Oh hell no!

This has been a problem for years. Yale needs to take responsibility for this. It's bad enough they're using loud, noisy and polluting diesel buses, they least they could do is operate them safely.

man, some Green buses would be a nice idea, wouldn't it!
But in the meantime, some simple discipline on making sure Yale bus drivers follow the laws and posted speed limits would be SUPER. The couple times I have ridden on those buses late at night have been Terrifying. The speeds they go at, and the recklessness with which they drive, are completely unacceptable. For Yale to continue to allow their drivers to drive like this, after years of complaints from the community, is shocking.

Can someone from Yale confirm that this has been documented?
Thanks

Documenting the issue could take a day or two. Someone above makes a good point that the large buses are very loud. Maybe the large buses should be limited to major avenues.

I had an interesting conversation with one of the Shuttle drivers last month - it was at night and I was the only passenger on this giant gas guzzler bus (that biodiesel sticker means they use diesel that has a teeny percentage of bio-source fuel mixed in - a green wash if you will) Anyway the driver was complaining that the shuttle management used the GPS that is standard on all those buses now to monitor them for speeding violations and that they got busted if the GPS showed them exceeding the speed limit. He further told me that the policy is that they are supposed to only go 20 mph in most of the 25 mph zones once school starts in Sept. If this is true then the Shuttle folks ought to be proud of their efforts to curb dangerous driving and should post about it here or try to get some PR mileage out of this. Sadly the GPS spying probably isn't accurate enough yet to monitor passing behavior. Sigh... I'm sorry to be sounding in favor of this big brother junk, but if we're going to live in a panopticon state we might as well benefit in the form of not being run over by the Yale Shuttle or some joker on the phone blasting through a red light...

Agreed Derek,
It seems like Yale is doing good work and I would love to hear about it here.

i am wondering, if yale does in fact monitor the activities of its shuttles so closely, why they have yet to respond to such egregious behavior?

a representative from yale just called and said the driver has been disciplined, and this situation has been used for training purposes and a reminder to the bus company that "there is no quota that they need to fill. slow down. there is no rush." furthermore, he mentioned that "every cyclist, every pedestrian is one less car to deal with, so we really need to work together on this." he also reiterated that recording the bus number, time and place are crucial in dealing with these issues.

It's great they are holding speed to 20 MPH. That reduces noise, makes pedestrians and cyclists much more comfortable, reduces injury risks and gives them more stopping time if they need it.

The next step is that the city should lower speed limits to 20MPH on all those streets, so drivers following the buses don't get frustrated and so they have to drive a sensible speed as well. In most cities around the world, top speed limits in residential areas are limited to 15MPH or 20MPH.

I don't know why New Haven needs to preserve its dangerous 25MPH speed limits, which just end up killing people and making neighborhood uninhabitable.

its really 20 mph in most cities in residential areas?
Which ones?

It's a worldwide guideline. The Netherlands, UK, Germany, every single country in Northern Europe, and many cities in Japan have 30KPH (18mph) speed limits in all residential areas, to name just a few. Graz, a major city in Austria, recently adopted a 30 kph (18 mph) limit through most of the entire city, cutting serious casualties by over a quarter and dramatically reducing noise and air pollution. Though the public was initially divided on the change, 8 out of 10 residents there now support the lower speed limits.

Around here, Greenwich, Darien and many other Connecticut towns have 15 or 20mph speed limits posted in residential areas. I don't see why the lives, property and health of Greenwich residents are more valuable than New Haveners.

agreed.
just curious.