Aliyya Swaby Photo
Neighbor Elsie Chapman with Hausladen, Mayor Harp.
Dogolo was killed crossing Ollive.
John Pescatore offered one cheap and easy fix to slow cars speeding down Olive Street: Place fluorescent delineator tubes down a short section to shrink two lanes into one, forcing drivers to yield to cars going the opposite way.
City officials asked for suggestions from Wooster Square’s Olive Street regulars like Pescatore as they led a brainstorming session Tuesday night to churn out grassroots-level solutions for calming traffic down the two-way danger zone.
Three weeks after 81-year-old pedestrian Dolores Mariconde Dogolo was struck and killed by a car at the intersection of Olive and Greene streets, the conversation has intensified on how to make the area safer for non-motorist “vulnerable users.”
Dozens of Wooster Square neigbors showed up at St. Paul & St. James Episcopal Church to seek updates on the ongoing investigation of the accident and to share their fears about the potential for future deaths. They stayed to jot down specific traffic issues — and some solutions — on two giant maps of Olive Street on either side of the room.
Aliyya Swaby Photo
City transit chief Doug Hausladen and city engineer Giovanni Zinn said they were seeking simple, inexpensive fixes that could be implemented by spring, as part of the “Complete Streets” movement.
“In the past, it’s taken months or years to get approval” for traffic calming measures, Zinn said. “Tonight we want to get your ideas for what to do on Olive Street. We can take that back and start formulating ideas.”
Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg said that “committing to doing something on Olive Street by the thaw would address a lot of people’s concerns” in the neighborhood.
Police are still investigating the exact circumstances surrounding Dogolo’s death on Oct. 30, Lt. Rob Criscuolo (pictured) said at the beginning of the meeting. Hausladen has said he is watching to see if it could lead to a prosecution under the recent state law that adds penalties to drivers found guilty of hitting “vulnerable users.” Investigators preliminarily concluded that the driver had not been using a cellphone at the time of the collision.
Neighbors expressed concern that the driver would not be charged at all. Traffic enforcement is lax in New Haven, said Edward Anderson, his comment receiving appreciative claps from the crowd.
“It’s always the pedestrian at fault,” he said. “I’d like to see some justice at some point.”
Criscuolo said police monitoring on Olive and Chapel Streets in the past few weeks has revealed the fastest traffic coming from Grand Avenue toward Chapel Street. He said he also noticed “many pedestrians not using the roadway correctly.”
Over a period of six hours, police saw below-limit speeds of 19 to 22 miles per hour, he said.
“Form Our Own Militia?”
“Maybe that’s because you were there,” someone shouted out, prompting loud applause from Bret Bird (pictured) halfway across the room.
More police presence to deter crime would be “great,” said Bird, who said he was robbed of his phone on Friday afternoon in front of Union Station by “kids on bikes.”
“If they’re not going to protect us from speeders and muggers, what should we do? Form our own militia?” he said.
Criscuolo said it’s difficult for the police to monitor speeds without influencing driver behavior, since “it’s hard to do that without being seen. Most people see us and slow down.” Digital speed monitors have been vandalized in the past. “How do we solve the problem?” he asked.
The onus was then on everyone to answer that question.
Longer Green?
Katie Trumpener, who lives next to the church, suggested better regulations of traffic light changes along Olive Street. The light at Chapel can take “two to four minutes” to shift from red to green, and the green light at Grand Avenue is extremely short.
“The temptation for people might be to accelerate” at those lights, she said. “Those are fixable things.”
A few dog-owners in the Strouse Adler residential property at 78 Olive St. said they find themselves imperiled on daily walks.
“There’s an entire community of people who want to take their dogs to Wooster Square,” said Robin Johnson. “Cars don’t stop even when we’re entering with our animals.” Drivers use Olive Street as a “shortcut to I‑95,” which takes a toll on the “small, residential street” during rush hour, she said.
“We need to do something,” fellow building-mate Dagmar Moore said. But “I’m not an expert.”
Anstress Farwell pointed on the map to where someone had etched in a bike lane down the street. The best way to narrow the street is to “reclaim buildable land” on either side, especially where Olive is closest to State Street — there, the street is open wide “like an urban arterial,” she said.
Zinn said he and Hausladen would bring the maps and proposals to the city and come back to the community in the next few months with more specific information on feasibility and costs. “If we spend $500,000 on a project and it doesn’t work, that’s a problem. If we spend $300 on some paint” for an intersection, the risk is lower, Zinn said.
“We will be a little bolder with the risk being lower,” he said.
Some neighbors were less optimistic. “I don’t think we’re going to design our way out of this anytime soon,” Anderson said.
Bird said unless the city and police enforce the traffic laws, nothing will change, no matter the number of workshops.
Hausladen and Zinn will continue the process at the Board of Alders’ City Services and Environmental Policy Committee Wednesday at 6 p.m.
How about closing the slip lane from eastbound Grand to southbound Olive and putting up a "No Right Turn" sign. It would confuse people to begin with, but there are other routes to take and people would eventually get used to it. I (or anyone else) could update Google Maps to reflect the revision the minute it becomes official. Closing the right turn lane would also solve the issue of people on bicycles having to merge into the left lane as they approach Olive. Traffic might even flow more smoothly overall, even for drivers. It's a win-win!