Humans proceed at your own peril: Looking West on Eli Road.
Stressed “street network” including Ridge Road to Davis Street, Eli Road, and down to Whitney Avenue.
Martha stood in front of her condo complex on Eli Road and considered the prospects of walking the ten feet to her neighborhood’s garden park.
“You cross here?” she warned. “You’re dead.”
Martha (she declined to give her last name) isn’t alone in her assessment of the survivability of pedestrians navigating that small stretch of pavement near Davis Street, or other nearby intersections in southern Hamden. Martha and her neighbors have been complaining to the town for decades, asking for an infrastructural solution that might protect them from getting run over.
Could Hamden be ready for a strategic response to deadly driving and unsafe streets?
The question has been building for years, with neighbors increasingly demanding action.
After a false start, the town is putting together a plan for the southern end of town. It has completed a detailed assessment of all the area’s unsafe streets. It has drawn up a long list of possible fixes, which will go before citizens and the Legislative Council for extensive review.
Usually, Martha said, she and her friend K just “glare or yell” at speeding drivers. Or they say a silent prayer before venturing across any of the streets in their neighborhood, including Eli Road, Davis Street, Whitney Avenue, and Ridge Road.
Others have filed requests with the town to install speed bumps and truck restrictions, citing annoyances with constant noise and distracted drivers.
Steve Moser, one of Martha’s neighbors and the owner of the independent bookstore “Books & Co.” located on Whitney at the intersection of Putnam, has lived in the area since 2000. In 2008, a teenager without a license speeding on Putnam crashed into Moser’s shop, forcing him and his wife to close up for months while they repaired damages to the building.
Nora Grace-Flood photo
Steve Moser walks his dog, Lilly, on the back trail behind his Whitneyville condo complex, safe from distracted drivers.
Moser said he’s had enough close calls with vehicles driving through red lights and whizzing past him while he’s walking through the neighborhood’s streets that he actively worries about high schoolers “looking at their phones” and traveling between campus buildings located on opposite sides of Whitney Avenue and Eli Road.
Town Engineer Mark Austin, who’s been on the job for about five years, has heard residents’ concerns.
“They’ve been very consistent about noise and speed and lack of pedestrian access,” he told the Independent. “They’re consistent — and they’re right.”
The First Attempt
A map of the intersections in Whitneyville and Ridgehill where crashes have occurred.
The most recent attempt to confront issues of noise and traffic density articulated by Davis Street residents was an ordinance proposed by Police Chief John Sullivan. It would have placed weight restrictions on trucks driving on Davis Street, the road which travels from Ridge Road over Lake Whitney, then connects to Eli Road and merges onto Whitney at the southern entrance to town.
The council first reviewed that potential legislation in June. Members postponed voting because of public feedback expressing extreme skepticism about the plan — largely from individuals outside of Whitneyville.
“My understanding is that this ordinance was proposed without a clear plan or traffic impact study. I think more study needs to be completed about how a truck weight limit for a couple of streets in town will affect all other streets in the area,” Spring Glen resident Elaine Dove wrote on June 22, alongside around eight other commenters. “We need to make it clear that all truck traffic must go on our major streets, such as State, Dixwell, Whitney, and come to town via the Rt 10 Connector… My sympathies are with Davis St. residents, but such a change will have a domino effect on many other streets unless we understand fully what will work best everywhere.”
In response to those public comments, Austin formed a partnership with UConn’s Technology Transfer Center. Those students produced, free of charge, several road safety assessments (RSAs) highlighting issues with roads and streets throughout the town. One of those was a report on the street network around Davis, including Eli and Ridge Roads.
The holistic examination also rejected the weight restriction suggestion, finding that both Ridge Road (which currently features “no-thru truck” signage) and Davis Street are more appropriate for truck passage than the local residential streets that trucks would be pushed into if forced to find an alternative route: “The roadway is geometrically sufficient and the Davis Street Bridge is a modern bridge and capable to carry truck traffic,” Austin wrote in the report. Plus, such an ordinance would be virtually unenforceable, Austin said.
On Monday night, the Legislative Council officially and unanimously dismissed the ordinance. But the expectation is that the issue will come back before them in a new form.
Enter The Austin Report
The signage and sidewalk construction going east on Davis.
The vote once again raised the question of how the town might intervene to meet residents’ growing concerns. But this time around, Austin’s safety report has changed the conversation from simply curbing traffic on Davis Street to a multifaceted reimagining of safety, walkability, and showcasing of scenery throughout the Whitneyville and Ridge Hill neighborhoods.
In the immediate future, Austin said the town does plan to remove the “No Thru Truck” signage on Ridge Road between State and Davis and install a midblock painted crosswalk on Eli Road with signage at the stair case where students cross to the newly acquired Hamden Hall school building. Austin is also finalizing a design and navigating the state permitting process to put in sidewalks on Davis extending east of Hartford Turnpike. Construction on that project, he said, should begin in 2023.
Austin and his UConn RSA team compiled a series of potential solutions ranging from short to long term solutions as well as low cost and high investment options. Given that “the public will not accept no action,” as Austin put it, he is now preparing to schedule forums, conversations with civic associations, and office hours to communicate with residents about what they believe would be the best course of action.
Low-cost, short-term interventions could include:
• Installing speed limit signs west of Franklin Road for westbound traffic.
• Installing edge lines from west of State Street to Park Road and/or through the intersection of Ridge Road and Park Road.
• Installing curve advisory speed signage in advance of the curve at Park Road.
• Restriping lanes and shoulders on Ridge Road to narrow lane widths and add bicycle lanes, and/or installing “share the road” signs.
• Installing “No Thru Traffic” sign on span wire for eastbound approach on Davis Street at Ridge Road.
• Trimming brush along south side of Davis Street between Hartford Turnpike and the bridge.
• Restriping Eli Road to accommodate a bicycle lane and parking or installing sharrows and “share the road signs.”
• Installing a continental-style crosswalk with high-visibility school crossing signs at school steps.
• Trimming branches overhanging the sidewalk on Eli Road for pedestrian safety.
Some higher cost projects that would mean mid or long term implementation include:
• Installing a left-turn pocket for westbound traffic entering the Dunkin Donuts parking lot at Ridge Road.
• Installing ADA compliant pedestrian ramps with crosswalks across Franklin Road and Ridge Road.
• Extending the sidewalk on the south side of Ridge Road from its terminus to Park Road.
• Realigning the intersection of Ridge Road and Park Road to reduce the curb radius.
• Installing a curb extension on the southeastern side of Ridge Road at Davis Street to replace the painted island and shorten the crosswalk across Davis Street.
• Installing a raised median island east of East Rock Park entrance on Davis Street with a crosswalk, ADA-compliant pedestrian maps and a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon.
• Installing a raised median at Rogers Road with a crosswalk across Davis Street, ADA-compliant pedestrian maps and a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon.
• Adding a right turn lane for the southbound approach on Davis Street at Hartford Turnpike.
• Repairing the existing sidewalk on the north side of Davis Street from Hartford Turnpike westbound.
• Installing a crosswalk at the eastern side of the Davis Street bridge to include ADA-compliant pedestrian ramps and an RRFB or extending a sidewalk on the south side of the bridge to the Hartford Turnpike.
• Installing a crosswalk at the western side of the Davis Street bridge to include ADA-compliant pedestrian ramps and an RRFB to provide connection for the Mill River Trail.
• Installing a green space or pocket park in the existing painted hatch area on the bridge, installing a center island between the proposed crosswalks, or creating parking spaces in the existing painted hatch area and adding a grass strip between parking and sidewalk.
• Installing a mini-roundabout at the intersection of Davis Street at Eli Road.
• Adding bicycle lanes on the south side to promote the Mill River Trail.
• Adding edge lines to narrow traffic lanes on Davis Street at Whitney Avenue.
• Installing curb extensions, a crosswalk and an RRFB at school steps on Eli Road.
• Installing a spitter island for left and right-turn lanes onto Whitney Avenue on Eli Road, or reducing the curb radius to realign Eli Road closer to a 90 degree angle to Whitney Avenue, providing left and right turn lanes and green space on the western curb line and relocating the crosswalk with ADA-compliant ramps and associated signs.
• Closing Eli Road to traffic entirely.
Incoming Council Weighs In
One safe-streets-minded incoming Legislative Council member, Ted Stevens (a transportation planner in his day job), has been reviewing the options in advance of the official start of his two-year term.
“According to the UConn Crash Data Repository, there have been 54 crashes, including one fatality, on Davis Street since 2015, with another 20 on Eli Road during the same time. That seems like a lot for roads that are only 0.5 and 0.1 miles long, respectively, so I think some sort of traffic calming is probably appropriate,” Stevens told the Independent.
“I think we should also be sure to include roundabouts in our toolkit of possible traffic improvements, as they are effective at both calming and moving vehicles efficiently with less idling time. This may not be the best place for one, but we should absolutely be considering them as an option when designing intersections.”
Stevens also added that “given its proximity to downtown New Haven and the planned bike route up Whitney Avenue and its connection with Ridge Road and East Rock Park, both of which are popular biking routes, I’d love to see serious consideration given to putting dedicated bike lanes on this route.”
Stevens said the challenge is figuring out how to remain fiscally conservative and prioritize whichever roads need the most attention in an objective process moving forward.
For example, he noted that individuals in the Ridge Hill neighborhood, one of the wealthiest areas in town, have long been vocal about safety on their streets. He said he wants to make sure that members of lower income areas don’t miss opportunities for better streets just because others’ voices are louder.
Justin Farmer, the Fifth District Council official who represents Whitneyville, agreed that the town needs to develop a clear system by which to consider how altering one road could impact others across town. He suggested that the council form a traffic committee, or hire a traffic expert to support the efforts of Town Engineer Mark Austin.
Given the area’s proximity to East Rock Park and other valuable open spaces that the Fifth District currently lacks, Farmer said that improving the walkability of the area is a project he plans to prioritize this coming session. Like Austin, he said he believes that additional community conversations must precede any significant decision making regarding infrastructure in the area.
Austin noted that even if the council does unite around bigger projects to revamp the area, like creating green space to overlook Lake Whitney or constructing a roundabout in front of Hamden High, those likely won’t be possible to fund until 2027, as he’s currently operating on a budget built out until 2026.
Hamden: where the people are as high as the taxes.