Alders OK ​“Safe Routes” Active Transit Plan

This map makes New Haven look like a kangaroo, and I can't unsee that now.

Bikeway, shmikeway. Fix the sidewalks first. There are sections I've seen where tree roots have elevated one side of a slab several inches above the ground, making a huge trip hazard. In addition, the sidewalk along Edgewood avenue is in deep need of repair, with sections completely worn away.

What exactly does a neighborhood greenway look like and where are the plans for individual streets? Will residents be notified directly about proposed changes to their streets?

LittleRat, while much of the attention has been focused on bike lanes, the plan deals extensively with improving pedestrian safety and accessibility. Among other things it calls for improving sidewalks and installing them where they do not exist.

Ironically, one of the barriers to implementing the plan will likely be the alders themselves. Under current practice, an alder has to affirmatively approve infrastructure improvements in their ward, even if they are implementing the city's Complete Streets policy. Getting the affected alder(s) to sign off on a project takes time, even if it is noncontroversial. (Alders, like the rest of us, have finite bandwidth and many demands on their time.) Some infrastructure improvements are controversial, particular if they require the elimination of parking. An elected official's instinct is to avoid controversy when possible. It is easier not to make a decision than to annoy constituents or interest groups.

I have suggested to several officials that the city change this practice. Alders need to know about proposed changes affecting their wards well in advance. And, as a matter of practical politics, they need to be able to veto a project that affects their ward if they believe it is not in their constituents' interest. But the city should change the default, requiring an alder to affirmatively kill a project if this is the case.

@t4nk -

A "neighborhood greenway" is basically much improved bike and pedestrian infrastructure that's makes a neighborhood better connected and easily accessible for all pedestrians and bicyclists only.

"Bicycle Boulevards" is something that always comes to mind when I think of a neighborhood greenway.. Some of the streets would actually be transformed to give bicycles the right of way of the road and not really cars..

Pedestrians would also have much safer sidewalk and crosswalk improvements due to the fact that bikes will have their own "right of ways" whereas all other traffic may be redirected to other nearby streets..

Usually "neighborhood greenways" would be seen in neighborhoods that are in big cities.. but in my opinion, it should also be built in some areas of New Haven to help with slowing cars down and to also give bicyclists and pedestrians a safer way to travel and get around.

The Complete Streets Manual adopted by the City in 2010, following an order by the Board of Alders to "accomodat[e] the safety and convenience of users of the transportation system using a Complete Streets hierarchy of users, which begins with pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users," recommended a number of infrastructure improvements that have not been widely implemented in the 12 years since: sidewalk widening, more frequent or better marked crosswalks, tree belt enhancements, pavement markings, speed humps, refuge islands, bump-outs, chokers, chicanes, diverters. All of these would make streets safer. Please start there.

I hope the latest plan does more than sit on the shelf.

quinnchionn, a minor correction. Under the plan, a neighborhood greenway is easily accessible to bikes and pedestrians. But it is open to cars, with traffic-calming features. While there are folks in East Rock that would love to bar cars from Willow Street, that is not practicable. I suspect the same thing is true for Greenwich Ave. in the Hill.

BTW, the text next to the network map does not make sense. It notes that under the plan 90 miles of proposed bikeways will be added to the existing 47 miles, which is great. It then subtracts nine miles of upgraded bikeways. These bikeways will still exist, for the most part lanes with sharrows will be improved. And the net mileage in the top of the graphic (128) does not match the net mileage in the bottom of the graphic (137).

@Kevin,

Drivers often use Willow Street to get from one part of East Rock to the other.. and to get to the highway and to other areas like Fair Haven.

Greenwich Avenue on the other hand, actually would be easier to have as a greenway.. I suspect that it would be questionable but also difficult to ban cars there, but it would be great to have that in the hill neighborhood..

Reducing car speeds and getting drivers to actually follow rules on Willow must be a key goal. Kevin M and quinnchionn are correct – thousands of cars travel on Willow each day, either to access/exit the highway or to travel east/west. Therefore, how would a greenway actually work given Willow street is narrow, and parking is allowed only on one side of the street? How could bike lanes be incorporated?

And, unfortunately, calming traffic on one street usually results in traffic just moving to nearby streets. The only meaningful way to reduce car traffic is to provide efficient and reliable inter and intra city public transportation – more frequent service, dedicated bus lanes, etc. And the key way to reduce excess speeding and traffic violations might be to actually enforce traffic laws.

There is no debate between bike lanes and sidewalks. There is a debate over transportation infrastructure improvements that, by definition, can only benefit people who are able and EXSITING VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL LAW that are both discriminatory against people with disabilities and hazardous to everyone.

In June 2003, the Supreme Court declined to review the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Barden v Sacramento "Title II's prohibition of discrimination in the provision of public services applies to the maintenance of public sidewalks, which is a normal function of a municipal entity" making that decision binding case law.

There is no Federal law that guarantees bicycling enthusiasts the right to more convenient travel.

The City apparently plans to violate Federal law again as it did when it installed a transportation infrastructure improvement that, by definition can only benefit people who are able and left in place existing violations of Federal law less than fifteen feet away, that deny people who use wheelchairs the right to travel that same route.

How do you get away with discriminating against the members of a protected class? Ignore their existence. Don't appoint anyone to the Disabilities Commission so it cannot function. Exclude people with disabilities from the demographic analysis and exclude the assistive devices that people with disabilities use from the analysis of modes of transportation. If you ignore people's existence, you can ignore the rights that they have.

The plan did "task" the Disabilities Commission with filling in those gaps but because the last two Mayors failed to appoint the required number of members to that Commission, the right of people with disabilities to be represented was substantially limited. There is no evidence that those tasks were completed.

The planners went ahead and chose locations and created designs anyway.

It is very obvious that the intent of the City of New Haven is to discriminate against peopl

Who thinks that the City of New Haven should install a bike lane next to the ADA-compliant paths of travel in front of Hooker Middle School in 62% White East Rock and leave preexisting violations of the ADA on both sides of Montessori School in 21% White Edgewood?

Anyone want to publicly support that? No?

Well that's what the City of New Haven plans to do - ignore barriers to access to a school to disabled Black public school students and give able White public school students bike lanes to go with the ADA-compliant sidewalks that disabled White kids have.

Finally, I have one very simple question for the Mayor and the Board of Alders:

How many existing violations of Federal legislation, case law and regulations that provide protections against discrimination against people with disabilities will be left in place when the first bike lane is completed?

If the answer is anything other than "zero," the City of New Haven will be guilty of intentional discrimination against individuals who have disabilities by providing a transportation infrastructure improvement to people who are able (a favored class) while knowingly and willfully leaving violations of Federal law in place that discriminate against people with disabilities (a disfavored, and protected because it is disfavored class),

You can't remodel the "Whites Only" restroom.