Description
Need for 4 Way Stops at 1) Alden and Chapel and 2) Yale and Chapel.
Vehicles travel at very high speeds down Chapel St between Forest Rd and Ella Grasso Blvd. There are many, many serious accidents, and many near accidents at both intersections. Currently if the traffic light on Central is green, Chapel Street becomes a speedway from Forest to Ella Grasso Blvd. 4 Way Stops soon are needed.
5 Comments
Chris Heitmann (Registered User)
Agree that Chapel is a speedway here and that something should be done, but I wonder about the efficacy of installing four-way stop signs. While stop signs are cheap and easy to install, the likelihood that these would become mere "slow-down" signs is high, given how they function in the rest of Westville. Race to the stop sign, slow down at the last second, race to the next stop sign, slow down, and so on. This approach would also make traffic louder and more polluting.
Since the goal is really to slow down traffic on the street as a whole, I would advocate for a full-street traffic-calming approach. Much of this can be done just with paint, visually narrowing the road with marked parking lanes, shoulders, and/or bike lanes or a cycle-track. In order to address the intersections, how about two modern roundabouts, one at Alden and one at Yale Ave.? While fully built-out versions are expensive, they can also be built more cheaply (and quickly) with paint, flexible bollards and temporary curbing, something the City has shown a recent willingness to do. If the measures work effectively, then the community can work towards getting the funding to build nicer, more permanent versions. If they don't work, take 'em out and try something else.
I can particularly envision a large modern roundabout at Chapel & Yale serving as a planted and signed gateway to both Westville and to Yale Bowl, the Tennis Center and the Yale fields - a gateway that would also make that most dangerous of intersections infinitely safer. The current intersection is a sorry excuse of an entry point to Yale, to the CT Open and to the neighborhood, with the exception of the planted corner of Edgewood Park that is planted and maintained by BlockWatch 303. A smaller-scale roundabout at Alden would serve a similar function and would break up that long speedway between Forest and Central.
Curious to know others' thoughts on these ideas. A Complete Streets application would be the next step towards moving any of these ideas to fruition and I/WVRA would be happy to work with anyone on a submission.
J (Registered User)
City of New Haven (Verified Official)
Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking (Verified Official)
Closed Manager of Operations, Process Improvement - Transportation, Traffic, & Parking (Verified Official)