Red Light Run 27 Times In 20 Minutes

50mph and running reds?....Sounds like any other intersection in New Haven to me

Goode work!

We need automated traffic-light enforcement and not just at this intersection. Relatively low $$ tickets that work like parking tickets, assigned to the car not the driver.

So, just like every other intersection in the city - drivers don't stop and no police enforcement

Unless a cop is stationed at every intersection 24/7, enforcement isn't going to cut it. Physical infrastructure is the only thing that's going to regularly slow drivers down. Let's get some serious speed bumps at the end of the ramp.

Cars plow through red lights, park in illegal areas, block intersections and walkways, and worse -- hit pedestrians and bicyclists while doing so.

It will continue until law and traffic enforcement actually happens, right now it's a joke. The city feels lawless.

I can't understand why police leaders won't give people the unfiltered truth. Perhaps their afraid to do so due to their top tier "leadership." LT Borer, tell these people there is nothing you can really do about an individual's decision in running a red light and/or speeding. This coddling of the public's perception in deterrence of crime is comical and has to stop. The PD from my understanding doesn't have enough cops to patrol neighborhoods much less worry about traffic enforcement.

Install some red light cameras where people get automatically ticketed, then you might see a decline in offenders over a period of time. There is NO SHORT FIX for traffic offenders. As a New Haven resident I see the city has consistently installed speed bumps on different streets throughout the city. That is an excellent thing. I don't think it would apply to that route 34/ S. Orange St area due to the speed of the roadway from the off ramp of the highway.

Take a stand city of New Haven, pay to have these red light ticket cameras installed at the city's problematic intersections and I guarantee you'll see a decline. Restructure some of those intersections so they are more pedestrian friendly and actually give you time to cross the street. These things have worked in other cities, New Haven is no different. Diverting police resources to something that is not even the equivalent to a band aid is all theater and pointless.

As a tax payer I am sick of the political theater that this city has become from the Mayor, his city's administrators, the B.O.E. included, along with the current Police and Fire Chiefs.

I find it interesting that the city is discussing narrowing existing arteries like Whitney Ave and State St yet when building these new roads they seem massively wide. I'm not criticizing (yet) or saying one's right and one's wrong, I just think its interesting.

Again, this is a poor design of transition from highway to city street. The extension of Orange St should have been over or under the highway exit ramp transition.
This is because the exiting ramps from I-91s, I-95n and I-95s all merge right at the Brewery St underpass, and drivers are watching out for the merging traffic and don’t have time in the distance between the merge and South Orange St to focus on the transition to city streets intersection. There now either needs to be State DOT strong traffic slowing measures and flashing lights and lighted signage on the highway exits ramps to sufficiently ensure vehicles slow down to 25 mph by the time they enter the exit merge and to be ready to stop at the intersection, or the city and state have wasted a whole lot of money on a death trap that they will have to redesign to have Orange St South go over or under the exit ramp.

Is 27/20 more or less than a typical busy NH intersection?

I'm not at all surprised at this. I drive through this intersection twice a day and have never yet seen any traffic on Orange cross the Frontage Road. Drivers stop or slow at the lights, then proceed because of this. This is a multi million dollar obstruction to traffic created to quieten the lobbying of a few delusional cyclists who think they are saving the planet. It's an even bigger screw up than Lee's original plans for Route 34. I don't know who is responsible for this colossal waste of taxpayer money at city hall, but they should be fired. No, better still. They should be sued so they pay for their profligate waste.

Thank Goodeness for this.

Red-light running is worse here than any place I've lived. Its an absolute city livability issue. I am far more scared of getting creamed by a car every day than getting mugged.

I walk from downtown the medschool and back every day. I pass 7 intersections. For the past month, on average I see 5 red light runs on my walk to and from work. Thats WILD. I have nearly been hit by a car that blew through a red light with a cop directly at an intersection. Yesterday a woman swerved her van to not hit me in the crosswalk as she blew through the light.

where and when is this enforcement going to happen? How do we hold the cops accountable? Im my 7 months of living here I've surely seen hundreds of red lights run. I've never seen a cop pull anyone over for anything.

There could be fatalities if this behavior isn't curbed. Pun intended.

Indeed, I agree with others here. I've lived in three major cities in this Country, and nowhere else have I felt the need to count "one-one-thousand, two-" before proceeding when I'm the first car at an intersection and the light has just turned green for me.

In 9 years living in this area, I have seen police enforce traffic laws on only two occasions. Red-light cameras bring a host of issues, but I firmly believe we need them here.

I wonder how many Jay Walkers And cyclist that ran red lights Cutting in front of cars Riding on the side walk he did not report?

Drivers are not just running the reds here -- they are treating the reds like they do not exist at all. At other intersections in New Haven, drivers often run red lights but usually just within the first 3-5 seconds after the change. This situation is very different and much more dangerous. I would be extra careful going anywhere near this intersection.

Even the most casual occasional driver into HVN has known for some time that this '..new, improved..' design would soon prove to be a person killer; be it one driving a 4 wheeled, 2-wheeled, or 2-footed: 5 lanes, min. 50mph, around a curve, with only signage (essentially saying): "traffic signal ahead, please drive responsively".

Another CT DOT abomination only ~1 mile away from the previous latest CT DOT FUBAR: the I-95 curve @ Long Wharf that takes 5 lanes of traffic, from two merged highways (91 & 95) and reduces it to 3 lanes in ~less than 300 yards. No surprise the Long Wharph stretch is backed up (~20mph max) more often than not.

Perhaps the esteemed state 'engineers' just got the locations wrong on the old blue-print table: the 'Long Warph curve' does a grate job on traffic calming (80-20 mph) where it is not wanted.

The 'MLK connector begins as 2lanes from I-95. A solution might be to keep it so until the Orange St traffic control signals; or a short 3 lane section to accommodate merging I-91 South/I95 North exit feeds to MLK.

We predict the 1st death before end of April....

I feel that at an intersection like this there should be overhead signage that tells drivers what they can expect ahead: but with better indication to let drivers know that they're not on the highway anymore and entering onto city streets.

It's a tough spot because of how the road turns just before approaching Orange Street, but to me it's clear that there needs to be something more than just posted speed limits and how far up ahead is the first traffic light ..

In addition to the risks to people and drivers crossing at Orange Street, many drivers on the exit ramp will get rear-ended too, unless it becomes more obvious that the road has dramatically changed.

In fact I heard that there have already been some nasty rear-end collisions here in just the past couple of days.

This seems like an urgent safety problem that a few tickets from NHPD is not going to fix. The state should consider using special painted markings, more signs, rumble strips, and cones or bollards on the exit ramp to slow drivers, and make them aware of the new street design.

Since drivers have become so used to the old design, those types of measures might need to be in place for a couple years until everyone learns the new pattern.

The Mayor is not being genuine when he says he is taking this problem seriously.
The link below takes you to the most recent COMPSTAT report. YTD there have been 1,794 motor vehicle stops. That's about 500 per month. That's down 47% from 3,390 a year ago. In all of 2018, there were 17,000 motor vehicle stops for the full year, an average of about 1,500 per month. So in 4 years we are down 66%.


https://www.newhavenct.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/11908/637854587765370000

I’m a really slow driver. My passenger’s groan and the cars behind me beep in frustration when I stop at yellow lights.
I drove through this new intersection below the speed limit the other day, and my immediate reaction was that it is only a matter of time before someone is killed. It needs more signage, or something besides the traffic light. It still feels too much like a pedestrian-free highway connector instead of a street within a city. Not sure what the solution is, but I hope it isn’t finished in its current state.

Kudos to Aaron Goode!

There needs to be a forced stop for every car exiting of of the Connector.

Add anther traffic light at the top of the bridge and before the intersection with Orange Street, and make it so you always have to stop at one or the other.

Then if you really want to save lives, sync the lights on both Frontage Roads to 25mph.

Elmcitybornandraised, Esbey, et al., the city does not have the legal authority to install red light cameras at this or similar locations. It's not a matter of money. The city can only do what the legislature allows it to do.

Esbey, in states that do allow red light cameras, there is often a rebuttable presumption that the vehicle's owner is the one operating it. The owner can make the case that another person was driving.

They should have used all those state/federal dollars to make a footbridge, not a crosswalk.

Really important stat, Dennis. Thanks.
Kudos to Aaron, but damn, why wasn’t the city out there doing this work?

Kevin, thanks, I do know that red light cameras require a new state law. Since it will be a new law, the state can write it fresh. I think it is fairer to ticket the car (like a parking ticket) rather than the driver. I think that, plus a low fine, will eliminate some of the opposition to the law. Some of the opposition comes from an idea that red light cameras are somehow unfair to minorities. That is backwards, in my opinion. First, minorities are more likely to be urban pedestrians and so more at risk from bad drivers. Second, a camera ticket isn't a traffic stop that can escalate into a police shooting.

Okay, I just checked this intersection out at night.

A real issue is the concrete barrier between the frontage roads east of the Orange Street intersection.

When coming north on Orange Street towards downtown, you cannot see the cars heading west on North Frontage as they come down at speed from the bridge over the railroad tracks. And vice-versa.

No sight lines = guaranteed t-bone crash, and I hope there isn’t a mother riding shotgun when it happens.

The City needs to quickly call in some professionals for a thorough safety evaluation, and before some is killed or maimed.

I can't believe this is the awful result of two years of construction. It's lousy for drivers AND pedestrians. It's a lose-lose. As usual, there is no timing of the traffic lights so drivers need to endure three or four cycles of the light to make it through.

Nobody really wants to run a red light but here in NH this is simply a result of drivers adapting to dysfunctional city-wide signaling system.

It’s wrong to blame drivers or police for a poorly functioning intersection. This is mostly just poor engineering. A large traffic circle or roundabout would solve this problem, and at lower cost than what has been installed.

New Haven driving is its own kind of dangerous, for sure. If a car looks like it's not going to stop - it's because it isn't. And it's not just New Haven residents either- a lot of people roll in from the suburbs and treat our streets like quick tracks. The consistent offenders: police. They are regularly rolling through stop signs, blowing reds, not using signals, and blocking intersection visibility when they park illegally. Is it all of them? Of course not- but it's a notable driving culture among the force in New Haven. If we want to shift things, they have to be accountable, too.

This looks like a project that was designed by committee as a way to ensure that neither drivers, nor bicyclists, are able to successfully navigate the infrastructure. Only the contractors made good on this abomination, which is always interesting to see.

Heather C.
Bingo! The entire idea of doing away with the connector while building up the area around it was terrible. There will be lots of rear-enders on I-95 now as traffic backs up because people entering New Haven have no where to go. The highway should have been extended, not shortened, with new building built over it as with the garage.

1644, your comment implies that the existing Church Street intersection has not led to a rash of fender-benders. (You are careful in your writing. If the intersection were a serious problem, you would have said the new intersection will make the situation worse.) Enhanced enforcement and design tweaks would help with the new intersection. But in any case, drivers will adjust to the new lights.

And you regularly fault the city for failing to maximize tax revenues by handing out tax breaks. The larger project is in fact creating taxable real estate, notably 100 and 101 College Street. (BTW, we actually agree that the city is overly-generous in providing tax breaks.)

Aaron Goode is an indefatigable guardian for this City. He always has eyes, ears, brain and heart alert to issues and dangers and conditions and opportunities. He is yet another reason that New Haven is worth paying attention to, supporting, and enjoying.

Thanks for writing this. Traffic safety has been a concern of mine for many years. It is scary driving through New Haven. I used to walk to work but it was to difficult starting the day having cars run stops while I’m in the middle of the intersection. Now I try to drive during off hours when there are fewer cars. Drivers speed, tailgate, cut me off, double park and run lights and stops too often everywhere in the city. Something more needs to be done please.

Lots of good suggestions above on how to fix or address the issue and to explain why this road design was poorly imagined. If the highway ramp has gone underneath or over the extended transition from highway to city streets to allow for the merging 3 exit ramps to have adequate time to become one or two lanes focused onto heading into the city streets, then it would have been a much less dangerous transition.
I always thought it also would have been good to have the emergency vehicles heading off the highways to the hospitals to have a direct dedicated tunnel to underneath the Air Rights Garage and to wind up coming out right next to the hospital to access the YNHH ER, or to continue in the lane to merge onto MLK JR Blvd to continue on to St Raphael’s.
Police can not be at every intersection at all hours day or night to prevent red light running or speeding. It is foolish to think they are the solution to this problem.
We need to have red light running cameras and speed enforcement cameras to ticket offenders. If you get enough tickets at a high enough cost then you’ll think twice about speeding or running a red light. We should also have no right on red lights around the city. You have to have a way to dispute the ticket of your car is stolen, but you’ll think twice about loaning your car to another driver if that driver’s behavior leads to tickets to your car. These measures are a 24/7 deterrent that doesn’t have bias or confrontation and is safer for all involved. It’s harder to dispute what they have on camera.
The main issue is road design which is a huge deterrent to bad driver behavior. The design of a road and its intersections, lights timing, pedestrian safety and bike safety measures passively force everyone to behave better subconsciously, and is a 24/7 measure.
It is now up to the DOT and the city to fix the mess they made of this highway transition to city streets. I would advise everyone to avoid this intersection until they do.

When we receive a driver's license, it comes with an unsigned contract to obey the laws of the road and the State. When people stop following the contract, we have road anarchy. We are in a period of that anarchy, and it's scary. Blowing through red lights, speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road, passing on a solid line or hill, not stopping for pedestrians in a crosswalk, etc. are all a part of breaking that contract. Tickets for these offenses are meaningless to the anarchist. What needs to be done for breaking the contract is impoundment of the motor vehicle along with ticketing. Blow through a red light, $200 fine and 60 day impoundment of the vehicle. Second offense, double it!... It's a war we have to win.

OhHum, I’m fine with increasing the penalties for serious traffic offenses. But the current fine for speeding ranges from $142 to $366, depending on the vehicle’s speed and where the offense occurs (e.g., in a school zone). The fine for driving the wrong way ranges from $142 to $285. I doubt that raising the minimum fine for these offenses would have much effect.

And I also doubt that vehicle impoundment would be workable. People routinely pay their traffic tickets without contesting them. I suspect nearly all drivers would contest impoundment. There would have to be a hearing, where the interests of third parties such as family members would have to be considered. The law does allow impoundment after a drunk driving arrest, but only for 48 hours (CGS §14-227h).

This is so obviously a dangerous design I have to assume the person who came up with it is not from New Haven. How many people will have to die before anything is done?

I definitely like the bike infrastructure, but the intersection as a whole is definitely not as safe as it should be for all users.

I actually agree that with the way that the 91/95 interchange is built it basically does causes drivers to go 50 mph, instead of 30 after exiting the highway to go into Downtown. Which is the wrong idea entirely given that the new intersection basically acts as an actual city block itself.

It makes me think that the highway really shouldn't be as close as it is... but also that the stretch of roadway between the highway interchange and the new intersection should be more like a boulevard and less like an expressway.

I'm sorry, but not really -- should have been a bridge to carry pedestrians and cyclists. No amount of enforcement will work, because you're trying to use over-policing to solve a fundamentally faulty design. That intersection will never be safe for anyone but drivers as designed, and whoever took your money to design it ripped you off.

Esby -- tickets for moving violations cannot be assigned to the vehicle, that's against the law. A moving violation is, by definition, an infraction committed by a person; a vehicle cannot break the law of it's own volition.

I'm sure New Havener of the Year, Giovanni Zinn, the city engineer, will be able to resolve all these minor problems easily and promptly. There's nothing here to worry about.

As a recent transplant to New Haven, I am shocked and shaken by the driving behaviors here, particularly the running of red lights. From reading the other comments, it is clearly a well known and serious problem. How did this phenomenon come about?
BTW, after decades of New Jersey driving, New Haven has introduced to me a whole new level of disregard and danger.

"AverageTaxpayer" nailed it. I experienced the exact same dangerous thing. I was on So. Orange at a red light facing toward George St, waiting to cross that intersection at Frontage. Once the green came I started into the intersection with the Jersey barrier completely blocking the view of a car coming into New Haven running the red light and it nearly t-boned me if I didn't slam on the brakes mid-intersection. 100% agree that issue is a disaster waiting to happen. The city needs to immediately replace that last 200 feet of Jersey barrier with some type of transparent structure, with a very low curb and plastic delineators.

Questions: Who was responsible for the original redesign? Who is likely to be tasked with rectifying the problem?

My tells me that Tuesday a week ago there was a four car pile up caused by the new light. This light should be left off.