It’s not too late to make New Haven’s biggest downtown development in a generation more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly.
So argues the advocacy group Elm City Cycling (ECC).
On the eve of a legislative vote on Downtown Crossing — the $140 million plan to gradually fill in the Route 34 Connector mini-highway to nowhere and construct a 10-story medical-oriented building — the group issued a statement calling for more revisions.
Proposed zoning changes crucial to moving the project forward come before the Board of Aldermen’s Legislation Committee Thursday night. The meeting begins in City Hall’s Aldermanic Chambers at 6 p.m.
The ECC statement praises the city and state for making some changes to the plan, which critics have blasted for shortchanging two-wheeled or two-legged travelers at the expense of cars or for failing to knit back downtown with the Hill as originally promised. But the statement argues that it’s not too late to make more needed changes.
“While some of the project funding may be time-sensitive, this should not dictate silent resignation to the flaws of Downtown Crossing,” the statement reads in part. “The process of improving the project must be ongoing.”
Click here to read the ECC statement.
Click here and here to read recent background stories on Downtown Crossing and the debate over its merits.
They should support my proposal to keep the lanes under the new building open to through traffic, exactly as it works now, with the addition of the well-considered plan to have traffic enter the garage from the lower level as well. Take a look at that stretch of road during commuting hours, count the number of vehicles that are entering and exiting the last two exits, and then try to imagine what it will be like when all of that traffic is diverted onto the Frontage roads. Add in the opening of Gateway College and this city will see a mass of vehicular congestion in that area that will be epic, with all of the accompanying issues: air quality from the idling engines, dangerous pedestrian and cyclist crossings for the wide lanes, etc. It is not too late to stop this potential nightmare for all users of the roads before it is created by bad design.