Contention continues over New Haven expressway replacement
Pedestrians may have to cross five lanes of traffic, without a refuge, if the Rt. 34 expressway replacement in New Haven, Connecticut, is built as the City now proposes. Safe-streets advocates are upset that two traffic islands, which seemed to be agreed upon in July 2011, have been deleted at the stage when the project's design work is considered 90 percent complete. A City spokesperson said other safety improvements made the islands unnecessary, and an island would have endangered bicyclists. "I don't think anyone is disingenuous in the process," said Alderman Justin Elicker, who has been a strong proponent of a narrower, more pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare. "But there's not a can-do attitude by the powers that be to say, 'let's figure this out.'" Said Ryan Lynch of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign: "The ultimate issue is that they’re over-accommodating automobile traffic at the expense of infrastructure that supports a safe walking and biking environment. The safety and design issues in the project, which is funded by a federal TIGER grant, are discussed in detail in the New Haven Independent. The project's benefits for real estate and economic development are discussed in a July 18 article in The New York Times business section.
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