Paul Bass Photo
Nervous neighbors like Dick Margulis succeeded in convincing government to reconfigure a killer intersection. Then they noticed cars turning the wrong way at that same corner — and got worried again.
That’s the latest development at the corner of West Elm Street and Forest Road in Westville, a corner that has bedeviled neighbors and government planners.
Call it the law of unintended consequences — a solution that created a new problem.
Dick Margulis (pictured above) called it “the law of not doing an adequate design study.”
Whatever you call it, the city has a new solution.
The saga began in 2008. Neighbors had always been concerned about traffic whipping around a blind curve on Forest Road, a main state throughway connecting Fountain Street to West Haven, at West Elm. West Elm ends at Forest. The fast traffic and low visibility make it a treacherous intersection to enter. In 2008 Jerry Gross started to drive across that intersection on his way home from morning prayers at his synagogue. An oncoming car slammed into him and killed him.
Neighbors pressed officials for a solution. The search for a fix proved complicated. The state owns Forest Road (aka Route 122), the city, West Elm. So two sets of officials had to work together. And each proposal sparked new concerns about safety or convenience.
Then, after another crash at the intersection sent a cop to the hospital, city officials announced a plan: Don’t allow any left turns from West Elm onto Forest, into the maw of the blind high-speed curve.
They completed the plan in mid-July. (They couldn’t paint during the winter.) They erected a “No Left Turn” sign and painted a triangular island at the end of West Elm, with a curved mini-lane directing westbound drivers (approaching Forest) into a dedicated right-turn lane. The lane is pictured above.
Dick Margulis has a direct view of that striped island from the window of an office in his West Elm Street home two doors down from Forest. He works there during the day as a book editor.
Dick Margulis Photo
Looking out the window at the new intersection, he noticed a new hazard, caused unintentionally by drivers headed southbound on Forest Road from Fountain and turning left onto West Elm. (Pictured is the view of drivers headed that way on Forest.)
The new striping confused those drivers. It looked like they were supposed to turn left onto West Elm through the curved mini-lane. In fact, that put them heading against traffic, direct into the lane meant for West Elm drivers turning onto Forest.
“I’m looking at it and saying, ‘Everybody’s going the wrong way!” Margulis recalled. “So I drive up Forest [to investigate] and say, ‘No wonder everybody’s turning wrong. It looks like you’re supposed to turn that way.”
He did an informal count; 50 percent of the drivers making left turns entered that wrong lane, he said. He saw a commercial carting truckdriver do it. He saw a UPS driver do it. He saw a school bus driver do it.
“Did you see what you did at that intersection?” Margulis asked when the busdriver made a stop on the block.
“No. What?” she responded.
“You went the wrong way.”
At that point she checked her rear view mirror and proclaimed, “Oh my God!”
“These are not careless drivers,” Margulis said. “These are not kids. These are not people hot-rodding. These are not people talking on their cell phones. These are ordinary people pulling up, turning on their turn signals, and going the wrong way.”
Margulis and his neighbors, who also noticed the new hazard, told city transportation chief Mike Piscitelli about it. Piscitelli came to investigate. Piscitelli got right on the case, ordering a “Keep Right” sign placed on Forest Road to direct southbound drivers passed the incorrect lane.
Margulis estimated that in its first week the new sign has cut the percentage of drivers making the wrong turn about in half — still too many, but still too early to judge. Drivers who regularly turn left onto West Elm have noticed the sign and started entering the proper lane. He said he hopes other drivers will catch on soon.
Piscitelli promised to keep track of whether that happens.
“We’re monitoring it now,” he said. “Let’s see how this performs. There has to be some time to see.”
Margulis said he appreciated the swift action but would also like longer-term fixes, including warnings painted in the turn lane and on Forest.
“They’re looking for ways to mollify citizens without spending money,” he said.
Then he acknowledged, “We understand that. We’re taxpayers too.”
The district’s state representative, Pat Dillon, said she’s looking into how the state and city can work together better on a longer-term solution. She previously communicated with officials from both sides as they tried to work out a plan. “We should get the city and DOT [the Department of Transportation] together with us to present what they plan to do, and if that doesn’t work, what they will do next. This is only one corner in the state of Connecticut and they can’t agree or take responsibility? Neither city government nor the state come off well.”
Click on the play arrow to watch a previous report by Leonard Honeyman about the intersection’s problems, before the fix.
There is simply no way to make this intersection even remotely "safe" when speeds are so high.
Either reduce the average travel speeds in the area, or accept the fact that people are going to die and be injured here on a regular basis.