Yale considers amending traffic policy
Yale considers amending traffic policy
Monday, September 21, 2009
Several bright yellow fliers taped on boards across campus earlier this month greeted students with dire news, although many have since been covered or removed.
“Third pedestrian killed in Downtown New Haven,” the fliers blazed in capital letters. “How safe are the streets surrounding Yale?”
The flier’s anonymous creators pleaded for students to lobby Yale officials and not “wait for the next classmate to be hurt or killed.”
The fliers have popped up at a time when Yale officials themselves are researching whether they should change how they approach campus traffic policy. If Yale officials determine that they need to write such a traffic safety policy, the University Safety Committee, an advisory board to University officers, has said it could review a draft as early as December.
“All of us agreed that our time is best served by focusing on getting things done, not merely talking,” Associate Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs Michael Morand ’87 DIV ’93 said in a recent interview.
TOWN-GOWN DISCUSSION
On the fliers is a time line of various traffic accidents around campus, including the death of a Hamden resident Aug. 5 due to a van crash, the July 2008 death of Mila Rainof MED ’08 and the May 2006 death of Alexander Capelluto ’08 about two-thirds of a mile from the Yale Bowl.
Although it is unclear whether students on campus reacted to — or even saw — the fliers, a half-dozen students interviewed said they were surprised and disgusted by the flier’s statistics.
“That’s terrifying,” Travis Gidado ’12 said of the flier. “People dying arbitrarily like that? It’s a problem that should be addressed by any undergraduate institution.”
Several students have approached University officials over the last year. In July 2008, 16 Yale students and alumni signed a letter to Levin asking for a “high-level traffic safety commission” to fix problems with on-campus traffic. In response, Levin arranged a traffic meeting to be held two months later, in November, between the group members and officials.
Four months after the meeting, the group, which is affiliated with the New Haven Safe Streets Coalition, submitted a report to Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs Bruce Alexander ’65. The group highlighted existing University programs on traffic safety and provided a list of recommendations for improvement — from a “no-tolerance” policy on cell phone use in cars to the requirement that Yale Police Department Chief James Perrotti send campuswide e-mails about traffic incidents.
The group’s report was also distributed last spring to Mayor John DeStefano Jr., and to all undergraduate students through the Yale College Council. Yale and city officials, as well as some students, met in May to discuss which of the over 25 recommendations — which cover topics from enforcement and education to physical improvements — could be implemented in the near future.
POLICY RESEARCH
Although meeting attendees said they plan on meeting again this fall, some traffic safety projects are already in the works.
Yale has placed several “yield to pedestrian” signs across campus. But other recommendations, including creating plans for traffic safety education for new students, are now being pursued in response to the meetings and the report, Morand said.
For instance, to pursue one of the report’s recommendations, Environmental Health and Safety Director Peter Reinhardt e-mailed the Yale Medical Area Traffic Safety Group about the possibility of an official University traffic safety policy and the inclusion of a car cell phone use ban. He asked in the August e-mail for suggestions as to what Yale students, faculty and staff might like to change about campus traffic safety. (He received responses from two associate professors, according to the group’s panlist archives.)
Reinhardt said in an interview that he is “collecting ideas” for the policy and will compare them to the official automobile safety regulations. The current automobile policies, available on the Finance Department Web site, list eight pages of rules that only apply to drivers of University-owned or rented vehicles. But the March traffic safety report recommends rules for all vehicles that visit campus.
Still, Reinhardt added that he is researching what the traffic safety policy might say. Although he said it is too early to determine when a draft will be written, if at all, the wheels are in motion for possible traffic safety reform.
Comments
None 2 years, 4 months ago
Build a few pedestrian bridges at the busiest intersections. If not built to imitate gothic moats, they would not be terribly expensive.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
A very noble cause. But the fact remains most vehicles visiting the campus are on city streets. How Yale as a private institution can impose it's will on the driving public remains to be seen. As much as the Yale students would like to imagine they "own" the surrounding city, it just isn't so. Traffic safety is a responsibility of both the pedestrian and driver. Having driven for decades around campus, I can't tell the number of students who have darted out in front of me. Never mind the casual stroll into traffic while talking on a cell phone. Yes, traffic is a problem but the issue goes both ways.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
"It goes both ways" but pedestrians/cyclists don't kill other people when they collide. It is worth pointing out that just because the speed limit is posted at 25 doesn't mean it is safe to actually drive through a busy pedestrian area that fast. Driving at more than 15 miles per hour through a busy campus area is just plain stupid and irresponsible.
Also, safety is just one issue. Much more important than just safety is creating a level of comfort that allows for a civil society and interaction between citizens (and promotes economic development).
Economic development, not safety, is the main reason why every other city in the world, including NYC, is rethinking their streets to create a balance between pedestrians and drivers. Although I'm sure people are doing some "talking" behind the scenes, unfortunately, New Haven still looks like it is stuck in the 1950s automobile age.
Harping about "personal responsibility" won't get you anywhere at all -- you either eliminate the risk and make our streets comfortable for users of all ages and abilities, or you keep things the way they are and accept the dozens of dead and seriously injured students each year.
Personally, I believe the latter choice is unethical -- so it's sad to see so much talk and harping about the issue and very few concrete things being done in New Haven when so many other places around the world are taking urgent action.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
How about a 1-year suspension for students caught jay-walking. It may seem harsh, but if we can save but 4 or 5 lives a year it will be worth it.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
Though I am only a pedestrian, even I can see that the pedestrians in New Haven (aka us Yalies) are awful! Yalies jaywalk (walking in non-crosswalk areas, between cars, with green lights) all the time and don't even bother to look to the sides to check for cars.
The absolute worst the intersection by Commons. Some people start crossing during a green light, and the rest blindly follow, and before you know it, there's cars having to come to a harsh stop in the middle of a green light as unaware Yalies slowly walk across.
That said, cars go after the light turns red and also before it turns green.
Honestly, Yale pedestrians ought to obey the traffic laws as much as drivers in New Haven, and the situation would be much safer.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
How about bright blue vests with big "Y"'s on them, along with wrist-mounted bells issued to every student?
Rump-mounted airbags might also be helpful.
Disrupting cellphone service at key intersections might also keep the body count down...
None 2 years, 4 months ago
Saw a bus speeding on elm this weekend at about 60 miles an hour. That street should be re built so it doesn't look like a hiway. Or wecan just wait until a speeding truck kills a few dozen students. Yale's choice.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
How about a one-year license suspension for drivers caught speeding, running red lights, or turning right on red illegally? It may seem harsh, but if we can save but 4 or 5 lives a year it will be worth it.
If New Haven pursued moving violations with the same zeal they do parking infractions, downtown would be a much safer place. Currently fines collected from moving violations go to the state, not the city. Perhaps if the incentive structure were changed, there might be better enforcement. Of course, the cops are frequently as bad as other drivers when it comes to speeding, running red lights, and illegal rights on red (with no lights or sirens).
None 2 years, 4 months ago
The problem is two-fold. Pedestrians (and bikers) do not follow basic safety rules, in many cases. I've often had to dodge Yalies who walk out in front of my car, when I had the green light. On the other hand, New Haven has some of the worst drivers I have ever seen. At any given red light, at any given time, you can count the cars running right through the red. People drive way too fast here.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
Yale students habitually walk behind cars that are reversing into parking spaces. It's crazy. Perhaps part of freshman orientation should be a basic lesson in safe and sane practice for crossing streets. Seriously.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
Make it a pedestrian campus. Shut down some or all of the roads through campus between 8:00 am and 3:00 pm.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
agree with #11. yale's slow to nonexisting action on this problem shows they dont care.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
I do not know to whom this should be reported so I post a comment here. Some time last week, while two Yale students were walking near Ezra Stiles, a tree branch all of a sudden fell and almost hit them. I wonder whether the trees near campus are trimmed regularly.
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