The residents and the urban planning consultant clashed over the proposed improvement plan for the street.
The city asked engineering and construction company CDM Smith to plan for the future of Fountain Street, New Haven’s notoriously crowded and dangerous street—but some residents felt that the plan was missing important features.
On Wednesday night, the city and the Central South Regional Government actually held the third and final meeting on improving Fountain Street. This meeting is part of a series of discussions on how to make Fountain Street safer and more suitable for all modes of travel. At the meeting, CDM Smith proposed plans to solve problems such as congestion, frequent speeding, and collisions between vehicles and bicycles. It is worth noting that the location of the bicycle lane and the lack of protective barriers in the CDM Smith plan were strongly opposed at the meeting.
Resident Stasia Brewczynski said: "I definitely think the city should consider how to maintain roads so that people can travel in a safe way...".
The area in question is Fountain Street, approximately 1.5 miles long, starting from the Woodbridge Town Line and going east to the intersection of Whitley Avenue and Fountain Street. CDM Smith project manager Becca Hall said that the main goal of the plan is to balance the mobility of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, minimize congestion and improve air quality. According to Hall, the developers of the program are based on the company's analysis of field work in 2019 and feedback from the first two public meetings, the last time being on February 12, 2020.
Hall said the main concern at the last meeting was that pedestrians and cyclists generally felt unsafe, and residents expressed anxiety about vehicles that violated traffic laws, speed limits, and ignored signs. Letters and comments received after the February 12 meeting also emphasized the lack of bicycle facilities.
"The first requirement is a bike lane," Hall said. "[Residents] also want to see modern roundabouts, safer crosswalks, shorter crosswalks, wider sidewalks, collisions, and extra crossing time."
The CDM Smith plan includes the implementation of unprotected 5-foot bike lanes and 2-foot buffer zones, updated signage, updated sidewalk markings, widened school sidewalks, bicycle boxes-painted areas on the road where cyclists can Moving in front of parked cars-and changing the time of traffic lights. The plan also recommends the installation of protruding parts—the raised areas of the sidewalk slightly protruding into the road—to reduce the distance for pedestrians to cross the road, slow down traffic, and increase the visibility of passers-by.
The implementation of bicycle lanes was a point of contention at the meeting. Brewczynski said the community specifically requested physical barriers to protect bicycle lanes at the last meeting.
"What the community asks for and what it provides is not the same thing," Brewczynski said. "I'm a bit confused, why 2 feet is not enough to provide any hard protection, whether it's a bollard or a curb. There must be such a thin hard protection."
Hall said that due to zoning restrictions, CDM Smith did not include physical bike lane barriers. She said that there is a clear regional policy that requires no objects on the shoulders.
The barrier-free area is a roadside area that has no objects to pass through. They are areas where out-of-control vehicles can safely park. The width of the clear zone is determined by the traffic volume, slope, and speed limit of a given road.
"There are clear regional requirements, because this is a national highway, we can't set up a physical impact barrier," Hall said. "And we do need to provide some type of shoulder. This is a cushioning protection for the bike."
Hall said that CDM Smith will consider revising the plan to include flexible pillars bordering the bike lane. She said that in addition to flexible posts, New Haven may not provide any other bicycle lane protection measures that comply with restrictions.
Nevertheless, Brewczynski said that flexible barriers are not enough. She explained that the flexible column is to avoid damaging the car, but it cannot protect the cyclist. She reiterated that the community requires strictly protected bicycle lanes.
Sharat Kalluri, CDM Smith's project director, said that installing hard barriers will be difficult to maintain during winter or severe weather.
"Once you get a 2-foot area, it is difficult to stiffen your shoulders due to the weather we experience in winter," Kalluri said. "Maintenance becomes a problem, and then you have to do drainage, because you don't want the bike lane to freeze in winter."
Brewczynski responded that it would be beneficial to create a drainage system associated with the bike lane to accommodate a hard protective barrier.
Kalluri said that it is difficult to fit multiple features in a small parameter. He agreed to discuss the possibility of installing a bicycle lane drainage system with the city government.
Sandeep Aysola, Supervisor of Traffic, Traffic and Parking, suggested creating a raised, protected bicycle lane as a multimodal avenue for pedestrians and cyclists.
"Is it possible for it to become a protected bicycle lane, it is a shared-use road, where you have pedestrians and cyclists who are not at the same level as the road, but they are above the level?" Isola asked .
Hall said that implementing this idea requires expanding the shoulder area, which will require the acquisition of real estate.
Kalluri said that due to the trees along the road, any additions or changes to the shoulder area are also difficult.
"I think the most important thing is some street trees," Kalluri said. "There are many street trees along the corridor. If any work is carried out beyond the roadside restrictions, it will definitely be affected."
CDM Smith’s plan includes bicycle lanes between designated on-street parking areas and the road.
Brewczynski believes that it is dangerous to "sandwich" the bike lane between parked cars and moving cars.
"[The location of the lane] is unfortunate because it is extremely dangerous," Brewczynski said. "Bicyclists may be killed when they open the door, especially on streets where people are driving at homicidal speeds. Changing the location of parked cars will be an easy way to solve this problem, so I don’t know why this is done. choose."
Dooring is a term used by the driver to open the door of the vehicle on the path of the cyclist. It refers to a sudden or inadvertent door opening that causes a cyclist in an adjacent lane to collide with the door or turn to another vehicle to avoid the door.
Hall said the bike lanes are positioned in this way to maintain continuity through different intersections.
Resident Roslyn Hamilton (Roslyn Hamilton) raised separate concerns about the timing of traffic lights. She said that if the red lights are strictly activated by pedestrian signals such as buzzers, traffic will be more cohesive.
Hamilton said: "My observation is that if there are no pedestrians in the area to cross the road, then the car will start to reverse all the way, waiting for the red light to turn on." "This requires consideration and supervision. I think you can use the buzzer to come. Control it."
The type of light timing in which pedestrian walking signals are periodically activated with red lights is called automatic pedestrian recall. Hall said that automatic pedestrian recall is a light timing mode used in many urban areas.
"It reduces pedestrian delays and increases the likelihood that pedestrians will cross the road on a crosswalk and wait time because they know it will come," Hall said.
Kalluri said that CDM Smith will consider addressing some of the “smaller elements” of signal time and pedestrian signals in the final report.
Ward 25 Alder Adam Marchand emphasized that the plan for Fountain Street has not yet been finalized. CDM Smith consultants will revise and complete the plan before the end of the year. He said that from there, obtaining city and state regulatory approvals was "another process."
CDM Smith will submit the final report before the end of 2021.