Westville Walkers Stake Claim To Whalley

With help from a bill put forward by their state legislators, neighbors and visitors would no longer have to risk life and limb to cross Whalley Avenue to see a play at Lyric Hall or get their hair done at the Soho salon.

Those two businesses mark the east and west ends of Westville Village, the neighborhood’s revived, artsy commercial core. While they’re both popular destinations, neither is directly serviced by a crosswalk.

That means people regularly jaywalk through speeding traffic, said Gabriel Da Silva, head of the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance.

A new bill introduced by state Reps. Dillon and Toni Walker, along with state Sen. Toni Harp, aims to change all that. The proposal would set aside up to $415,000 in state bonding money for new crosswalks and street lighting.

Dillon said the measure is designed to increase pedestrian safety and walkability, thereby improving the economic viability of the shops that make up Westville Village.

“Traffic-calming” has become a hot topic in New Haven in recent years, as neighbors seek to promote both safety and livability — the ability of walkers and cyclists to share a community with fast-traveling cars. The subject has special resonance in Westville in the wake of what’s largely seen as a botched state ​“re-do” of upper Whalley as well as the 2008 death of 11 year-old road-crosser Gabrielle Lee when she was hit by a passing driver.

Also, the Village has just become a busier place in the past few years thanks to a commercial and cultural ​“renaissance.”

Da Silva and head of Friends of Edgewood Park Semi Semi-Dikoko (at left in photo), two people who have spearheaded that renaissance, sat down in Da Silva’s Westville frame shop Wednesday to talk about what the money could do for the village.

Da Silva pulled out two large aerial photos of Westville, part of a traffic study that was completed several years ago, when the state was redoing Whalley Avenue west of the village.

“We’ve been working hard to foster commerce in the village,” Da Silva said. One obstacle to that goal has been making Westville an inviting and safe environment for people to walk. ​“The crosswalks are very badly designed.”

For instance, on the east end of the village, where West Rock Avenue meets Whalley Avenue in a T, crosswalks traverse two sides of the intersection but not the third. If you want to cross from Edgewood Park to Lyric Hall — the burgeoning antique shop, theater and arts center — you need to walk well out of your way, Da Silva explained. As a result, many people simply jaywalk there.

That’s a particularly dangerous proposition at that point because a pedestrian needs to cross a total of six lanes of traffic. A lane of eastbound cars from Fountain Street — a block away — is still merging with two lanes of eastbound Whalley Avenue traffic at that point. Westbound traffic comprises two travel lanes and a turning lane.

The complicated intersection could be simplified for safety, Da Silva and Semi-Dikoko said. They pointed to an overlay on the aerial photo, showing a suggested alteration of the meeting of Fountain and Whalley. Instead of a straight shot that lets eastbound traffic from Fountain pick up steam as it hits Whalley, the suggested change would force cars to meet Whalley more perpendicularly, and make a right-hand turn onto Whalley. That would slow traffic and reduce eastbound lanes on Whalley to two instead of three.

Another problematic intersection for pedestrians lies at the other end of Westville Village, where Blake Street meets Whalley Avenue, Da Silva said. It’s a similar situation: a popular destination is hard for walkers to cross to.

Customers coming to Soho salon often park across Whalley from the store. But there’s no crosswalk between the parking lot, on the west side of Blake, to the salon, on the south side of Whalley. Again, many choose to simply jaywalk rather than walk out of the way to go by way of crosswalks.

And again, a confusing merge is taking place. Eastbound traffic on Whalley Avenue is technically single-lane at that point. But cars often form a second, turning lane, then go back to one lane on the east side of the intersection. Da Silva and Semi-Dikoko said they’d like to see turning lanes laid out there with paint, to eliminate confusion by formalizing a practice already in place.

They said they’d also like to see a median put in on Whalley Avenue there. That would slow traffic as it comes down into the village.

Another crosswalk is needed in front of Delaney’s pub, Da Silva said. It’s a third major ​“place of congregation” in the village where people don’t have a clear shot across Whalley Avenue, he said.

Crosswalks at those three Westville Village locations would make the area more integrated and welcoming to walkers, Da Silva said. A walk across Whalley from Edgewood Park is particularly important, said Semi-Dikoko. ​“We don’t think you can develop the district without the park,” he said.

Semi-Dikoko said as much on Tuesday when he testified to the Commerce Committee. He was one of a group of Westvillians who traveled to the capital that day to lobby for the proposed bill. Community activist Thea Buxbaum, WVRA Director Chris Heitmann, Lyric Hall’s John Cavaliere and others also spoke.

Westville Alderman Adam Marchand delivered a letter signed by eight aldermen from Westville, Upper Westville, West Rock, West Hills and West River.

On Wednesday Da Silva said he’d love to see would be ​“pedestrian street lights” — lampposts. That would further define the area as an inviting area for walkers and shoppers, he said.

He pulled out an 1856 map of Westville Village and said that the area has always been the home of small shops, owned and patronized locally. He said he’s hoping new crosswalk improvements could help keep it that way.