Tom Breen Photo
Pearl-Lincoln intersection, where a car recently hit a pedestrian. Cattanach, below at left.
Allan Appel Photo
Katherine Cattanach survived getting hit by a car at Pearl and Lincoln streets — and then joined neighbors in winning a new stop sign for the intersection, over the objection of the city’s transit chief.
Cattanach was struck by a vehicle while crossing the intersection back on Feb. 7. Neighbors said it was the collision that had been waiting to happen at a sidewalk-less intersection trafficked by lots of cyclists, pedestrians, students, and especially dangerous at rush hours as vehicles cut in from Orange Street to avoid the usual tie-up at Trumbull.
The quiet presence of Cattanach, a Yale School of Management (SOM) student, was felt on the third floor of police headquarters Tuesday night as she joined two dozen colleagues and neighbors were in the room as the commissioners of the Traffic Authority overruled transit chief Doug Hausladen and ordered the stop sign to be placed on Pearl for cars entering from Orange Street.
The ruling was only half a victory for the neighbors, including SOM students who, led by Alder Abby Roth, filled the third floor conference room at police headquarters to overflowing.
Roth had placed two items on the agenda: A requests for an all-way stop at Lincoln and Bradley and a request for the same at Lincoln and Pearl.
Hausladen in his written recommendation to the commissioners had rejected both requests.
He reported that after researching accident reports and volume and speed tests in October, he concluded that neither the volume nor the number and types of crashes at either of the intersections merited all-way stops. He did recommend exploring putting in flashing warning signs on the Lincoln Street approaches to Bradley, because of the proximity of New Haven Academy.
According to Hausladen’s accident and crash report findings, besides the Feb. 7 occurrence, there was only crash at both intersections combined between 2015 and 2018. That was a rear-ending, which would not have been mitigated by an all-way stop, he said.
Pearl Street looking west toward the Yale School of Management
Roth and others argued that the lived experience of pedestrians, students, and cyclists — whose close calls do not turn up in formal statistics —merited intervention, and soon, at both intersections.
In two unanimous votes, the commissioners first tabled for further discussion interventions at Lincoln and Bradley; then, because someone had been struck along with other factors, they voted to authorize immediately putting in a stop sign on Pearl Street, making that intersection an all-way stop.
In addition to the presence of the struck Yale student, several neighbors told the commissioners how the absence of sidewalk on the north side of Pearl Street and portions of the south side drive students and others into the street, where abstracted or cranky drivers put them in peril.
“Do you also track volume of [nearly struck] pedestrians and cyclists because of the absence of sidewalk” on Pearl? asked SOM student body President Christina Whatley. “Because it’s a free for all.”
The commissioners, who have ultimate authority over steps taken by the department, do not generally overrule Hausladen.
But “we have the alder and the community here,” Commissioner Kevin Diaz pointed out. “We need a compromise.”
He suggested that for Lincoln and Bradley, maybe re-painted zebras or other traffic calming measures, short of a stop sign, would do the trick. “The Clinton Avenue speed bumps make a huge difference.”
Commission Chair Anthony Dawson said he empathizes with the department’s short staffing and its significant backlog of requests for humps, bumps, and speed tables, but asked Hausladen to move expeditiously on suggesting alternatives for Lincoln and Bradley and as soon as by next month.
“We need this as a priority,” Dawson said.
Before the discussion ended, Commissioner Donald Walker asked why, with so many SOM students using the street, a sidewalk was not put in when the SOM building was erected.
Director Hausladen, right, with Commissioner Donald Walker.
Hausladen said that was not one of the requirements of the approval process.
The sense of the commissioners was that Yale should begin thinking about doing it now.
“SOM is focusing on it,” said Roth. “They want to make it a safe environment.”
“I was almost hit twice on my bike,” said neighbor Daniel Burkhardt, right before he exited, along with the crowd, after the ruling.
He said he was really pleased with the decision about Lincoln and Pearl. Then he added: “I never thought it was so critical about Bradley.”
The problem with stop signs where they are not warranted is that people ignore them. So, ironically, this makes the situation even less safe for pedestrians.
With a stop sign now, pedestrians/cyclists traveling at night will think a car is going to stop for them... but it won't, because the driver is rational like all of us and generally will choose not to stop at a stop sign if there is never any chance of other traffic there.
Using traffic calming to narrow the lane width to 9 feet, so vehicles are forced to drive much more slowly, is a better solution for a place like this. Put a giant concrete planter in the middle of the road like a few New Haven intersections and streets already have.
I sympathize with neighbors and am sure that something like that has to be done. However, an unwarranted stop sign is just likely to kill someone.