Description
The crosswalk at Orange and Audubon has the same issues as the crosswalk at Lincoln and Trumbull: traffic coming off the Trumbull Street exit and speeding through New Haven streets. There is a badly faded crosswalk painted on Orange Street but drivers flagrantly accelerate past pedestrians in the crosswalk daily. Just this morning 4 cars and a Yale Shuttle drove through the crosswalk *while I was crossing*. To make matters worse, the cars were pulling out into oncoming traffic to pass the Yale Shuttle.
I cross this intersection at all times of the day, and what scares me more than the speed of traffic is that the drivers do not even see me. They are so focused on the Orange/Grove light, even when it's red, that they never notice their surroundings and drive like they're in a funnel on the interstate.
The worst times are the morning rush hour with traffic traveling on Orange from Trumbull toward Grove. In the evening, that pattern reverses at to be cars traveling on Orange from Grove toward Trumbull.
This is incredibly dangerous. Pedestrians both young and old cross here for the housing authority, ACES, and the law firms on Audubon. Please! Add this intersection to this spring's Must-Repaint list, add some police presence especially in the morning rush hour, and consider it for a raised crosswalk!
9 Comments
Acknowledged Anonymous (Guest)
Acknowledged CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Melissa (Guest)
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
This was posted elsewhere, but it may apply here, too:
I think this Xwalk is particularly bad because cars are speeding after flying off the I-91 offramp (or off of the wide downtown streets, like Church, Elm, State and Whitney, that are almost the equivalent of highways).
The book "Traffic" talks about studies showing how drivers need time to adjust their perception of speed when flying off highways and coming into a slower zone. It typically takes several minutes (10-20 blocks) before they psychologically adjust to the fact they are no longer driving on an interstate.
Perhaps calming the I-91 offramp would have a positive impact on this crosswalk?
Erin Gustafson (Registered User)
MableX (Registered User)
kneighbor (Registered User)
The problems have been well describe here. Small streets like Trumbull and Willow have become the main entry points to New Haven from major highways, and are just not equipped to handle the volume. Adding to the problem is the terrible state of the synchronization of the traffic lights on this street (AND throughout New Haven) and I believe is a major contributing factor to folks running red lights. It's a very frustrating place to drive, especially when you go from red light to red light to red light. Living on Trumbull street is very noisy as these frustrated drivers love to blow their horns too.
MableX (Registered User)