It was one near miss too many for Muriel Hamilton and her fellow preschool parents and grandparents doing the “Calvin Hill Dash.”
Hamilton was buckling her grandson in the car after picking him up from Calvin Hill Day Center on Highland Avenue, between Prospect and Loomis. A trucker sped by — and almost knocked off Hamilton’s car door.
Hamilton and other members of the parent committee at the center have been experiencing those scares practically every day. They petitioned city officials for help, warning that someone could get killed soon. The city’s traffic czar is promising to look into possible solutions. Meanwhile, Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards has arranged a community meeting on the subject. It takes place this Wednesday night at six o’clock at Celentano School on Canner Street.
The parents’ petition cited near misses every day as some 40 Calvin Hill children get in and out of cars on Highland at pick up and drop off times, without the benefit of warning lights, a sign indicating a school, or any traffic calming measure such as speed bumps or humps.
According to Candace Walton, the parent committee chair at Calvin Hill, Edwards wrote in an email to her that the current request is not the first one made to public city officials. Edwards wrote that she has expressed concern about ameliorating traffic on Highland before. “Maybe the city will do it for me this year,” Edwards said in in her email to Walton.
Calvin Hill Day Care Director Carla Horwitz (pictured with parent Brian Hill) said traffic safety measures have never been more needed than now.
“We were established in 1972,” Horwitz added, “ and I am certain that every few years since we have asked officials to do something about this. However traffic in the last few years has never been faster or more dangerous for our families. Just look at this,” she said.
As she spoke a white van sped by relatively close to the parked cars, one still with kids in it. It traveled far faster than the posted 25 miles and hour.
Parents like Brian Hill are concerned with more than just speed. “It’s the convergence of speed, frustration on the part of drivers, and a narrow road. I always hold tight the hand of my kid,” Hill said, “and we make every effort to get out of the car curbside or from the back. That first step out of the car is really the most dangerous.”
The day care center sits near the top of the hill on Highland. At the Prospect Street end of the block is a light. At the base of the other end of the hill is a four-way stop where Edgehill and St. Ronin arrive at Highland. Between Calvin Hill and the four-way is a crosswalk for the Foote School.
“They have a crossing guard, privately paid, of course,” Horwitz said of Foote. “That helps us some, but he’s not there after three o’clock.”
“In the winter afternoons, at twilight,” said Muriel Hamilton, it’s the worst.” That’s when her door was badly clipped by a truck. “What could I do? I couldn’t reach the buckle from the other side. I was leaning in, my shoulders inside the car with the door open.”
Fortunately, she said, no one was hurt. The truck driver even stopped at the base of the hill and came back.
“I mean they really haul around here,” said Kevin Long as he dropped off his daughter Saheena. “I’ve seen policemen giving tickets occasionally down by the four-way. That would help,” he said.
Calvin Hill parents interviewed weren’t of a single mind about what the remedy should be — more ticketing, humps or bumps or signage or other traffic-calming measures. Some measures may be counter-intuitive. For example, inserting stop signs is generally seen by traffic-calmers as ineffective and contributory to drivers’ irritation-induced speeding.
The work of Fair Haven Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale and a citywide Safe Streets initiative has moved traffic-calming up on the municipal agenda. But with city staff layoffs and declining funds, it is unclear if that momentum will continue. Or if there is even room for Highland on the municipal traffic-calming to-do list.
That question is potentially, of life and death significance for Liz Parmelee and her son Daniel. One recent morning they were doing the Calvin Hill dash across the street, and they made it safely. She cited the speeding issue being aggravated by blindness of drivers who are speeding up the hill toward the crest, just before which the center sits.
“One day last winter,” she said, “I was crossing with Daniel and I fell and slipped on some ice. Scared to death was literally the way I felt. I held on to my son’s hand, but, frankly, I was afraid if I didn’t get up quickly enough, someone would be barreling over the hill and wouldn’t see me.”
Mike Piscitelli, director of the city’s Department of Transportation, Traffic & Parking, said that he received the Calvin Hill request. In an email message he confirmed that either he or a representative from his department will attend Wednesday’s meeting.
In the meantime, his staff is researching both the crash history of the location and how conditions there measure up against what he termed the department’s traffic engineering standards.
Lets wake up for a second people. Speeders. Look at the pictures and statements in this story. First a parent said they try to exit and enter curbside in to the vehicle. Well you should always enter and exit your vehicle with your childs safety first. How many parents cross the street with child in tow. Lazy, and late for work I guess. If your not in a cross walk you are breaking the law, and so is the speeder for speeding. Why play dodge ball with a vehicle, WoW.