I agree with all of the above; this intersection is currently a serious problem. Also, drivers here frequently do not stop to look before turning right on red, a situation which ultimately is likely to cause a serious or fatal pedestrian injury. Perhaps the stop lines should be moved back about 20 feet to improve pedestrian visibility.

P.S. In addition to the above, raised and/or textured crosswalks are also needed to improve pedestrian comfort crossing this street, which many people have described to me as a "superhighway." Make the area more walkable and land values will skyrocket.

I'm not sure it really is a "superhighway" mark.
The lights are currently timed as such that it's tough to get speeds up.
Hopefully it stays that way/

Ben, if you think about the perception of a typical resident here, you have over 200 feet of roadway landscape to cross between the residential district at William & Olive and the NW corner of Grove and State. That's wider than an interstate highway. If you look at the most walkable, retail-packed streets in Downtown New Haven, the model we should be looking at is how to create crossing distances that are on the order of 10 feet, and streetscapes that are pleasant to cross - not ones where you risk your life crossing (speeds in excess of 20 miles per hour are a major contributing factor to that, not just width or visibility).

I'm not calling it a superhighway, I'm saying that's what a significant number of renters and homeowners looking into living in that neighborhood call it (they have told me this personally). I have looked into to living there, too, and the idea of crossing that street several times per day was a major negative. Surely, the disincentive to crossing such a wide and unappealing road is a major drag on real estate values -- and my comments are mostly coming from young, healthy people who theoretically should have no trouble crossing. Now imagine how a young family with kids, a disabled resident, or an elderly person feels. If you fixed this situation, you would potentially see a 200% increase in land values just based on the increased demand.

I think the perceived distance between neighborhoods is more about the train tracks and then the undeveloped commuter lots than the street itself.
I actually like the way they have divided State Street.
It would be nice to lose a lane on the East Side to make development easier however.
I actually find this portion of road the easiest and most bike friendly in the city(I'm biased I live on it.)
The light timing allows for bikes to ride without holding up traffic too much and I always see pedestrians crossing safely at the lights because of the physical divide of the medians.
It would be nice to see something like this happen on Whalley in my opinion.

State Street is a major improvement over Whalley Avenue's design in terms of pedestrian safety, but it is still far less than ideal in my opinion (and as I wrote above, in the opinions of many people I've talked with about it). The project to repaint the lanes may be delayed because the city is apparently looking at how they can rebuild the road entirely, in order to free up development parcels on the east side, which are currently too small for any developer to be seriously interested in despite their proximity to transit.

I live on the 'other' side of this street, so I'll weigh in. The biggest issue isn't really that traffic flies down the street, since it generally doesn't.
It's the signage and the fact that right turns on red are implicitly allowed. Most of New Haven's poor intersections would cease to be poor with paint and signage. No RTR's would definitely make it seem a little safer to cross that large expanse.

The crosswalk signal also has to be made longer. As it is now, it's a jog across the street.

Re-real estate values- the housing prices have more than doubled since I moved in, and the entire area is definitely on the way up, so this is already a very desirable area.

I really think that what would seal the deal would what ben suggests, and the redevelopment of all of the lots trackside. If the street were turned into a 4-lane, non divided road with parking on either side. But that's a long way down, so mark me down for signage and paint!!

ps-
Here is State Street after the demolition, but BEFORE the widening (this I believe is from the late 60's)

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ct/ct0300/ct0338/photos/024107pv.jpg
The median I believe was put in the 80's.
Notice all the parking on-street.

Signage is done. Traffic oftentimes still does not follow the markings, but it is an improvement.