Description

I submitted this complaint a couple of years ago and nothing ever happened, so here I am again. The intersection of Temple and Trumbull streets is unsafe for pedestrians because even though there is a pedestrian crossing signal, there is no time when cars cannot enter the intersection and turn into the path of pedestrians trying to cross. Even when the walk sign is on for pedestrians to cross Temple, cars on Trumbull have a green light and can enter the intersection from both directions and turn into the path of pedestrians trying to cross. Luckily most drivers are considerate and give pedestrians the right of way, but some are not, and I just got yelled at by a rude driver telling me to "get out of the way" while I was trying to cross with the signal. With most of the pedestrian signals I know of in New Haven, traffic is stopped in ALL directions while the walk sign is on and pedestrians can then safely cross. But at Temple and Trumbull streets there is no time when cars cannot enter the intersection and turn into the path of pedestrians trying to cross. The only situation in which pedestrians can be reasonably assured that it will be safe to cross is when the light is red on Trumbull and green on Temple and one can look up Whitney Avenue and see that there is no traffic coming for some distance. But if one crosses Temple in that situation, one is crossing against a red light. At the very least, this situation is confusing because no one ever knows who has the right of way. It's always the old game of whether the pedestrian or the driver will yield first. There has to be a better way. I would still like to see a signal that stops traffic in ALL directions when the walk sign is on, so that pedestrians can then safely cross and they won't have to guess whether drivers will give them the right of way, even when the walk sign is on. Making it possible for pedestrians to cross diagonally would also be a big improvement because I would then only have to cross once instead of twice.