A school bus driver may be headed for discipline, after a neighbor caught a yellow bus on video barreling through Fair Haven Heights.
A poster by the name of “ianc” caught a DATTCO bus zipping down Quinnipiac Avenue and reported it on the site SeeClickFix.com.
The video is one of two clips of unsafe driving creating a stir on the quality-of-life-issue-reporting site, amplifying a call for safer streets. It represents the new frontier of a growing citywide “traffic-calming” movement, in which citizens use new tools to regain control of their streets.
The Fair Haven Heights video captures the bus going 36 mph on a 25 mile-per-hour zone. The evidence is hard to refute: The speed is captured by radar and displayed on a digital sign. The video clearly shows the bus number. A note with the video says it was taken at 7:20 a.m. on April 28 on Quinnipiac Avenue. (Click on the arrow above to watch.)
“Cops need to do a sting on bus drivers,” wrote “ianc.” “This is so dangerous for the children inside.”
Reached Tuesday, DATTCO Chief Operating Officer Cliff Gibson was asked if his company was aware of the incident.
“We are now,” he said. “Now that we are, we’ll have to take appropriate action.”
“It looks like we have the bus number, the date, and the incident, so we should be able to take it from there and we’ll take corrective action from there” on the driver, said Gibson. “Speeding is speeding, and we don’t tolerate it.”
Gibson said his company services the ACES schools in the New Haven area.
The vast majority of the city school bus service is done by First Student, Inc. The company has prompted numerous complaints on SeeClickFix of speeding throughout the city.
“Our houses are built on SAND,” wrote one commenter on SeeClickFix who spotted a speeding First Student bus on Fair Haven’s Front Street. “Speeding over potholes and manhole covers causes them to BOUNCE and SHIFT.”
Based on keywords, First Student receives email alerts when neighbors report speeding buses on SeeClickFix. First Student spokeswoman Nicol Jones said she couldn’t address the specific reports on the site, but the company does investigate every complaint it gets.
Bounty Set
Over in East Rock, a SeeClickFix post reporting a Yale shuttle bus “flying up Bishop Street” drew 50 comments — and a challenge to neighborhood watchdogs.
“So let’s take action,” said a poster by the handle “Eddie.”
“I will personally order a large pizza for anyone who can catch a Yale bus speeding on video and post the YouTube link on this string.” Asked to clarify, he said the pie would come from Modern Apizza.
Someone named “Resident” upped the ante, offering cold beer with the pizza pie.
Yale officials receive alerts from SeeClickFix about the shuttles. A spokeswoman said she didn’t know if the alerts have prompted discipline.
A Crosswalk Call
Back in Fair Haven, a crosswalk campaign is gathering momentum with the help of a camera lens.
One neighbor opened a “ticket” on SeeClickFix about a month ago reporting unsafe conditions on Front Street.
“A crosswalk is needed for the northern corner of the Pine St/Front St intersection to allow for safe access for children and families to the pedestrian gate of the Waucoma Yacht Club,” the poster wrote. “Currently a dangerous curve on Front Street leaves families with young children dodging speeding traffic to access the pedestrian gate.”
The post has drawn nearly 50 comments. It also prompted a wobbly video from a young traffic-calming activist, Brian Tang. Tang, a Yale student who’s interning at City Hall, videotaped himself trying to cross Front Street at Pine Street, near the Waucoma Yacht Club, “waving at the drivers to try to get their attention to see if they would yield the right of way.” (Click on the play arrow to watch.)
On a recent neighborhood tour, Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. heard similar complaints. He pledged to have police set up a speed trap for buses zooming down Front Street.
Reached Tuesday, city transportation czar Mike Piscitelli said his department examined the intersection in response to complaints of recent crashes there. He said he’s aware of at least three accidents at the site, including one where a car plowed into an alderwoman’s house.
Piscitelli said the city has “logged” the crosswalk request, but “it’s not something we can do right away.”
Front Street was recently redone without adding the stripes. Piscitelli said the crosswalk hasn’t been installed because in order to do so, the city would have to install a handicapped-accessible ramp.
However, he did pledge some improvements: The city has plans to fix a guide rail and put in new signs to alert people to the nearby curve on Front Street.
Fair warning to the drivers, I suppose. Speeding may seem like a minor offense, but in reality, it causes massive long-term psychological and physiological stress to the people who live in the homes next to these roads. The drivers should have to pay for the damages they have caused. I suggest civil lawsuits as well.
Enforcement and education can help, but ultimately the roads must be designed in a way that will prevent people from driving above a certain speed -- just like they are in "high rent" places such as Darien, Greenwich, Cambridge, Boulder, West Hartford and in front of the State Capitol in Hartford. Yes, New Haven is cash-strapped: but people are going to continue to flee the city and the tax base will decline until we can get a handle on making our neighborhoods more livable. And New Haveners' lives are just as important as those of hedge fund billionaires or Jodi Rell.