Allan Appel Photo
Traffic-calmers sprayed this message at 32 corners.
As cars sped her way, Donita Mercer crossed a killer intersection with her head down, peering at her cell phone.
She arrived at the sidewalk to encounter a new orange stencil — and promised not to cross that way again.
At least half a dozen pedestrians crossed South Frontage Road and York Street that way in a ten-minute period Saturday morning. An intersection where a Yale medical student lost her life in 2008 while crossing.
Meanwhile, Abigail Roth, Eric Berger (pictured) and a dozen other volunteers with Yale University’s Traffic Safety Subcommittee were stenciling a warning at that and seven other intersections with a total of 32 corners.
They stenciled brightly lettered orange signs to jar cell-phone abstracted pedestrians out of their communications reverie before it’s too late.
The message: “Don’t Read This. Look Up!”
And possibly save your life in the process.
When Mercer crossed safely, reached the stenciled curb, and looked down at the handiwork with some interest, Roth engaged the Yale-New Haven Hospital pantry worker in a conversation.
“I got caught,” Mercer declared, with a sense of humor along with relief in her tone.
She called her manner of crossing a fairly unconscious habit. She proclaimed the bright warnings “a good thing.”
She was asked if she’ll change her habit as a result.
“My dad used to be a [New Haven] cop [William Mercer]. I’ve got to behave. I have no choice,” she joked.
The genesis for the stenciling project was a deadly serious matter: Yale medical student Mila Rainoff was walking in this intersection in 2008 when a car hit and killed her.
In response, a committee formed to try to save lives. It is composed largely of Yale faculty, staff, and students (including, on Saturday morning, Berger, an alum who’s also a physician).
That tragedy and the loss that same month of 11-year-old Gabrielle Lee in another traffic fatality prompted activists to organize for a comprehensive approach for street design to promote safety. The city passed an ordinance in 2010 based on that approach, known “Complete Streets,” and launched a “Street Smarts” campaign to promote traffic awareness and safety.
City traffic czar Jim Travers helped coordinate Saturday’s event. His department contributed the bright orange paint in 15 spray cans, along with the logo of the Street Smarts campaign.
Roth said that prior to selecting the locations for the warning stenciling, the committee toured the area and researched accident reports, notices on SeeClickFix, and other sources to determine the most dangerous intersections in town.
The potentially bloody winners: South Frontage at York; North Frontage at York; North Frontage at College.
All those, plus an additional five intersections (South Frontage at Howe and Park, Howard and Park, Cedar and York, Park and South streets in front of Smilow Cancer Hospital, and Congress at College) received the bright-orange warning stencil, which was designed by Jason Shelowitz, at all four corners.
Roth noticed another young pedestrian reading his palm, as it were. He sensed the light had changed as he crossed South Frontage going toward the hospital; he had to jog to make it across safely.
When Roth engaged him, he was, unlike Mercer, a tad defensive. He said he was checking a map on his device. “He was looking at a map because he didn’t know where he was going. If he gets hit by a car, he’s going nowhere,” she said after the fellow continued on.
Individually engaging passersby was not the object of the exercise Saturday. But the stencils did catch people’s attention, and the interactions followed.
As Roth and Berger picked up their gear to move on to another intersection, a wave of cars sped by.
“It’s really amazing that someone isn’t injured yet with the fast cars and people looking down at their phones,” Roth said.
She felt good at least about Donita Mercer. “She won’t walk and text going forward,” Roth predicted.
The next day of stenciling is scheduled for the fall when the students return and they can see the stenciling in action. It will take place at other high- danger locations such as the Broadway shopping area and in particular the crossing points along Elm Street in the middle of Yale’s campus.
As to the durability of the paint, Roth guessed six months.
Taking her chances crossing South Frontage toward downtown.
Don't read this. Look up... then left, right and left again. All clear? Now cross.