Pinto said that the city plans to set up before the end of the year a one-block contra-flow bike lane on Court Street between State Street and Orange Street. Following the model of a similar bike lane implemented on High Street in 2016, the Court Street contra-flow lane will allow cyclists to bike legally and in their own lane from State to Orange, in the opposite direction of oncoming traffic.

“We’re really trying to have something where we can say that we moved the needle on bicycle infrastructure for this year,” Pinto said. ​“For now, we’re trying to get a little win for this year.”

To make way for the contra-flow bike lane, which the city’s Traffic Authority approved in September, the city transit department will move the Court Street block’s current parking from the north side of the street to the south side of the street.

It will also remove the block’s current parking meters and install three kiosks instead that will allow for drivers to pay for parking for a particular spot. The department will then restripe the northern side of the block to create the designated biking area.

“It’s only one block,” Pinto said, ​“but it legalizes what’s already happening now and it tries to make that a safer condition.”

Pinto also said that the contra-flow lane project will also come with some pedestrian safety improvements to the intersection of Orange Street and Court Street.

He said that the city will create two full crosswalks for the northern and southern ends of the intersection, and it will raise both crosswalks to meet the level of the sidewalk.

While the switching of the parking spots, the installation of the kiosks, and the striping of the bike lane should happen in 2018, he said, the raised crosswalks will likely be implemented in spring 2019.

Court Street resident Michael Rady asked about signage at the intersection: Will there be two stop signs, one for cars coming down Orange Street, one for bikes coming across Court Street?

Pinto said that there will definitely be a new stop sign facing the cyclists using the Court Street contra-flow lane. He said the city will not be installing a stop sign for vehicles coming southbound on Orange Street and Court Street.

Pinto estimated that the whole contra-flow and intersection and improvement project would cost around $50,000 in department capital funds to complete.

In other transportation news, Pinto said that the transit department will be hosting a community engagement meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 5:30 in the basement hearing room at 200 Orange St. to discuss updates to the city’s Move New Haven bus study. He said that the city is also prepared to implement its dynamic parking pricing pilot, whereby the city will charge different hourly rates at downtown parking meters depending on demand, sometime early next year.