Struck Elderly Cyclist Dies

Tragic. But not surprising. Traffic enforcement has fallen from 25,000 stops a few years ago to 8,000 this year. This is what happens when the politicos defund the police.

My condolences to Mr. Rediker's family and friends.

This was an avoidable tragedy, and it represents a failure of design and foresight. There are too many dangerous roads in New Haven, intersections being a particular problem.

The city must continue to improve infrastructure and make it safer for people of all ages, from all communities, to use all the streets.

We need more and better public transportation, and changes to public infrastructure so that pedestrians and bicyclists don't have to fear for their lives.

Unlike many other tragedies that occur in New Haven, as a community we have real control over the factors that allowed this to happen and that, with better planning, could have prevented it.

Dennis - please show your work. Explain how New Haven's police department has been "defunded" and how that has led to decreased traffic stops and how that led to this horrible tragedy. Otherwise, this comment is misplaced, misinformed, and kind of gross.

Why would the driver not be charged with vehicular manslaughter?

Terrible and tragic. My condolences to the family.

I started commuting again by bicycle last summer after a long hiatus attributable to being knocked off my bike by cars twice It is so much fun but so dangerous. Clouds of marijuana smoke from every 4th car that passes. I don't want to think about the many more whose intoxicant of choice is alcohol or gummies. I'm well lit with flashing lights and reflectors but I've wondered whether that might just be a distracting light show to a stoned driver.

Last night on the way home in the dark I got freaked out and this am drove down with my wife.

I hate to sound hopeless but we are a City with many narrow streets and little room for bike infrastructure with a devotion to the automobile; the SUV in particular.

I really wish I lived someplace where it was safe to bike.

I would like to second Tim Holahan's comments. These vehicle related injuries and deaths could be preventable if we made thoughtful changes to our streets to protect bike riders and pedestrians.
My condolences to the loved ones of the deceased.

Here you go Ben..
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/mayor_cuts_budget_by_2m/

And during last week's CMT meeting when I asked the Chief about drop in traffic enforcement from 25,000 three years ago to about 8,000 this year, she cited a lack of resources

Enforcement is critical because we can't count on the city to successfully make any major infrastructure improvements. First, the city is $2 billion in debt and effectively bankrupt. Second, even when the city attempts to make changes, it fails miserably. This Fall the city made changes to Yale Ave in Westville. The area is near Edgewood School. It took SEVEN years to plan. The roll out was a disaster. Parked cars have been totaled. Drivers have been seen driving in the bike lanes instead of the road, The wooden planters used as ballards have been destroyed and the school signs have been put up improperly and in some cases not at all.

And it's not a priority; Mayor Elicker and the "Board of A's" have said the two top priorities are Climate Change and Affordable Housing

@Dennis - From the article you cited: "While Elicker's press release stated that his slashing of police positions has resulted in a "$4,000,000 reduction in the Police Budget," FY21's police budget is actually just over $1 million more than last fiscal year's. Last year's police budget came in at a total of $41,532,539, and this year's, after these most recent cuts, is now at $42,554,170 (not including police officer healthcare, pension, worker's comp, and litigation costs, which are accounted for elsewhere in the budget.)"

So a higher NHPD budget equals "defunding"? It's also a stretch to see how cutting unfilled positions has some impact on traffic enforcement. Also, I'd ask the chief the same question - show me some data that increasing the budget in the past has led to increased traffic enforcement and fewer accidents of this type. Any chief will always say "give me more resources."

Years ago, when Elm City Cycling and safe streets advocates met regularly with the lieutenant in charge of patrol, the reason given for lack of enforcement was how dangerous it was for the officers--really.

Years later, when Chief Esserman met with Elm City Cycling and safe streets advocates, the reason given was "too many murders."

Now the reason given is "lack of resources and budget cuts" but the real reason is that the police cannot solve this problem; we cannot ticket our way to safe active transportation infrastructure. As a society, we need to radically reimagine our relationship with, and dependence on, the personal, usually single-passenger automobile and SUV.

Fewer cars, driven more slowly, with more restrictions on where they can be used.

The transportation environment needs to <i>immediately</i> be changed to prioritize the safety of actual human beings and not the convenience of people driving cars and trucks. Cut another half-million from the police budget and start building speed tables, bumpouts, roundabouts and protected bike lanes.

People will wring their hands about how riding a bike is dangerous but Mr. Rediker was killed doing something that is no problem at all for people in cities all over the world.

I live on Yale Avenue, and I'm quite happy with the recent traffic calming changes to the street.

The accidents involving parked cars that were mentioned occurred before four speed-humps were added to the street. Now that they have been, traffic on the street has slowed dramatically, and the street is much more pleasant to live and walk on. It's reasonable to assume that there will be far fewer (or none) of the serious accidents, sometimes fatal, that have occurred on the street in the past.

It's not remotely accurate to say that it took seven years to plan these changes. Multiple issues arose when the proposal was made for the first time, including fierce resistance to the changes from some residents on the street.

City Engineer Giovanni Zinn found a reasonable way to make these changes relatively affordable, and he and Alder Marchand worked hard to try to address the concerns of the resistant neighbors.

When it comes to traffic issues, enforcement is not the answer. Engineering is. The article about Valley Street indicates that the city is going ahead with more traffic calming, as it should.

An Alder mentioned the 7 year timeframe during a recent meeting. In any event, this article shows the plan for Yale Ave is at least 3 years old.
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/neighbors_demand_yale_ave/

Not everyone on the street is happy, even after the speed bumps went in. More than 35 neighbors have asked the City Engineer and Alders to meet, but both have refused. One person who lives on the corner of Yale/West Elm has gone to court to try to stop the city from installing a speed bump near his house.

The plan was built to accommodate bike lanes and little thought was given to the plans impact on students and parents going to Edgewood School. Bike lanes are great. But school safety should have come first.

I know Mr. Zinn and Alder Marchand worked hard on the plan and everyone appreciates the effort, but the execution has had, and continues to have, many problems. So often we New Haven residents are so accustomed to getting nothing for our tax dollars, that we reluctantly cheer when we get anything at all. That's the case with this project.

@Ben You're missing a few key elements.

You're looking at the wrong fiscal year. One year was impacted by COVID. You're not factoring salary increases (3% of $41 million is more than $1 million). But the biggest omission is the decrease in headcount and the switch in the budget from regular time to overtime. Fewer officers (bc the politicos don't fund adequately to replace retiring officers with new recruits) means the city needs to rely on OT. And OT means you receive fewer man hours for the same dollars spent. If you hire a new officer at $50K who works regular time you pay about $25/hr in return for about 2,000 hrs per year. If you have to use OT then you are paying someone with more seniority who earns more Let's say a Sargent earning $80,000 per year takes the OT work. That person will earn $40 straight time and $60 for OT. By pushing the budget into OT you are effectively getting fewer man hours and fewer police.

And don't forget that 30 - 50% of the NHPD operate under the contract that still counts overtime toward their pension. How much did this cost the taxpayer last year? We have no idea because I asked the budget director if they ever performed the analysis and was told they did not.

I hope that the police have canvassed the adjacent blocks, Becton, etc looking for out of the windows. There's got to be a recording of the perps plate. Please catch them.

Stephen was an interesting person, an advocate for the rights of immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in Westchester and Putnam Counties of New York in the 1990s and 2000s. He and his ex-wife led education, day care and health care organizing in Mt. Kisco, NY and the rich and rural towns around it. She is a social worker. He had business experience, I think in the wholesale toy business, and he contributed boundless enthusiasm and tremendous effort to organize programs and raise funds from private donors and the Pataki Administration, unlikely as that sounds. There was never quite enough money, time or organization, but he really worked at it. Interesting problems, like undocumented workers who died or lost their work in the World Trade Center on September 11, found him, and the did his best to solve them. He roped me in to give know-your-rights presentations and help working immigrants who had a chance to benefit from a December 2000 immigration law.
His unnecessary death, riding a bike at dusk like so many Latino men facing drivers who don't care enough to pay attention, is especially sad.

Michael - Thank you for sharing so much about Mr. Rediker, and his extraordinary work. I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds as though it was a big loss for the entire New Haven community as well.

I commuted from Westville to downtown and back with my pre-school-age daughter for 3½ years without an incident.

Biking in New Haven is as safe or safer than driving as long as you take appropriate precautions. By far the most important is to have good quality bike lights on the front and back of your bike and to use them. There's no reason not to have your lights on in broad daylight as well as at dusk, the most dangerous time of day for cyclists.

No driver really wants to hit a cyclist. If you make sure that you're very noticeable at all times of day, you're much less likely to have a problem.

Sometimes, when the road is narrow, you need to assert your (legal) right to occupy the whole lane, which inevitably slows and frustrates any drivers behind you. They will honk and they may yell at you, but they are very unlikely to hit you.

Try to find a safe place to allow them to pass. DO NOT ride to one side, close to parked cars, in an effort to let drivers pass you in a narrow roadway. Some drivers will try to squeeze past you, and will speed up to do so. This is not safe.

State law requires that drivers give bicyclists 3 feet of clearance when passing. Most don't, of course, so that's why you have to take the lane sometimes.

Based on my own experience biking to and from work, I agree with Carl (sadly) and respectfully disagree with my neighbor Tim.

I often find myself in situations where I have no control over whether I live or die.

For instance: the sweeping crossing at Whalley and Blake (closest to the Boulevard, not in Westville Village). If you start biking on Whalley westbound through that intersection, there may not yet be cars zooming in from the Boulevard intersection. When you're in the middle of the intersection (obviously worse when you're walking), often drivers on their phones come zooming through that turn without noticing that you're there. And you can't escape. More times than I can count, I have just missed getting hit.

Or the other day, I was in the bike lane on Elm crossing College. I was already in the intersection, with a green light, when a driver behind me sped into the intersection and turned right. Came within inches of hitting me. He leaped out of his car and yelled at me for riding in the street when he wanted to turn right.

West Park Ave., even just on Edgewood, etc. -- I find Carl's observation the norm in many places. At Whalley and Blake an engineering fix would eliminate the problem. But in general too many drivers are just distracted and in some cases crazed and enraged and deadly.

I don't want to be disrespectful to Stephen Rediker's memory by conducting an extended argument about the safety of biking in New Haven on a page reporting his death. Clearly, biking in New Haven should have been safer than it was for him. I have no idea if he made a mistake that led to the accident, but even if he did, he should not have had to pay for it with his life.

As I said in my first comment, it is certainly true that there are roads and intersections in New Haven that are much more dangerous than others, and a newbie cyclist should choose their route carefully and consider walking their bike to get through dangerous areas.

It is incumbent on the city to do much more than it has to address the safety concerns in these areas. Streets like Whalley and Grove have become raceways and must be returned to mixed use. The changes being made on Orange St downtown are an encouraging step, but far from enough.

Any time you head out on a public road, on foot, in a car, or on a bike, you are trusting your safety to the other users of the road. I was in a bike accident once (in suburban Long Island) through my own fault and a serious highway car accident through no fault of my own. I came much closer to death in the car accident.

To really understand the safety implications of travel modes you have to look at statistics, not anecdotes. I don't have them, but I'd guess that statistics like "fatalities per mile ridden" will show that biking in New Haven is as safe as driving, safer if you bike defensively and, again, make yourself visible by using lights at all times.

As a teenage girl living near downtown New Haven I stopped riding my bike due to the incessant sexual harassment from what seemed like every man that drove past me. Eventually it was stolen from our back yard as bikes are wont to be in this town. Now many years later I would be terrified to ride around here because the roads are too narrow, there's no shoulder and people drive like maniacs. I like the Hamden bike trail just fine though. There are some battles you can't win and making New Haven a safe city for riding a bike is such a battle.

Mr Ben. In the spirit of respect and conviviality, Mr. Dennis showed his work as you requested. You may not agree with his conclusions but as it turned out, his comment was informed rather than "gross". In the spirit of this kind and giving man who died, a Thank You would be nice.

Tim Holohan,
Your complaints about traffic safety in the past contrast with your current defense of our 'safe streets.' It doesn't track and feels like you're making excuses for an admin who you worked to elect that has not reduced cycling or pedestrian fatalities. Ask yourself honestly, if Harp was still Mayor, would your tone be different? It feels like you've taken the bate from the baby Trumpkins in our midst and distastefully inserted politics where it doesn't belong because you're feeling defensive. See Lifer's comments for a non white male perspective. New Haven streets are not safe for cyclists or pedestrians. You and your daughter have been fortunate and likely have a more fortunate route than others based on where you live. Westville? This needless death is evidence of the long way our mayor has to go to make the streets safe for everyone.

@Tim - I am filled with gratitude that your biking experience in New Haven has been mostly pleasant and without incident. We need more of that.

I do not think you are representative though. I bike from Woodbridge through Westville to downtown for work many days a week. It is often a fraught ride with drivers who are disrespectful of the legal space I am entitled to on the road, impatient, and inexplicably angry. I am an experienced biker. I am predictable and follow the rules. To echo the comments of Paul and Carl- these are tough times to be out on the roads on foot or bike. The data we have does not capture the full picture of violence inflicted by drivers, it only captures deaths. A biker was hit on Edgewood in the last few weeks. I personally was hit by a car in July at the corner of Barnett and Willard - totally the drivers' fault and yet is not recorded because I did not die.

Your POV perpetuates the idea that with the proper gear, a bicyclist is protected against a distracted driver. We are not. A split-second decision to look away from the road is all that it takes. You've been lucky. Let's work together to make sure that we don't have to rely on luck to be able to move around our communities.

I didn't intend to make political criticisms or defenses in earlier comments. I was born here and learned to both bike and drive here, and with the exception of some particular roads and intersections, it's been a basically safe city to ride a bike in for 52 years of my experience.

Mayor Elicker has continued and, I think, accelerated implementation of traffic calming plans most of which were put in place before he took office. He can and should do more — much more — if he is to live up to the commitments of his campaigns in both 2013 and 2019.

It would take enormous political courage to take a lane away from cars on the four-lane raceway section of Whalley Ave (from West Rock Ave to Howe St) and make it a protected two-way bike and pedestrian lane. The middle lane would flow in alternating directions, eastbound in the morning, westbound at night. Bus stop islands and bump-outs would be added in place of a few parking spots.

That would significantly reduce traffic speeds, reduce accidents and fatalities, and make it easier and safer to get downtown by other modes, at the expense of a minute or two of travel time for drivers.

There's evidence from other cities that have put similar measures in place, in both America and Europe, that this would improve commerce in the blocks along the road.

Will Mayor Elicker (or any near-term mayor) have the courage to do something like this? It seems unlikely. The initial push-back would be significant, and it's not the kind of risk for which a politician is likely to be rewarded. Should it be done? Absolutely. It would improve life in the city for the large majority of the residents affected.

What a great conversation!

I would argue that the mayor is not to blame. His hard-working staffers are not to blame. The police are not to blame. Lawmakers coming up with good proposals are not to blame. They are all working hard. We can pressure them to do more. But they have been part of the solution not the problem, in my opinion.

I would argue that we are the problem. The way we drive, and sometimes the way some of us bicycle. All the other efforts are so important. But they don't hold a candle to the fundamental need to change behavior behind the wheel in a broad way beyond the reach of necessary but limited government fixes.

Paul,

Unfortunately no amount of good will public education is going to work WRT road behavior. There are plenty of for-instances like, for instance, enforcement of seat belt laws. This was something that was statistically proven to dramatically reduced fatalities in car accidents and was therefore in everyone's own personal interest. Yet, between 1968 when seat belts became a federal requirement for car manufacturers and the mid 80s when states started passing seat belt laws and ticketing violators, people wouldn't use them. We HAVE to have laws with teeth that allow for enforcement. The State legislature needs to amend our state law to remove the financial disincentive for local cops to ticket traffic behavior.