YALE CORPORATION: EXPAND
Yes, if there were less cars, there would be safer streets.
Are you serious?
We Yalies need to be careful to look both ways when crossing the street. If students are smart enough to pass intro psych, they should be smart enough to cross the street safely to get there.
Also, a larger and more energetic police force would do far more to increase safety than limiting traffic. As far as I remember, far more students were injured in muggings or assaults during my four years than car accidents around campus.
Yale compares poorly to Oxbridge, especially Cambridge, precisely because of this.
While the streets in Oxbridge are friendly to hoards of pedestrians, in New Haven they divide the Yale campus into what sometimes feels like isolated islets.
I remember distinctly it was a major turn-off as a visiting student.
i was extremely cautious for years and years, to the point of paranoia,and just when i put my guard down POW ,we really should'nt have to be so diligent especially at crosswalks.
Most of the perpetrators are reckless drivers who've been there and done that before, one more ticket and they are thru
Look. When I cross streets in New Haven, I'm frightened by careening cars running red lights. It's an epidemic. But when I drive down Elm St, I'm petrified by Yalies blithly strolling across the street, against traffic, chatting away on cell phones.
Everyone needs to follow the rules-- pedestrians and drivers alike.
yale 08, ever consider that that's probably because you never heard about them?
If the police actually enforced moving violations instead of concentrating on parking tickets, the streets of new haven would be a lot safer. Sure, the city does not get revenues from moving violations as they do for parking tickets, but when was the last time a parked car hit a pedestrian or cyclist?
Jack, when is the last time you recall that a pedestrian killed a driver?
Meanwhile, just within the past few months, a Yale Medical Student and an 11-year-old student at a New Haven school were killed by cars, and numerous other pedestrians, including Yale students, have been severely injured or paralyzed.
Speed limits in densely populated pedestrian areas should be reduced/traffic-calmed to 15-18mph, no ifs ands or buts. That's what they do in every other civilized country in the world and it is time to do the same here.
Not only would this make things safer for walking, it would greatly boost economic development. it is a win win for everyone; why is ConnDOT standing in the way?
@ Yale '09:
You've got another year at Yale. Please use it (between trips to Toad's) to learn the difference between "hoards" and "hordes."
It's a city. Everybody needs to obey traffic laws, not just the plebes in the cars.
True. Except I think the New Haven drivers' moving violations are more atrocious than those of drivers anywhere else I've lived. I once saw, on Chapel St. in front of Starbucks, a car drive around the car in front of it in order to run a red light. It was especially scary because I was crossing the street at the time--in the crosswalk, quite legally. Also, I shouldn't have to look both ways on one-way streets. Moreover, on College St. in front of Silliman there are road signs which clearly say that pedestrians in the crosswalk have the right of way, but more often than not the drivers on that street speed up and/or honk at you when you try to cross. So while, yes, all pedestrians should exercise common sense and adhere to the traffic laws, I am in complete agreement with whoever said that the speed limits should be lowered in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, and that the NHPD should crack down on moving violations.
Please allow me to get this straight; the universe is (we are told) expanding, Y.U. is expanding, therefore perhaps the AM train schedule from points south to north may lend itself to expanding (i.e. expansion).
Note: Presently, the earliest trains from points south arrive no earlier than 7:45 AM; a time much too late for some mass transit commuter wanna-be's during these critical days (& certainly not commensurate to the needs of a city of this stature).
When I wanted to legally cross a busy intersection in another city, where I was repeatedly cut off by offending traffic I carried a digital camera and snapped the car/plate numbers in the cross walk in front of me. Other drivers saw me do it and "got it" very quickly and slowed down forcing traffic behind them also to slow down. Put up a web site with the graphic evidence (plate numbers clearly visible in the cross walk in front of you) to indicate to drivers that it is not always unnoticed at the expense of a pedestrian.
It must be something in the New Haven water, because I have never ever seen that sort of wanton driving anywhere else in my entire life. Drivers ignoring traffic signals? What's next, drivers going 10 mph over the speed limit? This has got to stop, and as someone who's lived my entire life in the suburbs I can safely say that I've never been afraid to cross the street in my quiet development back home.
In fact, I have half a mind to call up Barack Obama and John Sidney McCain and ask them why they aren't dealing with this burgeoning burden upon students.
We, as students at a nationally respected university, should not be expected to survive in a medium-sized urban setting or to look both ways before we cross the street. We have more pressing concerns, like how to safely get to SSS while balancing a latte in one hand, carrying bagel in the other, and talking on the KRZR phone we've sandwiched between our chin and shoulder. While wearing distinctive white earbuds.
I for one, would welcome any attempt to design metropolitan traffic regulations with a view to accommodating our awesome Yaleness.
All this talk of traffic and drivers is a tangential distraction.
The discussion should revert to what's central and important: What names should the new colleges be given?
So crucial.
Batman and Robin?
Delovely and Delicious?
>>You've got another year at Yale. Please use it (between trips to Toad's) to learn the difference between "hoards" and "hordes."<<
Just call them " streetwalkers ".
For the new colleges to feel less remote, the number one priority is for the streets of New Haven need to be more walkable. These distances are largely psychological -- particularly to pedestrian students who are forced to cross streets like Elm and Grove on a daily basis. If our streets were designed for people, rather than for moving the greatest number of automobiles as rapidly as possible, the entire dynamic of our city -- socially, economically and environmentally -- would change and hundreds of preventable traffic-related injuries would be avoided. Distances would feel shorter. The perceived "lack of walkability" factor was even referred to in the Study Report on the colleges.
Please read the petition posted at http://www.newhavensafestreets.org/ and sign if you agree. A broad coalition is needed to address these issues and start planning our city using 21st century principles, rather than 1950s principles.
Particularly in light of the 11-year-old girl killed in a hit and run on Whalley Avenue last week, and the number of Yale students killed or severely injured in traffic-related incidents just in the past year, it is clear that the time for change is now.