SRFA_Citywide_Plan_Final_Draft-reduced.pdf

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F E R O U T E S F O R A

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- NEW HAVEN -

Citywide Active Transportation Plan

June 2022FINAL DRAFT

Thanks, Everyone!

Thank you to the hundreds of New Haven residents, the City of New Haven, and the Community Alliance for Research & Engagement for participating in, and helping create, this Citywide Plan.

Project Team City of New Haven, Department of Transportation, Traffic, & Parking (TT&P)

City of New Haven, Engineering Department

Community Alliance for Research & Engagement (CARE)

Street Plans

A special thanks to the Safe Routes For All Steering Committee, which provided review and guidance to the project team at regular intervals along the way and substantially amplified the project team’s outreach efforts.

Image Credit (Cover): Street Plans

01 INTRODUCTION

02 GETTING AROUND NHV

06 BIKE NEW HAVEN

04 WALK NEW HAVEN

05 RIDE NEW HAVEN

07 IMPLEMENTATION

03 PUBLIC INPUT

What is Active Transportation?

About the Plan Designing Safe Routes for All

The Current Experience Existing Plan Review & Summary Today: A Day on the Move

Public Outreach Summary How Feedback Shaped the Plan

Best Practices for Safe Biking Bikeway Glossary Existing Network Proposed Network Detailed Drawings #8-11 Project Evaluation High Opportunity Corridors

Designing Streets for Walking Walking in New Haven The Intersection Database Priority Intersections Streets as Places Detailed Drawings #1-4

Elm City Tactical Transit Detailed Drawings #5-7 Bus Stop Typology Bikes & Buses

Future: A Day on the Move Action Plan (5 E’s) Funding Recommendations Appendix

A Letter from the Mayor Dear New Haven Residents, Decades ago, policy makers in cities around the country—including New Haven—built a transportation system primarily designed for one type of user: automobile drivers. This model is outdated and in need of change. Locally, we’re making progress towards reorienting away from this model and our Safe Routes for All Plan builds on that work. Our Safe Routes for All Plan moves beyond infrastructure designed for only cars and prioritizes safety and accessibility for everyone who is on the go—including bikers, walkers, skaters, scooters. Active transportation has numerous benefits including health, equity, and fiscal impact. And, as someone who bikes and walks throughout this city, I’m excited about the impact of these investments.

Planning for Safe Routes for All was led by our Transportation, Traffic, and Parking (TT&P) Department and our project partner, Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE). It’s the result of years of community input, data collection, and analysis of what other communities around the country are doing. While there is more work to do, this plan, when implemented, will be a huge step in the right direction for our city. The plan consists of three main components: (1) Walk New Haven (2) Ride New Haven (3) Bike New Haven. Taken together, these three components combined form the backbone of our active transportation plan.

• Walk New Haven includes things like enhanced crosswalks, curb ramps, tactile pads, and sidewalks of adequate width to make walking in the Elm city safer. The plan takes an intersection-by-intersection look at the city and creates custom plans to address hotspots.

• Ride New Haven aims to complement CTransit’s operations with enhanced transit infrastructure. These upgrades include changes to bus shelters, bus-only lanes, wayfinding and route information, and beautification and placemaking at bus stops.

• Bike New Haven evaluates our existing network and infrastructure and proposes upgrades and expansion of the network by looking to best practices currently in use by cities around the country. The proposal calls for a five fold increase in the total mileage of protected bike lanes.

Taken together, these changes will catapult New Haven from a 1960s era infrastructure system built for cars, to a modern, vibrant, system built for people.

Warm wishes, Mayor Justin Elicker, New Haven, CT

Executive Summary The City of New Haven, the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE), and Street Plans are delighted to put forth New Haven’s first Citywide Active Transportation Plan, a blueprint for the City to build supportive infrastructure for walking, riding transit, and biking in the coming years. To skip to the Plan’s priority recommendations, view the table starting in the Appendix on pg. 129.

In the following pages, readers will find varying scales of recommendations. They are based on existing data and conditions analyses, review of previous plans and studies, and public feedback. The document includes both Citywide policy and infrastructural recommendations based on best practices to inspire and give the City direction on implementation. Priority recommendations are centered around the City’s Priority Neighborhoods, defined on pg. 10, to create an equitable implementation framework.

After an introduction, existing conditions evaluation, and public outreach summary, the document is divided into three mode chapters: Walk New Haven, Ride New Haven, and Bike New Haven. Within each mode chapter are analyses of the existing challenges facing residents, recommendations for improving the experience of traveling by that mode in the City, and detailed drawings (11 total throughout the document) of proposed safety improvements for spot locations. While based on sound initial analysis and expertise, these drawings are illustrative, and provide one set of improvements per location. Further engineering, design, and public engagement will be necessary to verify the feasibility of each set of improvements before moving into a more detailed technical design and construction phase.

The document concludes with an Action Plan and Funding Recommendations to give the City options for how to translate what’s in the Plan to the streets of New Haven. Central to the Action Plan is the creation of a Plan Implementation Task Force, an entity conceived of by the Department of Transportation, Traffic, & Parking (TT&P). This entity will be created primarily to move Plan recommendations from the paper to the pavement, and bring the community along in the process to track project implementation and maintain transparent public communication channels.

The recommendations in the Action Plan are dependent on the availability of resources and capacity within the City. Knowing that all projects in the Citywide Active Transportation Plan may not be implemented, and on the same time scale, the City can use the Action Plan to align Plan implementation with routine milling and repaving, increases in department funding, new development, pilot projects, and capital projects to steadily work toward making New Haven a better place to walk, ride transit, and bike for all.

01 Introduction

Image Credit: Street Plans

What is Active Transportation?

Biking, walking, rollerblading, scooting, etc. are all ways of getting around our urban areas that don’t rely on a motor. These transportation options are critical for those who don’t have cars, prefer to make their commutes more active, or want to safely and leisurely enjoy their streets and public spaces.

WHY PLAN FOR ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION?

Most cities in the United States are designed around private automobile ownership, with capital investments often prioritized for things like road widenings so that people travelling in cars might move swiftly and conveniently between destinations. But what about everyone else who is too young, too old, or simply doesn’t need or can’t drive to access local parks, commercial districts, places of worship, or school?

This Citywide Active Transportation Plan offers the City of New Haven an opportunity to re-prioritize its investments, and the City is committed to doing so for the following reasons:

Active transportation infrastructure is essential public infrastructure. Every New Haven resident has a right to connect safely and efficiently to jobs, schools, parks, social opportunities, entertainment, and other city services without needing to own/ operate a car.

Active transportation is healthy. Residents living in areas with more active transportation have lower obesity rates and other

Active transportation includes all forms of transportation that rely on human power.

ailments than areas without infrastructure that supports active transportation.

Active transportation can advance equity. American urban planning has an autocentric, technocratic, and racist and discriminatory history that continues to impact neighborhoods primarily inhabited by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Today, these neighborhoods tend to receive less public and private investment in public infrastructure, including walking, biking, and transit amenities.

Image Credit: Info New Haven

Active transportation is fiscally responsible. Less cars on the road means spending less on road maintenance, parking facilities, emergency and public safety services, and health care. Active transportation improvements can also boost tourism and generate other economic activity. For residents, not needing to own one or more cars means saving thousands of dollars per year that would otherwise go to car payments, gas, maintenance, repairs, and insurance.

More and more communities are adopting policies and plans to advance active transportation, acknowledging the myriad of benefits, and in most cases the urgent need, to transform streets that work for people of all ages and abilities. According to Smart Growth America’s Complete Streets Policies Inventory, more than 1,600 (2021) communities nationwide, including New Haven, have adopted Complete Streets policies as a framework for future street design. While these policies are but one tool to advance active transportation, they are an important acknowledgement that streets are essential infrastructure that must not only move people but serve a variety of other social, economic, and environmental functions.

The capacity for streets to serve multiple purposes was even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the National League of Cities and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ COVID-19: Local Action Tracker, municipal responses focused on mobility and transit accounted for 49% of the total actions tracked. These actions include ensuring safer travel, dining, socializing, protesting, and voting, highlighting just how much of our daily life can take place in the streets.

In times of crisis, and everything in between, streets serve a much broader purpose than moving people and goods alone; they are the armature for livable communities of all types and scales.

About the Plan This is New Haven’s first Citywide Plan to advance active transportation.

Led by the Department of Transportation, Traffic, & Parking, in partnership with the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE), this Plan is a blueprint for action. It is a way for the City to translate years of feedback and community conversations into infrastructure improvements that will touch every Elm City neighborhood.

Not only does the Plan identify specific capital improvements for the near-term, but it also gives the City a roadmap to operationalize and streamline future active transportation projects. This will help ensure that active transportation improvements remain a priority, are more efficiently translated from the paper to the pavement in the future, and are more responsive to community input.

This Plan is a result of years of outreach, data collection, and analysis.

In the following pages, readers will find a summary of the public input given to the project team, and how this is reflected in priorities for biking, walking, and riding CTtransit. The Plan puts forth priority projects and recommendations for guiding the City in implementing active transportation improvements that mutually reinforce a safer and more accessible city no matter how you move about town.

Although the Plan includes many strong, aspirational recommendations in the Plan, it should be noted that further community engagement, design, and engineering will be required for implementation.

Across all three mode chapters, 11 locations (mapped on the following page) are visualized with conceptual proposals for areas of the City that are deficient in active transportation infrastructure and are located within the Plan’s Priority Neighborhoods (also defined on the following page). The design proposals address a variety of conditions with a range of infrastructure types that may be appropriate in many other places around New Haven.

High Crash Corridor (2019-2020)

High Crash Intersection (2019-2020)

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

City of New Haven Priority Neighborhoods with Plan Drawing Locations.

Priority Neighborhoods are historically defined low-income communities and communities of color, and include Dixwell, Dwight, Fair Haven, Newhallville, The Hill, West River, and West Rock.

These Priority Neighborhoods historically and currently endure disproportionate economic, social, and health disparities, and have been the focus of community and social programs by organizations like CARE to address such inequities. In New Haven overall, 49% of residents are low-income, compared with 23% statewide.

Disparities in income, life expectancy, and health, widen further in these neighborhoods, which are predominantly communities of color (see map on pg. 11). The gap in life expectancy is nearly 12 years between these neighborhoods and other New Haven neighborhoods. For example, Newhallville is 67% low-income residents with a life expectancy of 72 while Westville is only 20% low-income with a life expectancy of 84 (DataHaven, 2019).

Residents of the Priority Neighborhoods also have higher rates of chronic disease like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease (CARE, Health in New Haven, 2018) and are less likely to own cars. Lack of equitable access to active transportation facilities contributes to the disparity.

These factors necessitate a focused approach for prioritizing improvements outlined within this Plan, and provide the overall framework for equitable distribution of active transportation funding and priority projects found in the following pages.

Existing Bike Lanes Existing Shared Lane Markings Existing Shared Use Paths

Existing Protected Bike Lanes

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

Majority Racial/Ethnic Composition of City of New Haven Priority Neighborhoods.

Existing Bike Lanes Existing Shared Lane Markings Existing Shared Use Paths

Existing Protected Bike Lanes

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

WHO LIVES IN NEW HAVEN?

The map at right illustrates the majority race or ethnicity per neighborhood in the City of New Haven.

Priority Neighborhoods appear in bolder colors.

According to the Census Bureau’s July 2021 population estimates, the racial composition of New Haven is below, with 31% of the population identifying as Hispanic or Latin ethnicity:

White

Black

Asian

Native American

Other Race

Two or More Races

44.4%

33.6%

Data: BestNeighborhood, 2021.

Designing Safe Routes for All Safe routes for all is a framework to approach the design of New Haven’s streets, and the prioritization of roadway projects. Providing safe routes for all means that every New Haven resident, regardless of age, ability, or income, has a variety of safe ways to access leisure and employment destinations in the City. Residents need to be able to go about their lives without experiencing reckless driving, a lack of a crosswalk or curb ramp at a CTtransit stop, a disconnected sidewalk network, or the absence of bicycle facilities.

To accommodate all ages, abilities, and incomes, streets must:

Be designed to accommodate disproportionately affected users. This includes the elderly, the mobility, sensory, or mentally impaired, BIPOC, and individuals from low-income communities.

Incorporate design cues to influence user behavior. To retrofit streets currently designed to primarily move motor vehicles with design interventions like curb extensions, raised crossings, and on-street parking.

Offer a variety of transportation options in a connected network. All New Haven residents should be able to choose their preferred mode of transportation for a given trip and not be restricted by a lack of infrastructure or unsafe conditions. Transportation options should be connected to form a network that allows users to seamlessly travel between neighborhoods and across the City.

Extend to all corners of a City. Safe streets must reach the city’s priority neighborhoods so low-income and/or communities of color have equitable access to jobs, recreation, education, and social activities.

Acknowledge that safety is not always just about concrete.

Beyond traffic safety, safe streets improvements should be responses to all the ways that New Haven residents feel unsafe, including lack of lighting, aging infrastructure, or crime.

02 Getting Around New Haven

The Current Experience

New Haven is ready for this Plan. The city’s 2010 Complete Streets Policy and Design Manual; the Vision 2025 Comprehensive Plan Transportation Chapter (2015); and the recent 2019 Move New Haven Transit Mobility Study all provide an important starting point for the City’s first Active Transportation Plan. Recent outcomes of this foundational work include building the state’s first protected bike lane, initiating traffic-calming projects on many of the city’s heavily trafficked corridors, improving pedestrian and bicycle connectivity, and initiating one of the country’s leading highway removal projects.

Ongoing data collection and project tracking document New Haven’s progress but also highlight where there is more work to be done. In this regard, the ongoing use of online tools like SeeClickFix and the City’s online Project Request Form helps city staff pinpoint where citizens want to see safety and access improvements made. In addition to City action, New Haven has an active community advocacy sector that regularly promotes and advocates for active transportation improvements including the delivery of theThe Elm City Cycling Bike & Pedestrian Plan (2013), the New Haven Bike Vision (2021), and New Haven to West Haven: An Intercity Cycling Report (2018).

The Citywide Active Transportation Plan is an opportunity to take stock of the current experience of biking, walking, and riding transit in New Haven, and lay out an action plan for delivering timely improvements, using key recent projects like the Crescent Street

The Elm City is ready to become united by an interconnected network of active transportation infrastructure.

and Edgewood Avenue cycle tracks as a springboard for citywide improvements.

HOW NEW HAVEN MOVES

Nearly 60% of New Haven residents travel to work alone in a vehicle.

As of 2019, 12% ride transit, 11% walk, 9% carpool or utilize rideshare, and approximately and 3% bicycle (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year Estimates). While the current cycling rate may seem low, it is three times the national average. It also shows a great potential for growth as a more connected network of safe and comfortable bikeways are built.

The City of New Haven has the highest transit mode share in the region. According to the 2019 Move New Haven Transit Mobility Study, 29% of the City’s households are zero-car households, meaning nearly1in 3 households rely on transit, carpooling/rideshare, walking, or biking to move around the region. These statistics emphasize how crucial a functioning transit and active transportation system is for New Haven residents. While New Haven does well compared to most municipalities in the United States, many improvements are needed to ensure that job centers and essential services are available to all, especially car-less individuals and households.

It should be noted that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted travel patterns, with long-term effects still unknown. At a high-level initial data reveals a shift away from transit to driving as well as more walking and bicycling. If this trend holds, more people could be at risk if safe infrastructure upgrades aren’t made.

PLAN GOAL: Increase the bicycle mode share to 10% by 2032, and the walking mode share to 15%.

58.7%

11.9%

11.4%

3%

9.1%

5.9%

Data: American Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimate

Drove Alone

Transit

Walked

Carpooled

Rode Motorcycle, took taxi, other

Biked

Percentage of New Haven Travelers by Transportation Mode, 2019. Number of Crash Fatalities in New Haven by Mode, 2019 - 2021.

Pedestrians Drivers & Passengers Bicyclists

SAFETY & SECURITY

Traffic crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States for people aged 1-54, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Understandly, fear of such collisions is the largest deterrent to walking or biking as a primary means of transportation.

Since 2019, collisions in New Haven involving pedestrians made up approximately 3% of the total traffic crashes overall, but over 50% of total fatalities. Statistics like these emphasize the vulnerability of those who walk or bike.

Data: UCONN CT Crash Data Repository

High Crash Corridor (2019-2020)

High Crash Intersection (2019-2020)

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

Data: UConn CT Crash Data Repository

Top Ten Crash Corridors & Intersections, 2019-2020.

Existing Bike Lanes Existing Shared Lane Markings Existing Shared Use Paths

Existing Protected Bike Lanes

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

The top ten corridors and intersections with the most traffic crashes in 2019 and 2020 are mapped at left. Many of the most dangerous corridors are also primary east-west arterials through the City, making inter-neighborhood travel in these directions particularly dangerous for more vulnerable travelers, like those walking and cycling.

Although crash data may change the top ten corridors each year, it is recommended that improvements be focused along the illustrated corridors where possible given additional analysis conducted in the creation of this Plan.

Additional layers of crash analysis, like roadway contributing factors and the severity of crashes by type, informed design decisions and Plan recommendations (see Appendix).

PLAN GOAL: Reduce annual bicycle and pedestrian fatalities to 0 by 2032.

EQUITY & ACCESS

According to the nationally recognized organization People for Bikes’ 2021 Places for Bikes City Ratings, New Haven’s Network Score is below the average score for other mid-size cities. This Network Score is an assessment of how well the City’s existing bicycle network gets its residents to six primary destinations: Neighborhoods, Opportunity, Essential Services, Recreation, Retail, and Transit. Access to transit scores the lowest, with a 4 out of 100, and access to opportunity and recreation scores the highest (28 and 26 out of 100, respectively).

For those without a car, these challenges of connectivity and access become even greater, impacting people of color more significantly.

According to a 2014 study produced by DataHaven, 21% and 26% of Black and Latino households, respectively, do not own cars, compared to 10% of white households. For Black and Latino residents in New Haven today, underemployment is correlated with less car ownership.

The Greater New Haven Community Index illustrates that the City of New Haven has become the region’s primary job center, with most regions losing commuters daily, and New Haven gaining them. Access to these jobs within New Haven is as critical as ever to maintain employment for low income and non-white communities.

In a society that prioritizes cars and repeatedly institutes land use policies that favor driving, a lack of car ownership can be extremely detrimental to upward economic mobility. Although active transportation is vastly better for health and climate, for example, there is no mechanism to reward car-less households and individuals for not worsening the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Moreover, existing infrastructure and transit service does not currently work for all.

PLAN GOAL: Close the gap between the rates of those with and without a car, in New Haven by 10% by 2032 to improve access to employment and services.

HEALTH

In the United States, physical inactivity is a major contributor to the rise in prevalence of ailments like heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. Due to this, institutions like the CDC say that strategies to promote exercise and activity, like the provision of walking, cycling and transit infrastructure, are essential to the health of our communities.

Nationwide studies have documented statistically significant relationships between bicycling and conditions like diabetes and obesity. When health and travel data were cross-examined in all 50 U.S. states in a 2010 study in the American Journal of Public Health, communities with higher rates of active travel were found to have considerably less instances of diabetes.

As of 2017, according to DataHaven’s 2019 Community Wellbeing Index, the City of New Haven’s hospitalization rates for chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, and heart disease are worsening at the highest rate in the region. The prevalence of asthma in New Haven’s school district (14.7%) is the highest of all other school districts in the region, as well as the statewide prevalence rate of 14.3%.

Making it safer for kids to walk and bike to school, for adults to access their jobs on bike, and for all residents to more easily access recreational opportunities could substantially impact the health of the City’s residents in the coming years.

PLAN GOAL: Reduce the prevalence of asthma in New Haven’s school district to below the statewide average by 2032.

Image Credit: CARE

Existing Plan Review & Summary

What this should reinforce to readers is that the City of New Haven has been planning for and implementing active transportation improvements since as early as 2004, with the Plan for Greenways & Cycling Systems. This plan discussed not only how to create off-street routes for bicyclists through parks and other trails, but it also incorporates the street network in the proposed greenway designs.

A connected network of on- and off-street active transportation infrastructure has been in the works for almost two decades.

Below are the plans and studies included in the literature review:

The project team reviewed a total of 17 previous plans and studies relevant to active transportation in New Haven.

Only three previous plans are at the Citywide scale. While most are for different corridors or city subareas, certain priorities and recommendations are more consistent throughout.

Additional findings are on the following page, organized by active transportation mode.

1. Previous plans repeatedly call for continuous East-West and North-South bicycle connections through and outside of the City.

2. Mobility studies have been conducted in only two of the Priority Neighborhoods, with other areas of focus being Downtown and Wooster Square.

3. Connections to proposed greenways are repeated priorities of existing plans and studies.

4. All existing plans and studies place emphasis on protected bicycle facilities, traffic calming solutions, and expanding neighborhood greenways.

5. Multiple plans call for two-way conversions, especially in the Downtown core, as crucial mobility and placemaking improvements.

BIKE NEW HAVEN

Chapel, College, Elm, Grove, Orange, State ,Water, and York Streets; Congress, Edgewood, Forbes, Grand, Howard, Whalley, and Whitney Avenues; and MLK Jr Boulevard are corridors that are repeated across the plans for dedicated and/or protected bicycle infrastructure. An emphasis is placed on delivering protected facilities where feasible, with neighborhood greenways and traffic calming interventions as supportive recommendations

Implementing an interconnected network of greenways is also repeated in multiple studies.

WALK NEW HAVEN

Pedestrian improvements are put forth broadly through neighborhood greenway, traffic calming, Complete Streets, and one-way to two-way street conversion recommendations.

Specific interventions like Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPIs), raised crossings, shared or slow streets, no right turns on red, curb extensions, and new and improved sidewalks are presented in individual plans. For example, the 2015 Comprehensive Plan calls for new sidewalks along the city’s “connector streets,” and within Newhallville, Dixwell, and The Hill. Neighborhood greenways, traffic calming, and other references to specific interventions are discussed in Newhallville, Fair Haven, and Downtown’s individual plans, and in the corridor studies.

RIDE NEW HAVEN

One plan in particular focuses on transit improvements. The 2019 Move New Haven Transit Mobility Study put forth potential transit supportive options to strengthen and modernize the CTtransit New Haven bus system. Recommendations include dedicated bus lanes, new BRT routes, signalization improvements, bus stop consolidations, and shelter improvements.

BRT routes are proposed along Dixwell and Grand Avenues between Putnam (Hamden) and Ferry Streets, and along Congress and Whalley Avenues between the City of West Haven and Blake Street in New Haven. Several of the corridors proposed for dedicated bus lanes are also corridors that were repeatedly proposed for dedicated and/or protected bicycle infrastructure, like Church, Elm, and State Streets, and Whalley Avenue.

With the most recent Move New Haven Transit Mobility Study, and goNewHavengo initiative, there is a more recent push to implement projects that enable people to more comfortably walk, bike, ride, and roll through the City. Current efforts to install Citywide LPIs, construction of the Edgewood Avenue cycle track, and the redesign of the Yale Avenue and Chapel Street intersection, are moving the needle forward.

The Citywide Active Transportation Plan not only builds upon previously identified projects, but also helps the City of New Haven prioritize which of those and newly identified projects can help achieve an equitable, well-distributed, connected bicycle, pedestrian, and transit network for all residents.

Today: A Day on the Move This Plan is about helping people get to where they need to go, and enjoying the journey along the way.

Nora, a 60 year old resident, takes care of her elderly mother in West River, who is in a wheelchair. For the most part, there are services and amenities within walking distance to where her mother lives. Her favorite place to go to once a week is the Wilson Library in The Hill.

Her mother lives just over a mile away from the library, and it takes about the same amount of time to take the bus as it does to walk, so she likes taking advantage of the opportunity to get some exercise while pushing her mother.

However, even though it’s a doable distance, the walk isn’t exactly pleasant. Sidewalks at main intersections in West River in particular are not in good condition, and they always get really nervous crossing North Frontage Road and Legion Avenue.

After they get across the major arterials, they walk down Ward Street/Daggett Street, which is sometimes littered with trash.

She thinks to herself that she could take her mother to enjoy the library much more often if the infrastructure to support their walk and roll were improved. For now, they’ll stick to once a week visits.

Mary, a 34 year old resident, just got a bike so that she could enjoy more active outings with her two children, who each got bikes for Christmas. She doesn’t feel comfortable letting them bike alone yet. She’d feel most comfortable biking with them in protected bike lanes, or within large parks, neither of which are in her immediate vicinity living in Amity.

One Saturday, she looks up a map of the city’s bike network to see if there are any safe routes that could get them to Edgewood Park. Disappointed, she realizes that there is not any dedicated infrastructure, or even shared lane markings, to guide her family to the park.

In addition to it being hilly in her neighborhood, there are multiple high-speed arterials between them and the park that would feel too scary to bike on, or across.

They end up zigzagging through the calmer residential streets, taking a less direct route to the park. She recalls thinking that improvements could even be made to these streets to make it more clear that they’re low stress biking routes. Nearing the end of their park visit, she had forgotten how they got there, and instead they rode on the sidewalks along the busier streets to get home.

Alvaro, a 42 year old Fair Haven resident whose car is in the shop, doesn’t have a bike because he doesn’t feel like there are enough facilities around where he lives to help him bike safely.

He has a doctor’s appointment at Yale’s Orchard Avenue Medical Center in the afternoon, and has to pick his daughter up from extracurricular activities at Clinton Avenue School shortly thereafter, so he checks the bus schedule. The fastest route on one bus will take him 33 minutes along Lombard Street, State Street, and Chapel Street, but his trip on the way back could be longer because of afternoon traffic.

He sets out to walk to the nearest bus stop, but almost misses it because the stop is so inconspicuous. There’s no shelter, seating, or prominent wayfinding. Sure enough, after his appointment, traffic on Chapel Street and State Street going through downtown makes him late to pick up his daughter.

He wishes there was a way to expedite bus service during rush hour, and make the entire experience of riding transit more pleasant.

03 Public Input

Public Outreach Summary

Plan public engagement began in the summer of 2019, with a June public meeting and subsequent installation of pedestrian Quick Build projects in each of the City’s Priority Neighborhoods. The Quick Build methodology, also known as Tactical Urbanism, is a way of delivering improvements to streets and public spaces made with resident participation in a less expensive, more inclusive, and faster manner than typical capital projects. These temporary projects deliver projects on a faster timeline than permanent capital projects, and also allow communities to evaluate how they function before much larger investments are made in long-term infrastructure. The intention behind kicking off the planning process with the Quick Build projects was to demonstrate from the outset what kinds of projects could be included in the Plan, and to also use the planning process as a way to expeditiously deliver improvements while the plan was drafted.

Temporary pedestrian enhancements were installed in August and September 2019 at the following six intersections throughout the City:

• Dixwell: Dixwell Avenue & Shelton Avenue; Dixwell Avenue & Munson Street

• Dixwell-Dwight: Whalley Avenue & Orchard Street

• Fair Haven: Houston Street & Chapel Street; Ferry Street & River Street; Ferry Street & Chapel Street

The Citywide Active Transportation Plan employed a variety of digital and on-the-ground strategies to engage New Haven safely and effectively.

• Newhallville: Bassett Street & Dixwell Avenue

• The Hill-West River: Winthrop Avenue & Sylvan Avenue & Auburn Street

• West Rock: Wintergreen Avenue & Springside Avenue

The project team designed and installed a total of 28 artistic curb extensions, completed one bus stop enhancement, one protected bike lane, and numerous new crosswalks across the six intersections.

In Dixwell, five curb extensions made pedestrians more visible, shortened crossing distances and tightened curb radii to slow the turning speeds of vehicles.

A short segment of protected bike lane was also included.

In Dixwell-Dwight, three curb extensions shortened pedestrian crossing distances and tightened curb radii to slow the turning speeds of vehicles.

In Fair Haven, eight curb extensions shortened pedestrian crossing distances and tightened curb radii to slow the turning speeds of vehicles.

An underutilized portion of asphalt that had been used as an informal parking lot was reclaimed for pedestrian space.

In Newhallville, four curb extensions shortened pedestrian crossing distances and tightened curb radii to slow the turning speeds of vehicles. A bus stop on Dixwell Avenue was enhanced with an artistic pavement treatment.

In The Hill-West River, five curb extensions shortened pedestrian crossing distances and tightened curb radii to slow the turning speeds of vehicles.

In West Rock, three curb extensions shortened pedestrian crossing distances and tightened curb radii to slow the turning speeds of vehicles.

Additional artistic asphalt treatments were added to bring attention to the intersection.

Image Credits (All): Street Plans

THE HILL-WEST RIVER

46% CROSSING DISTANCE

REDUCTION

WEST ROCK

40% CROSSING DISTANCE

REDUCTION

FAIR HAVEN

38% CROSSING DISTANCE

REDUCTION

NEWHALLVILLE

34% CROSSING DISTANCE

REDUCTION

DIXWELL

25% CROSSING DISTANCE

REDUCTION

DIXWELL-DWIGHT

22% CROSSING DISTANCE

REDUCTION

34% CROSSING DISTANCE

REDUCTION

ACROSS ALL SITES

19,492

RECLAIMED PEDESTRIAN

SQUARE FEET ACROSS ALL

SITES

Public outreach for Phase II of the plan resumed in March 2021 with the first public workshop, when COVID-19 vaccinations were more widely available to New Haven residents. From that point until the unveiling of the plan draft, in partnership with CARE, the project team utilized the following tactics to reach New Haven residents for feedback on the state of active transportation in their City:

Public Workshops (Virtual and In-Person)

Steering Committee Meetings

Handlebar & Walkabout Surveys

Safe Routes for All SeeClickFix Platform

Additional Community Conversations

PUBLIC WORKSHOP #1

WHAT WE DID

The first public workshop for the Safe Routes for All Citywide Active Transportation Plan was hosted virtually in English on March 24, 2021.

53 participants joined the project team for a 90-minute introduction to the project, review of the Phase I Quick Build installations, and an interactive live mapping feedback exercise using the City’s Veoci platform. Following a presentation from the consultant, the participants and project team representatives were broken up into Zoom Breakout Rooms. Within each Breakout Room, participants were instructed to take a few minutes to input any feedback into the Veoci 3/24 Meeting Map Form (image at right). In the form, participants were asked to add geolocated intersections or segments of streets where they’d like

The meeting map form asked participants to specify whether they were leaving feedback for an intersection or street, what the challenge there was, and to elaborate in an open format question.

to see active transportation improvements, and to elaborate on the specific challenges they experience there.

After participants added their feedback, Breakout Room leaders shared the map that illustrated all of the entries, and facilitated a discussion about specific inputs.

During the workshop, participants entered a total of 197 inputs, either specific corridors or intersections of concern.

Existing Bike Lanes Existing Shared Lane Markings Existing Shared Use Paths

Existing Protected Bike Lanes

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

Following the workshop, the link to fill out the Veoci Map Form was posted on the Safe Routes for All website for additional entries, for those who could not attend the initial public engagement. 32 more entries were added to the map between the workshop and when its link was replaced with the SRFA SeeClickFix link in June.

The same workshop was executed entirely in Spanish on March 31, 2021. A separate Map Form in Spanish was created to collect live responses during the workshop. 3 participants entered a total of 11 inputs, leaving feedback for 9 corridors and 3 intersections.

WHAT WE LEARNED

From March-June, the two Veoci maps recorded a total of 240 entries. Of those 240 entries:

• Chapel Street, Whitney Avenue, Elm Street, and Orange Street were mentioned most frequently. Whalley Avenue, Trumbull Street, and State Street all tied for being the fifth most-mentioned problematic corridor.

• Whitney Avenue & Cliff Street, S Frontage Road & York Street, State Street & Trumbull Street, and Elm Street & York Street were the most frequently mentioned intersections of concern.

• Speeding cars and a lack of bicycle infrastructure were the more prominent concerns from the English workshop, whereas a lack of

Visualization of Inputs from the Veoci 3/24 Meeting Map Form (March-June, 2021).

Workshop Intersection Input

Workshop Street Input

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines crosswalks or adequate sidewalks was most mentioned in the Spanish workshop.

• Requests for separated bicycle facilities dominated the English workshop’s bicycle-specific feedback inputs. Concerns of dooring and of cars parking in existing, unprotected lanes were also frequent.

The consultant team used the inputs and conversation from the first workshop to help create the Handlebar & Walkabout Survey routes in April and May, to experience the challenges communicated in the workshop on the ground. This feedback also formed the foundation of the bike network and pedestrian priority projects, reiterating problematic corridors and intersections from the existing plan review, and bringing to the attention of the consultant team new areas of focus.

PUBLIC WORKSHOP #2

WHAT WE DID

The project team held multiple workshops for the Draft Plan review from Tuesday, September 28th to Thursday, September 30th. On Tuesday and Thursday, the team delivered virtual presentations of the Plan via Zoom. On Wednesday, September 29th, the team interacted with community members in person at Scantlebury Park to seek feedback on the Draft recommendations and drawings.

WHAT WE LEARNED

Approximately 30 residents joined the project team to review large-format printed boards of the Draft Plan. Workshop participants filled out worksheets, including any comments or questions per board. The boards were broken up according to the mode chapters in the Draft Plan.

The most common feedback heard from participants was that the timelines for some of the draft recommendations were not ambitious enough, and that residents were ready for improvements to be implemented on a faster time scale. The project team recorded and discussed each piece of feedback given, and collected digital feedback for the first two weeks of October through the Plan website.

STEERING COMMITTEE MEETINGS

WHAT WE DID

The project team brought together a group of both City department staff and representatives from active transportation advocacy/ action groups for the Citywide Active Transportation Plan Steering Committee, a body that provided the project team feedback and direction at regular touch points during the planning process, and helped involve their networks in public engagement events. The Steering Committee was comprised of 26 individuals, representing the following entities within the City of New Haven:

The Steering Committee also included several residents not officially affiliated with any of the above entities.

The first Steering Committee meeting was hosted virtually on Zoom by the project team a week before the first workshop. In addition to a project overview and description of the Committee roles, the meeting included a similar feedback exercise as the first workshop.

All participants were divided into Breakout Rooms, and instructed to discuss the challenges and opportunities for active transportation in New Haven by mode: biking, walking, and riding transit.

The second Steering Committee meeting was held during the first week of June, primarily to recap the April and May Handlebar Surveys, and to discuss the rest of the plan schedule. The Steering Committee provided feedback on ways to better engage more residents over the summer in preparation for the Draft Plan unveiling.

WHAT WE LEARNED

Below are highlights from the first Steering Committee meeting, categorized by mode:

Walking

streets.

• Bicyclists having to ride on the sidewalks creates conflicts with pedestrians.

• Crosswalks need to be more clearly marked, and the pedestrian signal crossing times are often too brief.

• Dixwell, Grand, and Whalley Avenues should be pedestrian priority corridors.

• Residents want a safer connection from Middletown Avenue and Front Avenue to Walgreens and Walmart at Foxon Boulevard and Quinnipiac Avenue.

Biking

is too disconnected.

the road with cars.

lanes.

Riding Transit

• Bus stops need more amenities, like seating, shade, and wayfinding.

• Union Station and Chapel Street are locations of the confluence of multiple modes. These areas can be made safer.

• Residents want the buses to be faster and more reliable. Buses get delayed in traffic having to share lanes with cars.

The third Steering Committee meeting was held on September 14th, 2021, and was intended to be the first presentation of any of the Draft Plan to people in the community outside the internal project team.

The project team presented to 15 Steering Committee members, and received feedback on the initial detailed drawings, as well as how well the Plan will set the City up for successful implementation.

HANDLEBAR & WALKABOUT SURVEYS

WHAT WE DID

The project team hosted Handlebar (biking) & Walkabout Surveys at 11:00am and 2:00pm on Saturday, April 17th, 4:00pm on Wednesday, April 28th, 4:00pm on Thursday, May 13th, and 11:00am and 2:00pm on Saturday, May 15th.

An additional date on Thursday, April 15th was cancelled due to inclement weather. The project team distributed information about the ground surveys via the project’s Facebook page, flyers to the Community Management Teams (CMTs), and notices to the Steering Committee.

Members of the community joined the consultants in surveying the experience of biking and walking along predetermined routes. Along the rides and walks, the groups discussed and scored the conditions along different street segments using worksheets that the consultant team had prepared. Across all four days of surveys:

70 total community members were engaged.

9 different walking and biking routes were surveyed.

29 different streets, within 13 different neighborhoods, were scored.

22+ miles of New Haven were covered!

Handlebar Survey Route

Route Stop

Walkabout Survey Route

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

April and May Handlebar & Walkabout Survey Routes.

Existing Bike Lanes Existing Shared Lane Markings Existing Shared Use Paths

Existing Protected Bike Lanes

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Avg. Score >15

Avg. Score 10-15

Avg. Score <10

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

Walkabout Survey Street Segment Average Scores.

Existing Bike Lanes Existing Shared Lane Markings Existing Shared Use Paths

Existing Protected Bike Lanes

N.25 mile

.5 mile

.75 mile

1.0 mile

KEY

Street Centerlines

Parks

Water

Survey sheets were created in both English and Spanish, and were filled out during the rides and walks, and submitted to the project team upon route completion.

The routes devised for each date were done so based on feedback from the first public workshops and Steering Committee meeting. The City’s free public libraries were used as the meeting points from which participants set out on the rides and walks, and the project team made sure to ride and/or walk through each of the Priority Neighborhoods. Additional rides and walks had been scheduled and predetermined, but did not receive participation from the community (eg. in Newhallville).

WHAT WE LEARNED

At right is a map of all 27 Walkabout Survey street segments scored on April 17th, April 28th, May 13th, and May 15th. Street segments were scored on a scale of 1-4 across six different questions, for a maximum total score of 24. Wintergreen Avenue, Columbus Avenue, Lafayette Street, Bassett Street, Sherman Parkway, Elizabeth Street, Dixwell Avenue, Pond Street, and Dorman Street all received the lowest average scores (an indication of unfavorable walking conditions).

Dixwell Avenue, Sherman Parkway, and Bassett Street in Newhallville received the lowest average walking scores of 6.

Hamilton Street in The Mill River District received the highest average walking score of 21.6.

Handlebar Survey Street Segment Average Scores.

Avg.