New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Banner says it all: Stop at the red
NEW HAVEN — It’s a banner that’s not easy to miss, even if you’re driving above the speed limit on South Frontage Road.
Hanging on the pedestrian bridge between the Air Rights Garage and Yale New Haven Hospital, it reads: “RED means STOP. Our lives depend on it.”
Adorned with a traffic signal and the city’s orange Street Smarts logo, it’s the latest attempt to get drivers to slow down in one of the busiest sections of the city.
“This is sort of a joint effort from a lot of different people because we can’t get red-light cameras in this state,” said Dr. Kirsten Bechtel, a pediatrician and chairwoman of the Yale Traffic Safety Subcommittee, on Monday, a day after the banner was hung. “It’s an intersection that our committee has been worried about since our inception in 2011.”
Bechtel said the committee has heard that two vehicles run the red light at South Frontage and York Street every cycle, at speeds that endanger patients and their visitors, hospital employees and others.
Doug Hausladen, director of the city Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking, said the banner is the result of “years of engagement with the hospital, the Yale Medical School community.”
“It’s part of our ongoing education for our Street Smarts campaign to get folks to slow down and recognize that people are using the roads,” he said. “It is a constant request for traffic enforcement and speed enforcement” in the area. He said he thinks the cost was less than $4,000.
“We don’t have red-light cameras. In fact, we have terrible laws … that people are trying to change,” Hausladen said. “This is a reminder that red means stop. It is not a suggestion. I’m very happy that the community asked for something.”
Alder Abigail Roth, D-7, whose ward is on the north side of South Frontage
Road and who is a member of the Board of Alders’ Public Safety Committee, said in an email, “The best way to deter red light running is issuing tickets.
“However since we are not authorized to have red light cameras and have limited resources for police traffic enforcement, the hope with this banner is that at least a few people who otherwise would break the law and run the red light, will see the banner and stop, making this dangerous intersection a bit safer,” she said.