Riders: Fare Hikes Add Insult To Injury

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018 - 

The state’s ready to cut train service and raise the cost of riding the bus, which will fall particularly hard on disabled people, riders testified Tuesday night.

And when a state official compared Connecticut public transit favorably to that in New York and Boston — they called that just insulting.

Dozens of New Haven residents delivered that message to staffers from the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CT DOT) during a three-hour public hearing about proposed fare increases and service reductions to the state’s buses and trains.

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Bike Share Set To Roll

Thursday, February 16, 2018 - 

Starting next week, city residents and visitors will be able to rent a bike with the swipe of a phone and pedal around New Haven to get to work, complete a chore or just enjoy the city outside the confines of an automobile.

Or at least in parts of New Haven, at first, through Bike New Haven, the city’s long-awaited new bike share program.

At Tuesday’s night regular meeting of the Hill North Community Management Team at Career High School on Legion Avenue, deputy city transit chief Michael Pinto told neighbors that the program will have a soft launch next Tuesday.

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Alt-Transiteers Map Attack On “Anarchy”

Rob Rocke, Nadine Horton lead infrastructure session.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - 

More people biking in protected lanes, paying tolls, surviving crosswalks — and running, for office.

Advocates promoted that vision for safer streets and, with the running suggestion, how to realize it, at a strategy session Monday night.

The occasion was the latest edition of Transportation on Tap, a semi-regular conversation series organized by the local alternative transportation advocacy group GoNewHavenGo.

The series, started in 2015, connects transportation experts with community members every few months to talk about how to achieve improved pedestrian, cyclist and public transit infrastructure and access throughout the city.

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“Super Block” Revival Ready

City transit chief Doug Hausladen (right) and city engineer Giovanni zinn (left).

Wednesday, November 22, 2017 - 

A developer is just about ready to put shovels in the ground to start construction on 269 new market-rate apartments that will replace a four-acre surface parking lot on a “super block” at Audubon and Orange — and to help the city add a traffic-calming “speed table” there.

Matthew Edvardsen of South Nowarlk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners offered that update at Tuesday night’s monthly meeting of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSCMT) on the second floor of City Hall.

Edvardsen told neighbors that his firm should have all necessary building permits, construction funding and subcontractor agreements in place by the end of the year for the new “Audubon Square” mixed-use development.

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Next Stop: Springfield! 12 Times A Day

A DOT staffer explains the proposed schedule for the new Hartford Line train service at Monday night’s hearing.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - 

New Haveners appeared so pumped to start taking more trains to Hartford and Springfield — that no one showed up to complain about the fares.

At least that could be one takeaway from a public meeting Connecticut Department of Transportation (CT DOT) staffers held Monday night at New Haven’s Hall of Records at 200 Orange St.

The DOT didn’t end up hearing much public feedback. But what it did hear was that New Haven is ready to start taking advantage of increased rail service to the north.

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Would You Buy A Parking Space From This Man?

Doug Hausladen.

Thursday, September 28, 2017 - Doug Hausladen came to East Rock looking to make an elusive sale: a flexible parking space designed to bridge the gap between meter-wary merchants who need more on-street parking and neighbors who want to park their cars on the streets where they live.

Hausladen, New Haven’s transit chief, got permission to start selling these parking spaces more than a year ago, when the city amended the code of ordinances to allow for selling business restricted parking spaces on residential side streets.

Since then, Hausladen has pitched different neighborhoods on the idea. So far, no takers.

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Bus Stops Get Fall Reprieve

The crowd at Monday night’s East Rock Community Management Team meeting.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017 - The city’s holding off until the end of the year with a plan to remove six State Street bus stop so neighbors have time to weigh in.

City Transportation, Traffic & Parking Director Doug Hausladen delivered that message to East Rock residents on Monday night during this month’s meeting of the East Rock Community Management Team (ERCMT) at the mActivity gym on Nicoll Street.

Forty neighbors filled the room to hear Hausladen out as he apologized for not have engaged earlier in a clear public discussion about the planned removals of three inbound and three outbound Q bus stops on State Street between Bradley and Mechanic Streets. The city’s Traffic Authority recently gave him permission to remove those stops.

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What Will Make Bradley & State Safe?

Intersection of Bradley and State Streets.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017 - Daphne Geismar has lived on Bradley Street since 2001, and has personally witnessed at least three car crashes at the intersection of Bradley and State.

She has been petitioning the city for over a decade to improve the safety of that intersection.

With a renewed commitment from the city’s transportation department and the support of her South of Humphrey Street (SoHu) neighbors, Geismar may see a safer intersection in the not-too-distant future.

Traffic safety at Bradley and State Streets was one of the focal points of this month’s East Rock Community Management Team meeting, held on Monday night at the mActivity gym on Niccoll Street.

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“Participatory Budgeting” Takes On Olive Street Speeding

Friday, May 19, 2017  - Olive Street will be the beneficiary of a new mobile, radar speed sign next year as the result of an annual exercise in “participatory budgeting”: a democratic decision-making process that empowers a neighborhood to decide how to spend a small share of the city budget.

During its monthly meeting at City Hall this week, the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSCT) voted to dedicate $5,000 of its annual $10,000 in “Neighborhood Public Improvement Program (NPIP)” allotment towards traffic calming on Olive Street.

For the past three years, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), the city’s anti-blight agency, has distributed $10,000 in NPIP money to each community management team in New Haven to spend as it chooses. The program allows community members themselves to debate and decide on which quality-of-life issues they would like to address in any given year.

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Wheelies, Helmets Abound At Kick-off Bike Block Party

Omarhie Wilson gets a new brain-colored bike helmet.

Monday, May 8, 2017 - As Vanessa Wilson and her son Omarhie crossed Ivy Street on their way to pick up food for breakfast, they stumbled upon a treasure trove of biking goodies: a bicycle repair station, a pop-up bike lane, a table full of seat covers and reflectors, and plenty of tips on how to bike safely in New Haven.

By the time they resumed their grocery shopping trip a half hour later, the Newhallville mother and son were the proud owners of two new bicycle helmets, and were already looking forward to their next family bike trip up the Farmington Canal.

“This is wonderful,” Vanessa said. “I take the kids on the bike trail all the time, and I was just talking with Omarhie about his bike because his light recently fell off.” Omarhie, who is in second grade at Lincoln-Bassett School, looked up with a smile, tugging lightly at his new brain-patterned headgear.

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Bike Share Hits A Newhallville Speed Bump

Legislative rider: Alder Adam Marchand samples prototype at hearing.

Thursday, March 23, 2017 - Lawmakers were urged to approve a new bike share program in New Haven — as long as it includes neighborhoods away from downtown.

Which might not prove so simple, at least at first.

A public hearing Tuesday night drew enthusiastic support for the planned new project, which would eventually make at least 300 bicycles available for short-term rental at 30 stations located around the city. The Harp administration has chosen a company to run the program, which is similar to New York’s Citi Bike, and now needs Board of Alders approval to roll it out.

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Would 5 Miles Per Hour Make A Difference?

Antunes, at center, with Alders Delphine Clyburn and Sal DeCola.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - Two Alden Avenue neighbors offered different takes on how to slow down cars on their street — while lawmakers tried to figure out how much control they have over how fast people can legally drive in town.

The two-hour trip down Transportation Policy Road took place Tuesday night at a hearing at City Hall of the Board of Alders’ Public Safety and City Services & Environmental Policy committees.

The hearing concerned a proposed bill by Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow to explore the best ways to calm traffic and possibly lower the speed limit on city (as opposed to state) roads from 25 to 20 miles per hour.

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