Thomas Breen photo
A 4-foot bike lane between Edwards and Humphrey.
City transit planners Wednesday night received a fresh earful of impassioned pleas and conflicting advice from East Rockers as drivers and cyclists squared off about … Orange Street bike lanes.
The city’s transit director presented parking count data and bike lane proposals for eight blocks of upper Orange Street.
Cycling advocates called for safer infrastructure for more than just cars. Drivers called for the preservation of on-street parking spaces. The Zoom chat filled with links, accusations, frustration, and calls for city support.
That debate played out at a crowded and hotly contested online public meeting on Wednesday night — in almost exactly the same way that it played out at a crowded and hotly contested online public meeting in March 2022.
One could be forgiven for feeling quite a bit of deja vu while watching the hour-and-a-half-long video-streamed public meeting on Wednesday about whether or not protected bike lanes should replace on-street parking spaces on one side of Orange Street between Humphrey Street and Cold Spring.
Back in March 2022, city Director of Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TT&P) Sandeep Aysola presented on that topic at an online meeting attended by 70 people. Cyclists warned about unsafe commuting conditions and the dangers of getting “doored” on the East Rock corridor. Some neighbors and business owners worried that the removal of parking spaces could hurt commerce and quality of life for those who can’t easily pedal to and fro.
On Wednesday, Aysola presented again on restriping that same stretch of Orange Street to potentially include better protected and wider bike lanes, and fewer on-street parking spaces. This time, the audience at the Zoom meeting reached 150 people, according to Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre.
At Wednesday's meeting.
Aysola kicked off Wednesday’s meeting by talking attendees through the current parameters of the roadway, the recent crash history, and a handful of proposals for how the repaved stretch of Orange Street could be restriped to accommodate safer cycling.
The roadway itself is 42 feet wide. There’s seven feet worth of parking spaces on both sides. The north- and southbound car travel lanes are 10 feet wide each. There were four-foot wide bike lanes on both sides — but those bike lanes have been gone since the road was repaved in the fall of 2021, and won’t be put back until the city figures out what to do next. (There are two blocks of preserved four-foot-wide, one-way bike lanes between Humphrey and Edwards.)
Aysolsa said there have been 145 reported crashes on this stretch of Orange in the past five years, none of which have been fatal or resulted in “serious injuries.” The speed limit is 25 miles per hour. The 85th percentile speed is 21 miles per hour. The peak traffic volume is 240 vehicles per hour. “This is a very low volume corridor,” he said.
There are currently 1,191 parking spaces in the area bounded by Humphrey, Cold Spring, Livingston, and Foster, with 199 of those spaces on Orange Street and 992 on side streets. Typically, there are no time limits on these parking spots.
According to a parking utilization study conducted by the city this summer, Aysola said, during peak utilization hours — on weekends between 4 and 5 p.m. — there are at least 400 parking spaces free in this area, including around 50 on Orange Street.
Aysola then presented the group with four alternatives for what could come next:
• A “do nothing” approach that would preserve on-street parking on both sides of the street and bring back the four-foot-wide bike lanes, which are narrower than recommended by the federal government;
• The removal of on-street parking on the west side of the street and the addition of a 2.5‑foot buffer and five-foot-wide bike lanes on both sides (with the east side of the street’s bike lane being “parking protected.”
• The removal of on-street parking on the east side of the street and the addition of a 2.5‑foot buffer and five-foot-wide bike lanes on both sides (with the west side of the street’s bike lane being “parking protected.”
• The retention of on-street parking on both sides of the street, the addition of a parking-protected buffer of 2.5 feet and a five-foot-wide bike lane on the east side of the street, and the painting of “sharrows” on the west side of the street.
Aysola made clear that the point of Wednesday’s public meeting was to present the parking study data and to solicit more feedback from the public. “We haven’t made a decision” on what to do next on this stretch of Orange, and the city wouldn’t be making a decision at the end of the meeting.
With that, he opened up the floor for questions and comments. Plenty of questions and comments ensued.
“I very much want protected bike lanes on both sides of Orange,” said Foster Street resident and safe streets advocate Lior Trestman. He said he’s been “doored on Orange multiple times,” and that the street is dangerous and uncomfortable to bike along in its current condition.
“We need to make it safe and comfortable for everyone, not just daredevils, to bike between East Rock and downtown.” Streets are public property, he said, and the Board of Alders has already prioritized making roadways safer for cyclists and pedestrians and bus riders through its decade-old complete streets ordinance.
Orange Street resident Clancy Emanuel agreed. “There’s something very social about Orange Street. I’ve heard it called the Sesame Street of New Haven. There’s something delightful about being able to bike down a regular community spot” and see friends, stop and talk, shop, all on one street. He said he would have felt “a whole heck of a lot safer in a protected bike lane” during his many trips on two wheels up and down the corridor.
“I’m not concerned about the loss of parking,” said neighborhood ice cream shop owner Elena Grewal. She said she’s in “strong support for the protected bike lanes on both sides of Orange.” All the research shows protected bike lanes make roadways safer, she said, and even beneficial to businesses on the block.
Not everyone agreed.
“I have seen the challenge to parking because we do not have enough parking in this neighborhood,” said Robert Grzywacz. “I appreciate a statistical analysis of the parking, but the fact is, for a lot of our streets, we have more cars than parking spaces.” On snow days and street sweeping days, he said, “it is chaos. It is total chaos.”
Clare Flannery and Rob Berman, in separate testimonials, pressed the city to more seriously consider improving bike lanes on Orange Street south of Humphrey and leading towards downtown. That connector between East Rock and downtown is more dangerous and in greater need of cycling improvements, they said. The eight-block bike lane proposed for Humphrey to Cold Spring is kind of a “bike lane to nowhere,” as Berman put it, without better infrastructure south of Humphrey.
“Parking is a huge issue for us,” said an attendee named Mark, who said he was speaking on behalf of the ownership of Orange Street’s Caffe Bravo. “It has always been.” While Orange Street neighbors do support the restaurant, he said, “we do rely on a lot of individuals and patrons from other towns. Knowing how big of an issue that is already for our patrons, if we were to lose half of street parking, that would be a very big problem for us.”
As the 20th and final public speaker of the night, an attendee named Thalia closed out the public commentary with “maybe a technocratic note.”
“When do your obligations end to seek public feedback?” The city has been contemplating bike lane proposals and soliciting public input on this project since at least March 2022. When does it end? And when will the city make a decision?
Aysola said that the city is looking to get as many comments as possible from the public in the next 30 days. “We are looking to make some decision by the spring of next year.”
Anyone interested in weighing in on this matter can email their thoughts to the city at [email protected].
I'm a cyclist and think they should keep parking on both sides. I think its important to the local businesses. I think it's fine with parking on both sides and a painted bike lane on each side. (the same way it is between Bishop and Humphrey).
I realize its not perfect but no solution will be.
If I'm riding it could be anywhere from a couple miles to 20 or 30+ miles. We're talking about maybe a quarter mile of roadway here. Stripping out the parking so there's a nice wide bike lane for that quarter mile isn't going to impact my overall ride very much.
If I'm riding and there's little to no traffic I'll drift out into the car lane a bit to avoid the chance of getting doored. If there's traffic then I'll watch closely for people in vehicles.