Yale Daily News

Can someone post a link to these "hundreds of traffic injuries" qouted in the letter? Once again Yale and its students need to be reminded that the University does not own the city. The city does not exist at Yale's pleasure. If safety is such a concern Yale can build skybridge walkways between thier buildings. That will allow the Yale community both safety and the ability to really look down upon the city.

Let's face it, folks...New Haven is a "company town" and Yale is it. You gotta play ball with Big Blue.

Der81, I'm sure that your attitude is really contributing to the New Haven economy and to Yale. Yale does not own the city, but the two have to work together, and Yale does have the responsibility of ensuring its students are safe. Also, in terms of promoting its own self-interest, Yale needs to invest in making its campus much more walkable before it expands. Otherwise the intimate campus that we now experience, one that is easy to walk across in a few minutes, will be splintered. Obviously the loss of cohesiveness that the new colleges might create is a major concern among students and faculty.

der81, traffic injuries annually kill 45,000 Americans, hospitalize another 350,000 (with an average stay of 10 days) and send 2,000,000 to visit a doctor. Many more are never reported, even though they cause significant problems. The cumulative cost to society of all of these injuries is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The sad thing is, almost all of them are entirely preventable.

New Haven easily has 500-1,000 significant traffic-related injuries per year (basically its share of the national average, although much more heavily concentrated among pedestrians than the national average), and actually probably more given that most are not reported. A large number of those incidents are very serious, and many occur on or near the Yale campus.

Just browse through the YDN archives for a list of several students hit and almost killed (or in one case, killed) within the past few years -- that's just the tip of the iceberg since many more, even two that we know of that led to lengthy hospitalizations -- were never even reported in this newspaper.

By improving traffic safety around the campus through targeted road improvements similar to what they use everywhere else -- see https://cms.amherst.edu/offices/facilities/capital_projects/project_archives/crosswalks_spleasant -- Yale could easily prevent hundreds of citywide injuries over the course of a year or two, and save many lives over the lifetime of the improvements. Yale has built up significant political capital within the city; now is the time to use it by demanding safer streets. Yale can demand change, such as 15mph zones around its campus, and refuse to build any new buildings in New Haven until all changes are immediately put into place.

President Levin needs to take action to prevent further injury and death within the Yale community. Not to do so is unethical.

It is true that Yale intrudes on pedestrian territory, pushing pedestrians out into the traffic or herding them through feedlot-style channels. But local drivers are also part of the problem. They need to actually stop at crosswalks or be penalized for failing to.

They also need to make space for cyclists to get off the sidewalks.

I sympathize with jaywalkers fed up with abuse from lawless drivers throughout New Haven.

Where is the law when you need it?

I have been nearly hit many times by cars that cannot see me, and that I cannot see due to construction vehicles and badly placed blue-screen fences. Whoever the university employs for construction logistics is obviously not very good at it.

New Haven drivers flagrantly run red lights; New Haven cops (unsurprisingly) do nothing about it. Actually enforcing traffic laws at two or three key intersections might make a difference. Genius.

Bad drivers are an issue, but let's face it, everyone here (esp the studdents and myself included) jaywalk.

New Haven cops run the lights too. Citizens need to be outraged about this and take action. Otherwise, nothing will happen.

This initiative exists for one reason: the relationship between Yale and New Haven. For what it's worth, Yale is the very loud whisper that New Haven should often listen to, and the city, realistically, isn't that big or over run by cars.

Now, if Columbia decided to petition New York City to make the city streets safer, I'd imagine NYC's response would be three letters:

"lol"

People need to be safer in their habits. The drivers, obviously. But the Yale campus is infamous for being a place where people jump out like rabbits.

it is absolutely beyond belief that this city does not have bike lanes - with so many people commuting on two wheels it is a no brainer that the city needs to paint bike lines and recognize this important method of transportation. furthermore, the cops need to enforce traffic laws and fine people who are running red lights and speeding!

Try the crosswalk on Grove St at the New Haven cemetary. Or the crosswalk on Trumbull St at Lincoln. Cars don't stop, cops don't care.

Try the sidewalk along the cemetary from SSS to Malone and see how many speeding cyclists run you onto the road. No cyclist lane is no excuse. Pass Malone and there's no pedestrian lights or crosswalk at the busy intersection with Trumbull. Look down and see the canal that you can't get to without a long detour. Couldn't there be a staircase right there in front of Malone?

Try the sidewalks around Old Campus and dodge Yale's groundkeeper cars, plus see them go the wrong way up one-way streets. See Yale police and security cruising along in front of SML because it's just too far for them to walk.

The problem goes far beyond the construction works that push pedestrians out into the traffic and block visibility for both pedestrians and drivers. Yale and New Haven obviously don't care about pedestrians. They probably never did.

CT's streets are deadly by design:

http://www.newhavensafestreets.org/2008/06/flashback-to-2001-deadly-by-design.html

Shouldn't the university sustainability office be fully supporting something like this?

I think they are supporting it already, but much more needs to be done, and much more urgently.... before even more students/staff are killed or injured. It needs to come from President Levin and apply to all city and state streets around the campus, not just a few areas here or there that the sustainability office thinks should have a bike lane or ped signal.

Put in the traffic calming now, even if you have to use concrete barriers or speed bumps. You can always remove it later when a better solution is found. It's discouraging to see the university and the city stalling on improvements and going through a long-term pedestrian planning process when changes need to be made immediately.

Pedestrian education of Jay Walking and the responsibilities of pedestrians needs to be a focus as well. Also, putting in Walk cycles on the existing signals would greatly improve the safety at the Canal/Prospect/Trumbull intersection. Vehicle traffic is often blamed for occurences involving pedestrians, but there are rules for pedestrians, too.

A few things seem obvious:

1. Close High St through old campus. It carries little traffic, but enough you have to be careful. Plant plants down the middle with bike lanes down both sides. DeStefano says he won't close streets? If that is what he says, screw him. I have been to New Haven many times, and without Yale is would blow away in the wind. Any reasonable city would be agreeing to any reasonable safety request of Yale. So Yale, make these requests, and NH accommodate then.

2. Old Campus students: Don't jaywalk. Too damn dangerous for the risk. Branford 2011 girl nearly killed last year.

3. Enforce all the traffic laws rigorously around Yale. Local drivers will get the message quickly.

4. Yale: Consider a few tunnels or sky bridges(with card access of course). If you can do a boondoggle 2 college expansion, you can do this to help keep current students safe.

everyone is responsible for trying to ensure their own safety, but at a wider level, society is responsible for eliminating unreasonably high levels of risk. government spends billions reducing the threat from contaminated/polluted food, but almost nothing eliminating some of the risks contained within our public infrastructure.

i'd say the fact that close to 200,000 pedestrians have died since the 1970s in the USA (5,000 per year), plus another 2,000,000 drivers (40,000 per year), indicates that the risk levels are far too high. everyone has friends and family who have been killed or seriously injured. people make mistakes. blind people can't see and can't hear priuses. children run into the street. people occasionally have bad days and don't pay attention. people get excited about their friend getting married and make the mistake of sending text messages while driving.

but just because people make mistakes, doesn't mean that they should automatically die or kill someone else.

90% of the injuries and deaths on our streets are completely preventable using only minor changes to infrastructure and policy, changes that will have practically no impact on commuting times (in fact, they'll probably increase efficiency by encouraging more people to walk, bike or take transit). the other 10% are almost entirely preventable using new technologies, such as driver awareness sensors and mandatory air bags on the outside of cars.

we owe it to ourselves and our community to take immediate and urgent action to stop the carnage on our streets. and unfortunately, that carnage includes the dozens of yale students and staff who have been hit and seriously injured or killed over the past few years.

I just moved here, and I am appalled by how unsafe the streets are here. I stood at a crosswalk on campus, making it very obvious that I wanted to cross the street. I counted 43 cars that passed me by without stopping or even slowing, including 2 cops.

So, to posters complaining about jaywalking - yes, it's a problem, but go for a walk, and you'll see why it's happening.

This is not a Yale vs. everybody else issue. People should be safe when walking down the street, period.

#12- See the Yale buses and security cars driving lazy students a block on campus. See the bicyclists get run down in the street, pedestrians are softer if you hit them. See the Yale students hit in the head by construction debris if we don't close the sidewalk. All of these issues can be solved by simply looking where you're going, and actually walking to your destination!

People just need to stop jaywalking all the time...oh wait, I'm sorry, I was promoting personal responsibility, gasp...what I meant to say is, ‘We need more government to solve this problem! Yes we can!’

Well, maybe if this campus were actually pedestrian friendly we wouldn't need to jaywalk... this is a university and a walkable downtown, not a freeway. Pedestrians should take priority. Period.

Start by closing high street to automobile traffic (at least near old campus). No matter what DeStefano says, that does NOT take it away from the public/city/non-university and give it to the university. It remains just as public to all New Haven residents as it did before...it just becomes a better public space, free of cars!

Ideally Chapel and Elm would also be pedestrianized throughout campus, but I Imagine this would be a big problem for drivers - even though such pedestrianization works great in many other cities. In any case, there are definitely ways to improve the pedestrian realm without shutting it off to car traffic. Make the sidewalks wider. Improve plantings and street furniture. Slow the cars down to 25, etc.

This city has the potential to be beautiful and a wonderful place to live: if, (among other things), we return much of the public realm to the pedestrian.

I agree, NicB! It would be a better place, plus, fewer students would be getting regularly killed.

Yeah people should not jaywalk but anyone that has crossed college and north frontage know that this is a horrible intersection and a crosswalk should definitely be put in. I have seen atleast 10 near miss accidents.

Let's not forget about the brilliant opportunity to address the problem in the late 90s that Rick Levin squandered. Lee Bass and family were planning to give Yale + New Haven a mid-nine figures sum to consolidate the whole area around Old and Cross and some parts of Central campus and reroute traffic. Before giving that money, the Basses gave a smaller sum to Yale in support of old school Western Civilization classes. Levin, without obtaining the donor's permission, rerouted those funds to support something else like Women's Studies. The Basses found out, got pissed off, demanded the return of their money, and cancelled their larger planned gift. That is why today you still see cars running people down between Saybrook and Trumbull college instead of Yalies playing ultimate frisbee.

That's great, yayayayle. Downtown New Haven would be an urban oasis if you removed Elm Street and had blocks of green campus with bubbling brooks and frisbee games. It would benefit students and also the whole city, since more tourists would come to walk around a place like that. Look at the walkable parts of New Haven already, are doing well, while the crappy areas are the ones with busy pedestrian-deathtrap streets like Elm, Church and Frontage.

Don't jaywalk? How can you not jaywalk when the sidewalks are blocked and the cars refuse to stop at marked crossings?

Traffic in this city is lawless. I am glad that someone is trying to do something about it.

Even without jaywalkers the danger is still high. Drivers don't respect marked crosswalks and sometimes don't respect lights. Visibility is blocked by trucks and construction fences. Sidewalks are blocked or restricted by dumpsters and building supplies and trash. Yale service carts and Yale cycle police ride on sidewalks and the wrong way up one-way streets. There are a lot of people at fault here including those who are supposed to be upholding the laws that they're breaking.