Orange Street’s Reconnection Draws Near

Hmmm…. Cars coming off the highway, going over the railroad bridge, then downhill and around a curve to this new intersection.

What could possibly go wrong?

Bottom line is that without some means of slowing traffic, (advance stop light, rumble strips), some pedestrian or bicyclist is bound to killed at MLK & Orange.

This current configuration is a full-blown hazard and certainly not a success story.

Why no rumble strips?

For cars: "To our beloved automobiles, here are FIVE extra-wide lanes for your giant 2,000 lb. SUV! Take your pick, they are all yours! Use them as you please"

For bicyclists: "You can have this narrow, barely protected, pathetic little bike lane for you and your silly little bicycle. And YOU'RE WELCOME! Ungrateful cyclists." (PS... We hope you like the utility pole we planted RIGHT IN THE CENTER of your "lane" LOL)

For pedestrians: "You walk? How brave! Good luck crossing before the cars are set free by the green light -- tick tock, better hurry, only 2 seconds left!"

2021 and this is how we allocate street space. Pathetic.

Making pedestrians wait in the tiny island at the center is insulting.

Pedestrians are going to try to run across all 11 lanes anyways, especially given that they'll already have waited at the curb for several minutes for the light to change, most likely.

Hopefully there will also be about triple the usual crossing time given -- since most pedestrians are not going to begin crossing until they are 100% sure that all the 60 mile per hour traffic coming down the hill into the intersection has come to a stop.

I agree with AverageTaxpayer and EngagedCitizen that more needs to be done to slow traffic coming off the highway and entering downtown at the intersections. There should be rumble strips, raised crosswalks and bike crossings and narrower streets with fewer lanes as you leave the highway and enter MLK Jr Blvd at Orange St. There also should be a longer exit only lane for downtown coming from I-91 south to allow for traffic backup during rush hours with clear overhead signage at two miles and one mile back up the highway as to make clear the left exit lane for I-95 north and continue straight for I-95 south and the right exit lane for Downtown, so vehicles can jockey for the correct lane well in advance. There should be posted speed limits with flashing lights as you approach the exit ramp and while you enter it to make sure vehicles slow down. Otherwise people are going to get killed where the highway meets the city streets.

Calling it now - there's going to be a crash the first day this thing opens. And like many others have stated, someone is going to get killed here. Don't get me wrong, I love that the streets are being reconnected, but 11 lanes wide? It's obvious that this intersection was designed for vehicular efficiency first, second, and third, followed by bikes and pedestrians dead last. Hence the insane number of lanes and the fact that the pedestrian crossing is split in half.

@anonymous said it perfectly - having to wait in the center island surrounded by whizzing free-flowing traffic is insulting. And of course, people are going to try to cross the whole intersection in one go. Any other intersection in the city can be crossed at once. This is unique and non-intuitive, and requires pedestrians to put all their trust in drivers to stop for the red light after approaching it at 60 mph.

The other massive issue that many have brought up is slowing down highway traffic to city street speed. The "transverse markings and flashing lights" and painted speed limit on the road already exist on the connector, and they do absolutely nothing. So it doesn't sound like anything else is actually being done to bring down the highway traffic to the speed limit.

I do appreciate that an effort was made to make this a protected bike and pedestrian intersection. But my fear is that residents will come to learn that crossing this intersection is an unnecessary risk to their life, and will instead just continue to use the underpass by State St and Water St. And then the people who think cars are supreme and bike infrastructure isn't needed will use this as an example of "Look, you built bike infrastructure and it's not even being used, so why do we keep spending money on it?" My heart already aches for the first victims this intersection will claim.

What is really needed is a forced stop in advance of this intersection. Add a stoplight to the top of the railroad bridge.

Make the speeding cars either stop at a light on top of the railroad bridge, or at Orange Street itself. All cars stop for 10-30 seconds, adjust to the fact that the highway has ended and then travel along our City streets.

I guess something like this will ultimately come to pass, but only after the third or fourth pedestrian death. Whoever signed off on the current design of this intersection should be held criminally negligent.

AverageTaxpayer is right. In New Haven, Broadway uses an effective approach. Coming off of Whalley Avenue, drivers often have to stop at a stoplight for 10-20 seconds along Broadway before they have to proceed more cautiously through the busy intersection at York/Elm. In some cases these stoplights are located where there are crosswalks, but few people really use those crosswalks, so the stop lights are really more about slowing traffic in advance of the actual pedestrian crossing.

After zooming along Whalley Avenue one block earlier at 50 miles per hour, it's impressive that this system works so well to calm traffic pretty well before it hits York/Elm. The situation coming off the highway is much worse, of course.

One thing to remember is that Yale paid for improvements like these at Broadway to protect their faculty and students. There were other safety measures added there, like narrower lane widths, that I won't get into right now, but are also important. In the case of the intersections along MLK Boulevard, there doesn't seem to be nearly as much concern about safety, perhaps because there won't be nearly as many Yalies there.

How does this affect the stagnant Spinnaker Coliseum project?

Stylo, I expect Tom has some insights regarding your question. But my guess is that this development does not really affect the Coliseum project one way or the other.

This is a profoundly dumb idea. It's only a matter of time before there's a horrific rear-end crash on the I-95 south and I-91 south highway exit ramps. I hope that all of the boosters who were there today attend the funerals for the unfortunate victims involved. Even now, the ramp requires drivers from I-95 north to traverse four lanes in order to turn right at Church Street to come downtown, and the new light will make that much more difficult.

It's exciting to see this transformation of New Haven into a modern urban center based around medical research and biotechnology.

Folks, drivers coming off I-91, myself included, will have to learn new traffic patterns. But, to my knowledge, there has been no "horrific rear-end crash" at the Church Street intersection. There certainly have been fender-benders, but that was true with the original connector. I recall Justin Elicker, in his pre-mayoral days, testifying at a public hearing that the Church Street intersection design would lead to pedestrian deaths and serious injuries. His concern was sincere, but I don't believe the design has been the problem he anticipated.

Heather, rumble strips are inappropriate near residential neighborhoods. You hear them blocks away and there are hundreds of apartments nearby. But there additional steps the city can take to slow traffic coming off of I-91. There already are posted 25 mph speed limit signs as you approach the Orange Street intersection - adding flashing lights would help a bit. The city/ConnDOT could also narrow lane widths as traffic approaches downtown and plant additional trees on the approach.

Anonymous, pedestrian traffic islands have been used for decades around the world. They work.

@ Kevin - please don't equate this new MLK-Orange intersection with the Church Street intersection 150 yards down the road.

Church street has reasonable sight lines, after a stretch of straight road. Orange Street is run into after the Connector highway comes down a hill and around a curve.

This is a welcomed development that will further help New Haven grow into a more attractive city. Hopefully time will prove all these fear mongerers and naysayers wrong!

There is a good evidence that a well-connected and dense street grid can have many benefits over the "dendritic" roadway system of local, collector, arterial, highway system. Some of those benefits may include alleviating some traffic by providing alternate routes, improving access for other modes of transportation, and creating development opportunities. A decent argument could be made for reconnecting Temple Street across Route 34.

The Orange Street crossing is a more difficult argument to make because it came at an extraordinary cost, it does not open any new land for development, turning will still be very limited, and it may facilitate safety issues for pedestrians and cyclists. I don't see how the costs of this construction and maintenance will ever be recouped.

I wonder if it may have made more sense to wait to connect Orange Street until we figured out a way to significantly reduce the amount of traffic on the roadway so that a safer and more sensible intersection could be designed.

AverageTaxpayer, people (including drivers) adapt to changing circumstances. Most people driving the Connector do so on a regular basis, and will adjust their driving. (Not to say they will be thrilled with the change.)

NH Urbanism I agree with your first paragraph. And you're right that this phase of the project does not create land whose development will at least partially offset its cost. But the project as a whole will. And this phase was not promoted as being self-financing. It will help reconnect Downtown and the Hill, and will support the redevelopment of the Coliseum site and Church Street South.

KM,

There was/is a plausible argument for Downtown Crossing project. Redesigning the submerged segment of the Oak Street Connector to be private garage drives, expanding traffic capacity on North and South Frontage Roads, redesigning the intersections and bridge crossing at Church and College Streets, and reconnecting Temple Street makes sense in order to facilitate development while accommodating current traffic demand and commuting patterns.

The Orange Street crossing is a bit more of a stretch, especially because it will not open up any additional parcels for development, the intersection is awkwardly designed for pedestrians and cyclists, the cost was astronomical, and vehicular turning options will be very limited. According to the most recent design (https://secureservercdn.net/50.62.194.59/vx4.d93.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Screen-Shot-2019-05-19-at-4.12.10-PM-700x400.png) vehicles traveling eastbound on Route 34 will not be able to turn left onto Orange Street towards Downtown, and vehicles traveling westbound on Route 34 will not be able to turn left onto South Orange Street towards Union Station.

I suspect that State Street will continue to be a safer, more desirable, and more comfortable travel route for pedestrians and cyclists. I hope these concerns turn out to be unwarranted, but I'm skeptical.

It also looks like vehicles traveling south on Orange Street will not be able to turn left onto the eastbound Route 34 ramp towards I-91/95 and that northbound travelers on South Orange Street will not be able to turn left onto the westbound Route 34 ramp towards Church Street. Can anyone confirm?

NHU: That's correct. Vehicles on Orange St can only make through or right turn movements. I believe lefts are prohibited due to safety/capacity reasons, as adding a left turn phase to the signal would require an even longer signal cycle. So basically no left turns at all will be permitted here.

@Kevin McCarthy

I may have been mistaken. I thought this project was a prerequisite for them to start construction on the Coliseum lot.

I passed the construction of this and it boggles the mind. I'm not an engineer and even I can tell this makes zero sense.