The In-Road pedestrian signs were a great addition to the neighborhood and we will welcome them back soon... It is true that some City's can leave up certain types of these signs throughout the year, but the ones we tested this Fall and the ones that we will hopefully add up and down State and Orange Streets this Spring will likely need to be removed for a little less than 3 months each, like they do in most communities. I certainly can't wait.. and in the meantine, the NHPD and all drivers should clearly follow all the traffic laws, with or without the reminder signs in place!

I agree that this intersection is problematic, both from the viewpoint of the (good) drivers who have a hard time seeing the individuals waiting to cross until they are nearly upon them (parking, bad lighting, cars pulling out from the cross street), and certainly from the perspective of the pedestrians. While driving, I have been honked at and gestured at for slowing to make certain that there is no one in the crosswalk, and during one disturbing event, I actually had someone drive around me and nearly hit the person I was letting cross in the cross walk.

It seems to me that this problem holds for pretty much every crosswalk in East Rock -- Orange Street, Mitchell Drive, Willow/Nicoll, Willow/Anderson... that's just off the top of my head... it is really scary. As one of those annoying mamas with a stroller/baby carrier, I find it even more annoying because I can't just run like hell to avoid the cars anymore....

As someone who has been mobility impaired in the past, I strongly agree and sympathize with your points, Eva.

The only real solution to preventing more injuries and deaths is to design crosswalks and streets in a way that eliminates risk. There are many ways to do this, and I know that the City is familiar with them. Medians, raised intersections, narrow lanes, bollards, speed tables are just a few of the methods. Visit London, and you'll see that residential streets, like those in East Rock, are marked with top speeds of 12mph, Streets are designed in ways that ensure drivers don't go much faster than that, because they just can't.

The fact that our crosswalks are risky is a major deterrent to getting people to walk outside and enjoy their neighborhoods. This is a major contributor to obesity, poor health, crime, and other problems, since residents -- particularly those with limited mobility such as the very young and very old -- are far less likely to walk more than a few blocks on a regular basis. Jane Jacobs talks about exactly why you need both very young people and very old people on a street, at various times of day, to make it safe and vibrant.

Bottom line is that if we designed crosswalks and streets so that they were safe and eliminated risk, our society would dramatically improve. Unfortunately, it will take many years to rebuild streets, unless we all work together to muster the political will to improve them much more quickly, like what London has done over the past few years.

At the very least, future road improvement projects should be built in ways that support the community.

Perhaps you could call your Alderperson, or the City government, and ask how they are coming along on the Complete Streets Design Manual that the Board of Aldermen unanimously passed legislation to require, back in October 2008?

The in-street pedestrian signs should be in place year-round, like in Boston. Use large sand barrels or bolt them in, then build permanent medians when funding allows.

Boston gets much more snow than New Haven, so the city's decision to remove them for half of the year due to snowplowing doesn't sit well.

Hey Mark,

I thought the issue is that they don't want the plows to have go around them?

Acknowledged By CTLS. Red light running and other control violations are a major concern of community groups throughout Connecticut, and responsible for hundreds of serious crashes every year.

I think this Xwalk is particularly bad because cars are speeding after flying off the I-91 offramp (or off of the wide downtown streets, like Church, Elm, State and Whitney, that are almost as bad).

If you read the book "Traffic", it talks about studies showing how drivers need time to adjust their perception of speed when flying off highways and coming into a slower zone. It typically takes several minutes (10-20 blocks) before they psychologically adjust to the fact they are no longer driving on an interstate.

Perhaps calming the offramp would have a positive impact on this crosswalk?

I saw that in-road pedestrian signs have been placed all around Southern Connecticut State University. I saw several there this past weekend.

What's taking these so long for the ones on Orange and State to be put back in service?

http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/57694-crosswalk-sign-repeatedly-removed is a similar issue - there was an in-street sign here, but it has repeatedly been removed, and seems now to have disappeared altogether.