Thomas Breen photo
Furlow: Drivers go too fast.
Two Alden Avenue neighbors offered different takes on how to slow down cars on their street — while lawmakers tried to figure out how much control they have over how fast people can legally drive in town.
The two-hour trip down Transportation Policy Road took place Tuesday night at a hearing at City Hall of the Board of Alders’ Public Safety and City Services & Environmental Policy committees.
The hearing concerned a proposed bill by Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow to explore the best ways to calm traffic and possibly lower the speed limit on city (as opposed to state) roads from 25 to 20 miles per hour.
“When I was growing up in the area,” Furlow said during his opening testimony at the hearing, “we were able to play on the street and ride our bicycles without one concern about being run over by a distracted driver. I think that [a 20 mph limit] is important because it’s going to assist with traffic calming, which needs to happen in three ways: police enforcement, driver education, and lowering the speed limit.”
2 Views On Alden
Abraham.
While much of the public testimony at Tuesday’s hearing was in support of the push to lower the speed limit, two neighbors from Alden Avenue in Westville offered conflicting views on Furlow’s proposal.
“I think part of making New Haven a livable city is making it a walkable, runnable, bikeable, and also a drivable city,” said Jim Owen, a retiree who has lived in New Haven for 44 years. “If New Haven wants to get serious about decreasing speeds, it’s not going to make a whole lot of difference how fast the speed is on a one-way street like Burton Street, because it’s one block long and people aren’t likely to be driving more than 25 miles per hour on it.”
“On Alden Avenue, and even on Edgewood Avenue, it’s not realistic to have a 20 mile per hour speed limit,” he continued. “You almost go to 20 miles per hour without pressing on the accelerator. If we can afford to hire enough policemen to enforce the speed limits, then I think their priorities should be in the areas where people are speeding the most, and where we have the most accidents.”
Owen.
Up next was Data Haven executive director Mark Abraham, who also lives a block away from Owen on Alden Avenue.
“New Haven is very, very behind the curve,” Abraham argued. “Many cities are establishing blanket 20 mile per hour speed limits on residential streets. The Seattle City Council just voted to set 20 mile per hour speed limits on 2,400 miles of its city streets a few months ago. Paris is currently at 40 percent 20 mile per hour streets, and they’re going to 80 percent in a few years. And in Edinburgh, they found that, with 20 mile per hour speed limits, the number of kids biking to school jumped from 3 percent to 22 percent. Most importantly, if you go from 25 to 20, a person hit is twice as likely to survive. It’s really important for children in New Haven to have that same benefit.”
The City Can Change the Speed Limit. Kind of.
Antunes, at center, with Alders Delphine Clyburn and Sal DeCola.
Despite the general enthusiasm for lowering the speed limit among the alders and the public, notwithstanding Owen’s testimony, alders learned during the hearing that they may have less authority than they realized to change speed limits.
On the one hand, Corporation Counsel John Rose provided a memorandum citing state law that identifies the Board of Police Commissioners as the city’s traffic authority, and thereby the local entity that had the necessary power to set speed limits.
Transit chief Doug Hausladen noted that all requests by the city’s traffic authority in regards to changing speed limits must be submitted to the Office of the State Traffic Administration (OSTA) for review and approval.
“That seems like a bit of a Catch 22,” said committee co-chair and Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes said. “If the state statute says we can change it, why do we have to go to them for approval? If we set it, and they deny it, then where are we?”
According to an OSTA Frequently Asked Questions documented provided by Hausladen, the city’s traffic agency is recognized by the state as a Local Traffic Agency (LTA), which has the unencumbered ability to set speed limits on private roads, but only an advisory capacity for determining speed limits on local, public roads.
During the meeting, Police Commission Chair Tony Dawson said he was formally granting Hausladen’s department permission to take the lead on submitting speed limit change requests to OSTA, and then to let the Board of Police Commissioners know the results of those requests.
Lowering the speed limit is a great move! Compelling testimony regarding the policies of other big cities. Also, a thank-you to our neighbor, Jim Owen. I have a feeling he follows the speed limits, and takes care when he drives. This is why, for responsible citizens like himself, a drop from 25 seems insignificant.
The problem is that many drivers are not so cautious or law-abiding, or that they are using electronic devices. So Owen is right- it shouldn't make a difference. But we live in front of a 4-way stop sign... and people zoom up to it, rolling through "slowly" from speeds much higher than 25. If this move weren't necessary, and if it weren't supported by good evidence, cities around the world would not be adopting it. I do wish, as he does, that people would just slow down on their own!