Urban Commuting Challenges Aired

Over trays of pizza and pitchers of beer and water, 20 people on Wednesday night aired thorny issues about New Haven’s public transportation in the back room of BAR on Crown Street — like the cost and difficulty of getting to jobs from lower-income neighborhoods.

The ​“Transportation on Tap” meeting, organized by goNewHavengo, a coalition of private and public organizations and individuals dedicated to increasing transportation options, focused on ​“Alternative Transportation & Job Access.”

Panelists acknowledged New Haven’s transportation difficulties, where shortcomings cut off certain neighborhoods from access to employment.

“It’s economic discrimination,” said Dilias Ratchford, a community representative from the Rockview public housing development.

Douglas Hausladen, New Haven’s director of transportation, traffic & parking, noted transportation is needed not just to successfully interview for a job but to then regularly get to and from work.

Ratchford works the 3:30 pm to 11:30 p.m. shift at Yale-New Haven Hospital. After she first moved to her new home, she discovered the bus driver stopped nearly a mile away from her home and would not drive down Wilmot Road. CT Transit originally asserted the roundabout space at the end of the driveway was too small for the bus. Ratchford felt very unsafe walking home at night. After circulating a petition, contacting her alder, contacting the mayor’s office, working with Hausladen and receiving coverage in the New Haven Independent, Ratchford convinced CT Transit tp adjust the route to stop near her home. However, now due to nearby bridge construction, the bus again no longer stops near the Rockview residential complex.

In lower to moderate-income families, 42 percent of household income is spent on transportation-related costs, according to Erik Johnson, senior director of strategy policy and innovation for the New Haven Housing Authority. He explained that an individual making $15,000 to $22,000 spends $6,000 to $8,000 on transportation-related costs each year.

Hausladen moderated the conversation with Ratchford, Johnson, and New Haven city employees Steve Fontana, deputy economic development director, and Keith Lawrence, director of special projects. Hausladen followed the discussion with an audience Q&A.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Bank of Boston awarded New Haven a $15,000 Working Cities Challenge design grant. The application sought to address particularly challenging transportation barriers to living wage jobs faced by residents in the neighborhoods of West Rock and Newhallville.

This award also qualifies New Haven to apply for the bank’s implementation grant of $300,000 to $500,000 disbursed over a three to five-year period. The $15,000 will be used during the next six months to gather and analyze data, to host community meetings for input, and to hire a consultant to prepare the implementation grant due on Oct. 17. Fontana said that the city will need to ask to right questions to learn information such as what jobs residents want, where the jobs are, and what innovative solutions would help them. For example, car loans, which could be paid back after participants get jobs, a van for one person to drive neighbors, shuttles, jitneys or vouchers for car services could be possibilities. Fontana noted school buses have limited runs in picking up and dropping off students. He wondered whether perhaps arrangements could be made to use the buses when they are idle.

Lawrence noted the innovation economy often bubbles up as the result of need. Dollar cabs appeared in New York where there were few subway routes or taxis. Slug lines, a form of informal carpooling and hitchhiking, became popular in Washington, D.C. out of convenience. Uber quickly filled a service need. However, Johnson said transportation issues are national problems. ​“The transportation inequalities occurred due to market failures. We can’t expect the market to be the solution.”

Lawrence and Johnson emphasized the need for community input as transportation options must meet the demands of services people want, The city must grasp how communities will use the transportation. Lawrence said having information, and a ​“data backbone or hub will drive strategy in implementing a plan.” He hopes that the city will develop a transportation community portal to receive feedback from the community and to provide real-time responses from the city.

East Rock resident Jonathan Hopkins asked, ​“What is the best way to get your voice heard with transportation, connectivity or infrastructure concerns, if part of your destination is outside of New Haven?” Hopkins asked as an example: How would a West Rock resident advocate for a bus that went to the Hamden or Milford shopping mall?

Hausladen recapped a 2005 effort of trying to get a bus route from Union Station to Dixwell Shopping Plaza to Hamden. State representatives had passed a bill for funding. Unfortunately, due to the recession, the project never happened.

When asked about confronting the upcoming challenges including political ones, Hauslander responded: ​“All of us need to take baby steps and we need to take baby steps together. … We can use this as what it is really, an opportunity to show New Haven what we are, which is a state in America that doesn’t let any one part of it fall down.”