I agree.

In fact, there are commonly-accepted standards for pedestrian friendly environments (including timing, crossing distance, vehicular speed) that are currently not being met here by the city. Obviously the situation here is better than Foxon Road or the Post Road, but it is nowhere near adequate for a downtown.

If the area were turned into a walkable district, business would fare much better. People with disabilities, elderly, families, etc., would feel more comfortable walking and shopping. More activity would mean more jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities.

The area is also not optimized for transit, despite being along one of the city's busiest bus routes. See http://green-changemakers.blogspot.com/2009/12/transit-friendly-streets.html for solutions to these issues, including photographs.

Please call the city's engineering department, or fill out a "complete streets" request form (available at http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Engineering/completestreets.asp), and demand that this changes.

Can you tell me which corner you were standing at when you pushed the pedestrian button. If there is an issue, that will help us to narrow down the problem.

Thank you.

Thank you for your reply
I was standing on the New Haven green, corner of Chapel and College

Paul, I've had issues with that particular pedestrian button in the past. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. That's not very helpful.

OK, so I will dispatch the signal crew to this location. It may be a bad push button. Thank you for the post.

It's not just that button. The button on the NW corner of this intersection is equally unresponsive. The timing of this intersection is bad. I have walked through this intersection daily for almost four years and didn't used to be this bad. I've waited (with and without a button push) through up to four complete cycles of this light to cross. This simply encourages people to cross this intersection whenever and however they want.

Does there continue to be a problem here? The signal crew inspected and repaired the ped signal issue originally posted, but if needed, I will create another work order for them to inspect the entire intersection if needed.

Thank you.

I hadn't noticed a change, but will pay close attention over the next few days and will report back here.

This corner still seems to be a problem. With the change to EST I'm now walking through this intersection between 4:30 and 6 PM nearly every evening. I pushed the NW ped signal button shortly after the signal ended. In the middle of the fourth complete cycle of lights I simply got fed up of waiting and crossed against the signal. Either the NW ped button is broken or the timing of these lights is off.

On an related issue, thank you for fixing the timing on the southern signal at Chapel and Church! The end of the ped signal now more closely timed to the lights instead of having a ridiculous 10-15 second delay between the ped signal ending and the light turning green.

Can you be more specific when you refer to the fourth complete cycle of lights.

Thanks.

Sure. By cycle I meant the southbound light turns green/red then the westbound light turns green/red. When the southbound light turns green again, it's the beginning of the second cycle. So, the southbound and westbound lights are turning green at least four times in a row before the crosswalk signals activate. Does this explain it better?

..... ok. I'll follow up on this for you.

I've had issues with this intersection recently, as well. It seems that the push button on the south east corner (by TD Bank) doesn't really work anymore.

Do you mean that when you push the button, the ped signal light does not come on or there is a delay?

As of this morning, pushing the button on the northeast corner (i.e. adjacent to the Green) seems to have no impact on the lights. As CJ noted a couple of months ago for the northeast button, you stand and watch several cycles of vehicle signal changes without getting a crosswalk signal. After a while you get tired of waiting, take your life into your hands, and break the law.
I can't help but think that if one of the vehicle signals stopped working it would be investigated and fixed rather more quickly.

We sent out a work crew to deal with this problem but from what you are saying, it has cropped up again. A crew will be sent out to inpsect the pedestrian signal. Thanks for the post.

We sent out a work crew to deal with this problem but from what you are saying, it has cropped up again. A crew will be sent out to inpsect the pedestrian signal. Thanks for the post.

Thank you.

This has been inspected and adjusted.