Over a year and a half after a fatal traffic accident at the School of Medicine prompted public pressure for safer streets, a set of walk lights at the intersection of North Frontage Road and College Street has been installed as a small step toward improving pedestrian safety, said Jonathan Romanyshyn ’04 MED ’10, a co-chair of the Yale Medical Campus Traffic Safety Group.

The crossing signal, which has been operating since Friday, will soon be accompanied by other traffic-calming measures such as the synchronization of the traffic lights on North Frontage Road, Romanyshyn said.

Norh Frontage Road receives traffic coming off the Route 34 highway, Romanyshyn said. Though the speed limit in New Haven is 25 miles per hour, he said drivers don’t necessarily slow down when they get off the highway, where cars travel at about 45 miles per hour. Meanwhile, the un-synchronized traffic lights slow traffic and give impatient drivers an incentive to speed through traffic lights, Romanyshyn said.

Jaymin Patel ’12, who works in a lab in the Medical School, said he was surprised that the walk lights were not up earlier since North Frontage Road is a four lane road. Because the road divides central campus from the Medical School, he added, that particular intersection is usually very busy with pedestrians.

Yale Medical Campus Traffic Safety Group was founded by a group of Yale medical students in response to the death of Mila Rainof MED ’08, who was struck by a car on April 19, 2008 at the intersection of South Frontage Road and York Street. The group includes participants from the faculty and employees around the the Medical School.