Comments
buried_lede t1_j5s09mp wrote
Simpler explanation: it’s a state road, not town. CT DOT is 50 years behind the times.
It’s designed badly. If it’s going to be a boulevard it needs very wide lush island in the middle, like Ocean Ave in Brooklyn. It needs bulked up to the max pedestrian crossings. Yeah. Pedestrians are reckless in Whalley but try being one. Live off Whalley without a car for a week and get to know how long a walk it is to the cross walks.
Or, It needs dedicated bike lanes and maybe even parallel roads on each side for local traffic, bikes and pedestrians. It’s too wide
It needs to be more like this:
https://bklyner.com/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-ocean-parkway-kensington
Also, make it curvier, make it narrower, double the number of crosswalks
It’s not like safer roads are a mystery. There has been tons of work in that area of study in recent decades.
ayentelmen t1_j5s36la wrote
TIL it's a state road. I do agree with the crosswalks being sparse plus once you press the button for the light you have to wait a whole cycle of car lights before it's your turn. Hope they do implement something like that, there's plenty of space.
buried_lede t1_j5shvin wrote
The street needs major overhaul
bingybunny t1_j5tghqn wrote
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/gabrielle_remembered_whalley_widening
after a pedestrian was killed their idea was to widen the street so cars can go faster.
pretty sure Whalley Ave and Rt. 34 downtown connector was designed to destroy city life in black neighborhoods, and concentrate student spending in York Square.
The 6 lane road ends at Yale because rich white kids would die crossing that road
Sweaty_Conclusion_80 t1_j5uiglr wrote
When they had the idea to connect 95 to 34 via MLK/Frontage, the neighborhoods they tore down in preparation were primarily white.
ProgMM t1_j5uj1lk wrote
It was still being done to isolate downtown from the black neighborhoods
Sweaty_Conclusion_80 t1_j5uk9e3 wrote
What are you talking about, the hill was predominantly white in the 50s when MLK/legion and 95 were constructed.
ProgMM t1_j5uqa6f wrote
My bad, I was thinking of the ring road proposed to connect Trumbull Street to 34. This would’ve isolated Yale from Dixwell and Dwight. It also appears that, by the end of the 60s (when this was proposed), there were a lot of Black and Puerto Rican people in The Hill.
Sweaty_Conclusion_80 t1_j5uqx3p wrote
No worries. Yale used to have a castle approach to their campus but sometime in the 90s they changed course and have been buying everything around them to create a real estate moat that they can control. They don’t pay taxes on their properties which are “educational,” but their private property development arm owns a sneaky amount of property in this city and surrounding towns and they’re constantly buying up more.
bingybunny t1_j5v53ht wrote
I was helping a client open a restaurant on Whalley, that failed. The lady at the chamber of commerce said that part of town was historically always kinda treated as a no-man's land between the big cemetery and the debtor's prison
awebr t1_j5trur8 wrote
it's a state road only until ella grasso blvd, everything to the east of the blvd is city owned
buried_lede t1_j5udxqa wrote
Oh, good to know.
kppeterc15 t1_j5tvpyh wrote
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Regardless of what Ms. Williams was wearing or how she was behaving, Whalley is well-lit and its speed limit is 25 mph. If the driver didn't see her until literally after the moment if impact, then they were either not watching the road at all, going much too fast, or both. (Most likely both.) No question in my mind.
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Regardless of the particulars of this specific case, Whalley has consistently been a deadly and dangerous road for pedestrians. If there's an issue with frequent jaywalking, that's an issue of design. If people are driving too fast too often, that's an issue of design. Whalley Ave. is a busy commercial corridor flanked on both sides by dense residential neighborhoods. It's a terrible place for a five-land road without any traffic calming measures. Until the state and local government do something about this, people are going to continue to be injured and worse.
Myotherside t1_j5v2f4e wrote
It’s definitely a Stroad that is too wide and could use traffic calming measures
Sweaty_Conclusion_80 t1_j5uip1k wrote
Point 1 is incorrect, but you’re right about the design aspect.
lazy-but-talented t1_j5ull36 wrote
point 1 I've been on the side of slow patient driving lately and on a dark rainy day it is nearly impossible to see people jaywalking still . Whalley is not well lit. Posted speed limit in most cases doesn't matter single lane Orange St is 20mph and multilane Whalley is 25. but no one is driving under 30 on either. sadly if it's a jaywalk it's the pedestrians fault everytime otherwise it's just frogger across a highspeed road
kppeterc15 t1_j5umz2p wrote
>Posted speed limit in most cases doesn't matter single lane Orange St is 20mph and multilane Whalley is 25. but no one is driving under 30 on either
"sure, people are breaking the law in a way that endangers the lives of others, but what else do you expect?"
lazy-but-talented t1_j5unezz wrote
missing the point, you can't just put a sign up that says 5 mph limit and call it a very safe road where no accidents should ever happen. would be just as useful as posting a sign that says "pretty please no accidents on this road"
fingers t1_j5tho43 wrote
I wish they would make it a 3 lane road with a permanent middle lane for turning.
Myotherside t1_j5v2r7g wrote
This + protected bike lanes
fingers t1_j5v9vr9 wrote
I would argue that this is really difficult on a state road with so many crossings and stop lights. Many bicyclists (and drivers) don't abide by the rules of the road (especially stop lights). I'm not a bicyclist so I don't know the logistics of bike lanes.
Then we have the bus. There needs to be a dedicated bus lane? https://thecityfix.com/blog/4-ways-to-design-safe-streets-for-cyclists/
Myotherside t1_j5wnw74 wrote
The only reason it’s difficult is because state DOT’s worship the MUTCD when they should have their heads in NACTO as soon as they design in urbanized areas
daybeers t1_j5xjd9i wrote
10000%
Specialist-Lion-8135 t1_j5ti2zz wrote
Whalley is a free-for-all with guilty parties behind the wheel and on the streets. I have seen double parking, u-turns, jay walking (being obtuse or aggressively slow), turning without indicating, people jumping the light, ignoring the light, turning tight to cross right of way traffic, weaving in and out and busses jumping in and out of traffic with wide turns and very little notice.
Pedestrian footbridges and contiguous ‘islands’ would be game changers. Better stoplight flow would improve business. Banning on street parking and providing off street parking would save lives.
kalemeh8 t1_j5uey90 wrote
This take! Personally I think the onus of driver + pedestrian safety along Whalley is on the city. Spend some $$ on pedestrian friendly infrastructure. It’s painfully obviously needed.
beaveristired t1_j5xg5yc wrote
It’s a state road for much of its length. Blame the state.
At1l t1_j5yiz5w wrote
NHPD could enforce the traffic laws but they don’t bother and only do so when they get grants. This detail was on Whalley.
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/cops_catch_speeders
“31 speeders stopped and ticketed over three hours Thursday afternoon. They weren’t just slight speeders; they were “egregious speeders,” traveling as high as 57 miles per hour. The NHPD is running extra shifts like these at speedways around town through Sept. 6 thanks to a $50,000”
beaveristired t1_j5yui95 wrote
Well yeah, they use grants because they don’t have the budget to do that consistently. We would be better off using different type of enforcement like speed or red light cameras, but that would have to go through the state. Not even sure red light cameras are legal here.
But what we really need is traffic calming measures, make Whalley less like a multi lane highway and more like a walkable boulevard, would also likely spur development. More crosswalks, fewer lanes. More funding for these measures. But again, there’s only so much that can be done at the city level. CT DOT is basically a dinosaur, stuck in the past, very car-minded, very suburban, and I hear they’re very difficult to work with.
However, I do blame the city for what they can control, consistently ignoring Whalley, always allowing fast food and auto repair shops while doing little to revitalize the area. Compared to what the city wants to do with State St., it’s frustrating to see the lack of attention on Whalley. I guarantee that if people were dying on State St., Elicker would try harder to fix the problem.
StuckBehindASkoolBus t1_j5vm61m wrote
You’re right. Total free-for-all. Whalley is insane all the way from Amity to downtown. My gf and I count how many people cut us off, do u-turns, turn without yielding, run red lights, double park with no warning, switch lanes without signaling, jaywalk, drunk and disorderly in the street etc while we drive it. If there’s a bus in one of the lanes it gets worse. It’s usually around 10 incidents every time with 2 or 3 near misses with other vehicles and pedestrians while we just cruise slowly. Another pedestrian was killed in the Fall crossing up by the other McDonald’s too.
daybeers t1_j5sj01f wrote
And the officials don't fucking care.
[deleted] t1_j5ryxn2 wrote
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brewski OP t1_j5trm1q wrote
She was?
[deleted] t1_j5txu2x wrote
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brewski OP t1_j5w77vc wrote
Stop blaming the victim when you have no details. Someone lost a mother/daughter/sister/wife. How awful it would be for their grieving family members to come here and see you baselessly accusing her of being high on PCP and stumbling into traffic. I'm going to delete your nasty comment and if you keep attacking this victim you will be banned from the sub.
Fun-Cockroach8339 t1_j5z2rmb wrote
You want to ban my new one too?
brewski OP t1_j65tog4 wrote
I wasn't born yesterday. I know how banning works. Please just be civilized and don't denigrate the dead.
Fun-Cockroach8339 t1_j66n7do wrote
Honestly, I was denigrating, but I can’t change the facts. I did read the report and that’s what she was doing. If you disagree, feel free to foia the report and judge for yourself. She didn’t deserve to die and it’s terrible that she did, but based on ct state law, she was at fault.
brewski OP t1_j68q3u2 wrote
There was nothing in the linked story about her wandering into traffic or taking PCP. Maybe if you have additional information it would be worth sharing.
Fun-Cockroach8339 t1_j69cqvq wrote
I provided that information because I read the report and spoke to the guys who responded but you banned me for sharing it. 🤷♀️ It’s fine though, I swap out usernames every few months to try and dissuade myself from using Reddit too frequently. In that sense you did me a favor.
Sweaty_Conclusion_80 t1_j5wqfaw wrote
Save your outrage pal, I read the report. Feel free to ban me, it’s time for a new username anyway.
thelowsparkof t1_j5uafd7 wrote
Go away
Sweaty_Conclusion_80 t1_j5ug836 wrote
That’s not me saying that, it’s the way the laws are currently written. Don’t kill the messenger.
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newhaven-ModTeam t1_j5w856m wrote
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[deleted] t1_j5s4uzo wrote
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daybeers t1_j5s85x7 wrote
You try walking and crossing Whalley.
At1l t1_j5veicp wrote
You have to go to the crosswalks, hit the button and wait. It sucks but I did it when I was carless. No way I’d be crossing in front of cars doing 40-50mph on a snowy and rainy night. I’ll wait for as long as I have to and walk the 400 feet to the corner. The CT law even says so.
Sec. 14-300c. Pedestrian use of roads and sidewalks
No pedestrian shall walk along and upon a roadway where a sidewalk adjacent to such roadway is provided and the use thereof is practicable.
No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb, sidewalk, crosswalk or any other place of safety adjacent to or upon a roadway and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close to such pedestrian as to constitute an immediate hazard to such pedestrian.
SweetMojaveRain t1_j5s9po6 wrote
Lived in nh for 6 years chief ik how it is and the oedestrians there (in particular on whalley) are the worst in the state
daybeers t1_j5sitrf wrote
Bruh how is it the pedestrian's fault the street is far too wide, dark, and with traffic signal timings that make drivers unnecessarily aggressive?
SweetMojaveRain t1_j5skm57 wrote
Because where the crime scene was cordoned off was in between crossings, aka a jaywalk
brewski OP t1_j5ts1h5 wrote
What a shitty thing to say. Someone died.
ayentelmen t1_j5rucoo wrote
Whalley's wild, both drivers and pedestrians are very negligent. Drivers are always speeding (I blame the lights being out of sync and therefore taking forever to drive through it at the posted speed limit), and pedestrians just don't give a damn and jaywalk even though it's a five-lane avenue (probably because it takes forever for the pedestrian signal to turn on).