Dixwell Targets Problem Intersections For Quick Street Fix

Nina Lentili loves the convenient proximity of the Stop & Shop on Whalley but is terrified to ride her bike there (although she’d like to). Even crossing the street as a pedestrian at that un-signalled, un-crosswalked location is daunting.

Beverly Barnes adores the location where she lives, on Admiral Street at Dixwell, right near a bus stop from which she can bus anywhere in town. However, if she walks a few blocks to the intersection where Munson, Henry, Dixwell, and Shelton all meet in a sprawling, confusing triangle, she doesn’t know who’s turning where and when and if she’ll be able to get across unharmed.

Those transportation likes and potentially dangerous dislikes – and ideas for how to address them with inexpensive striping, painting, and ​“rubber duckie” temporary delineators – emerged Monday night ata ​“an active transportation community workshop” convened at the police substation on Charles Street in the Dixwell neighborhood.

A dozen residents gathered to hear city Traffic, Transportation & Parking Director Doug Hausladen and Acting Deputy Director Karla Lindquist pitch a plan soliciting community input to select and then ameliorate problems in six locations citywide that are impeding people from walking and biking. The meeting was part of an effort to advance the city’s overall plan to reduce vehicular dependency.

Hausladen, in partnership with Yale School of Public Health and Southern Connecticut State University’s School of Health and Human Service’s CARE (Community Alliance for Research and Engagement), has money to deploy for planters, striping, painting, and other temporary means — along with hands-on labor of residents — in six one-day projects.

The projects are designed to last only a year, but might lead to more permanent infrastructure based on future funding.

The first will be implemented this fall, with an evolving digital document establishing a database of people’s ​“pain points” to be published in the spring.

“Our purpose tonight: What are your pain points for walking and biking in New Haven?” Hausladen told the group assembled Monday evening.

He received no shortage or shyness in the ensuing answers.

George Carter, a self-described ​“bike guy from Dixwell,” had, true to his word, had arrived on his bike with bright lime reflectors around his ankles. He said his favorite places in the Dixwell neighborhood include the area around Bristol between Ashmun and Dixwell, where he used to hang out playing cards with the seniors when he was a kid.

Randi Rubin Rodriguez, who runs the ​‘r kids Family Center on Dixwell just north of the Broadway shopping district, immediately chimed in that the Bristol-Ashmun corner is ​“a death trap waiting for a child to be hit. Maybe we can put in a crosswalk?”

Lindquist noted that spot as a possible place suitable for one of the demonstration projects. There are to be six done citywide, with one in each of six under-served areas of the city, including Dixwell, said Alicia Santilli, CARE’s director, who was also in attendance.

The plan Monday night was to have residents come up with three or four of the most suitable locations to ameliorate.

Then Hausladen and Lindquist will work with their New York-based consultants on the project, StreetPlans, to select the six citywide spots.

The dangerously wide and un-signalled and un-crosswalked passage from the north side of Whalley Avenue to Stop & Shop was a particularly cited pain point. But it doesn’t lend itself to a one-day’s temporary fix, the organized explained.

Still all the ​“pain points” serve an important purpose, Lindquist said, even if they can’t be acted upon immediately.

“All the data will become part of an Active Transportation Master Plan,” she said, which the city will use eventually to address obstacles in the way of more and more people busing, biking, and walking.

Other pain points that emerged included the sprawling intersection where Dixwell, Munson/Henry, Shelton and Orchard come together in a confusing melange.

When he heard this one, Hausladen’s eyes lit up. This seemed like one particularly suitable for a one-day community build/amelioration.

“One of those legs” of the traffic triangle might not be necessary, he said. It might be possible, he added, that one street section could be closed off and maybe tables and chairs placed there.

Lindquist immediately listed that as one of the possibilities.

Other residents suggested that an equally confusing street nexus — Sperry, Goffe, and Webster — should be added to the list. Hausladen concurred.

On further reflection, he said the presence of the firehouse at the intersection suggested even temporary amelioration there might be more complicated; with fire trucks coming in and out, a demo project there might be harder to implement. It went on the list, but lower down.

Bumps and Humps Need Not Apply

Someone suggested speeding down Hillside at Mansfield might lend itself to the project. Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter, who had just biked over to the meeting, suggested Hausladen look into any potential developer of that back section of the old firearms factory who may help foot the bill for the duckies or add street improvements of their own. Hausladen concurred.

Paul and Katie Hawkins, leaders of the Orchard Street block watch for 40 years, regaled Hausladen with the chronic speeding problems on their stretch of Orchard, between Charles and Henry. Hausladen didn’t dispute the seriousness of the problem. He and Lindquist had brought crash maps of the city; between 2014 and 2019, they showed 17 crashes alone on that stretch of Orchard.

The speed bumps or humps that Hawkins passionately called for could not be fashioned by residents’ hands, certainly not in a day. You need to talk to the alders and submit a Street Smarts application and specifically a request for bumps or humps, Hausladen said.

That is already underway, Hawkins replied.

About 40 of those requests are pending, said Hausladen. Those fixes cost real money, he noted. They also require Board of Alders backing.

Still, because the speeding on Orchard is such a serious issue, Hausladen and Lindquist added Hawkins’ suggestion to their list; perhaps something short of bumps and humps could be done in the shorter term.

The final list included not three or four but six locations:
• Sperry, Goffe, and Webster circle.
• Webster between Dixwell and Goffe.
• Orchard between Charles and Henry.
• Dixwell, Shelton, Orchard, Munson/Henry triangle.
• Mansfield and Hillside.
• Bristol and Ashmun

There are to be several more meetings with community groups, with the six final candidate locations citywide to be announced in about two weeks, Lindquist added.

The first project will be implemented in the fall, with the Active Transportation database coming on line in the spring, she said.

Hausladen said Jersey City, in partnership also with StreetPlans, has implemented 50 — count ​‘em — community-built temporary walkability and other projects of the kind being discussed this night. While that for now might be well beyond the capacity of both New Haven citizenry and city staff, now is the time to start, he said.

Remember, he added, as the group broke up and ate the good food that had been provided, ​“We’re not doing this for you, but with you.”