Laura Glesby Photo
Safe-streets advocates at recent memorial for crash victims.
“Safe streets” advocates are lining up behind a state traffic-camera proposal and drumming up support for car-slowing measures on city streets.
The outreach committee of New Haven’s Safe Streets Coalition charted that strategy during an online public brainstorming meeting held online Wednesday evening.
The group discussed lobbying state lawmakers and mayoral candidates to support Raised House Bill 5429: An Act Concerning Pedestrian Safety, Vision Zero Council, Speed Limits In Municipalities, Fines And Charges For Certain Violations, The Greenways Commemorative Account And Maintenance Work Zone And School Zone Safety Enforcement, which is currently before the legislature. The bill would create a statewide Vision Zero Council charged with charting a path towards zero transportation-related fatalities; increase fines for drivers distracted by electronic devices while behind the wheel; and allow for the use of speed cameras to catch dangerous drivers
“There should be a push for candidates to be vocally and visibility committed to vision zero and traffic infrastructure” said Safe Streets organizer Lorena Mitchell.
City Point resident and federal public defender Andrew Giering argued speed cameras can help to reduce local police enforcement for traffic violations, and therefore make streets safer in two ways: less speeding and less personal police discretion on when to stop someone.
“We’re trying to reduce these problematic encounters with police by taking police out of the enforcement of traffic violations. Every story like this just tells us that it’s problematic to have police pulling people over, harassing them on the road,” he said.
“Automated enforcement is racially just and promotes safety and promotes overall justice on our streets,” said Lorena.
(Click here to read about New Haveners’ testimony in favor of the bill at a recent legislative hearing.)
Outreach committee at Wednesday meeting.
Committee member Alan Mitchell noted that New Haven stands to receive close to $100 million from the recently passed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act (the pandemic economic stimulus law). He suggested the Safe Streets Coalition push the city to allocate part of that funds to a project to improve street infrastructure citywide.
“Can we have an ask? How about $10 million for infrastructure? $5 million for infrastructure? $3 million for infrastructure?” said cyclist Rob Rocke.
“I can think of a lot of things to ask for,” said city Transportation, Traffic & Parking Director Doug Hausladen, who participated in the online meeting.
The group’s ideas ranged from using funds to appoint a “vision zero planner” and construct greenways, to adjusting walk signals to give pedestrians more time to cross the street.
Hausladen suggested funding the addition of new sidewalks citywide. “We still have a third of the city without sidewalks,” he said.
Hausladen said a sidewalk project would be easiest to quantify quickly. The team agreed sidewalks could be the most concrete idea.
In the meantime, the committee plans to draw more attention to the seriousness of deadly driving. The group is working on a plan to keep this year’s pedestrian and cyclist fatalities on the city’s radar to draw attention to the issue. Ideas ranged from public memorials for each fatality, reaching out to victims’ families, gathering video footage capturing the hazards of particular areas, and writing opinion pieces for local media outlets.
The group agreed a list of this year’s pedestrian and cyclist fatalities should be tracked similar to a list created last year. Over 65 pedestrians and cyclists were killed by cars statewide in 2020, including nine pedestrians and two cyclists in New Haven.
Mayoral spokesman Gage Frank Friday said the city supports improving infrastructure for safe streets. It has been working on a state-funded plan to improve commercial corridors throughout town; read about that here and here.
• Watch for Me CT
• City of New Haven Complete Streets Design Manual
• Safe Street Coalition of New Haven
• New Haven Safe Streets
• The Tom Ficklin Show: New Haven Safe Streets and Active Transit Planning for the Community.
• The Key to Safe Streets: Five Cities Humanizing Street Design
• Green Cities: Good Health
I'm glad the city is working on street design, speed cameras, sidewalks, crossing lights, crosswalks and bike lanes to address road safety. Those solutions will provide more ongoing consistent proactive measures for traffic calming and pedestrian and bicycle safety than a few occasional reactive traffic stops taking up police officers time and creating a temporary solution to an ongoing problem, while creating potential police-citizen conflict situations.