Yes, some traffic enforcement would be a good short-term fix. I'm just not sure who is responsible here since it seems the Yale Police have the primary responsibilities up to Dwight Street.

Ultimately the intersection and street could be designed to be a bit more pedestrian-friendly, e.g., through traffic calming but that's not what I'm proposing here - would require more study by the city.

P.S. I would add that these measures are especially important here, given that Edgewood is scheduled to be the city's main West to East bicycle route this summer. The city is installing sharrows and signs. A lot more bicyclists will probably use Edgewood to access downtown (the route comes down here, turns onto Park).

If drivers continue to run red lights at 50 miles an hour with abandon right in front of the Yale Campus and on the city's only bike route to Westville, we're going to have a bad situation.

I've watched drivers run the light WHILE TEXTING right in front of police cars that were waiting at the intersection. Once I was almost run over on my bike as two cars ran the light, and I was almost gleeful that a cop was right there beside me, thinking (naively) that he would obviously do something. But nothing. I even made eye contact with him, as if to say, "Isn't that illegal?"

Jeremy,

I agree with the point of your comment. If you bring up traffic with the cops in person, they'll often tell you "it's just too dangerous to walk or bike" (in other words, they are saying you should just buy an SUV or large police cruiser so that you can be physically protected even if you run over another car). That response may be followed by a comment about how you should go worry about "bigger" problems like pickpockets. I've approached several officers, even police Lieutenants in charge of entire neighborhoods, and received this response.

Luckily Chief Lewis got it, and there was a renewed focus on treating these problems as life or death situations that kill and injure many children each year (just as shootings do)... but it is unclear what will happen now that he is gone.

The traffic enforcement unit, which was never nearly large enough despite many promises to expand it in order to allow 24/7 and weekend coverage, may be downsized.

The implicit message is that there's just no concern for every day New Haven citizens, the majority of whom do not drive to work every day, and half of whom are under the age of 30 and unlikely to even have a job. Perhaps the perceived lack of concern has something to do with the fact that 90% of officers don't live in the city?

If so, this would be a great issue to address with the community, since I know that there are many dedicated officers who feel otherwise.

I agree. I live in the area and people are constantly running the lights at Edgewood and at Elm. Sometimes people stop at the red light and then drive through as thought it is a 4-way stop, or make left turns from the right lanes (from Edgewood onto Howe or Howe onto Elm). The police do not seem to want to waste their time with this, but they will ticket bikers? Doesn't make sense.

Has the "no turn on red" sign ever been enforced?

In the short term, since it seems unlikely that we'll get good enforcement here, it also may help to improve visibility by removing some of the parking spaces at the corners (or pulling them back slightly). This is known as "intersection daylighting."

Seems like the first issue can be closed as documented. So
E of the suggestions in the comments should be reported as separate issues.