Residents, business owners carefully watching new Bank Street traffic
Many reserving judgment on pattern, but some are cautiously optimistic
New London — Late Wednesday evening, New London Public Works crews and police descended on the downtown with street stripers and bullhorns announcing they were clearing Bank Street.
By Thursday morning, the street had been transformed: the two lanes of northbound traffic east of Tilley Street merged into one, and large “buffer” areas added alongside parallel parking spaces. The travel lane also was converted to a “sharrow,” or shared lane with bicycle traffic, indicated with pictures of a cyclist and an arrow.
The plan is intended to make the street more pedestrian-, bicycleand business-friendly.
Many business owners and residents are reserving judgment on the new traffic pattern, but some are cautiously optimistic that it will make downtown safer and more enjoyable. About 4:30 p.m. Thursday, traffic was moving slowly but steadily, with cars mostly stop-and-go be-
yond the stop sign at the intersection with Golden Street. A handful of cyclists traveled along Bank Street, some biking in the dedicated “buffer” area.
Johnny Rivero, a tattoo artist at New London Ink, said he saw one rear-end collision earlier in the day, as well as a motorcyclist who sped by the slower vehicles by driving in the buffer zone.
“Hopefully (police) will put an end to that quick,” he said.
But for the most part, he added, it’s been “so far, so good.”
The plan eliminates a few different negative aspects of the street, including the danger of drivers not seeing pedestrians trying to cross two lanes of traffic or get out of parked cars. Many business owners in the area reported having to help elderly people cross the street before the conversion because it was so dangerous.
Now, “you can see what’s happening” if you’re getting out of your car, added Johnny Saez, owner and operator of Pier 74 bar and restaurant.
The buffer zones also eliminate the danger of getting a side mirror smashed off by an errant driver when parallel parking, according to Saez, who said that has happened to him in the past.
The Bank Street lane change is the first recommendation in a traffic and parking study performed by engineering and planning firm Milone & MacBroom that the city has acted on.
Compared with the study’s other recommendations, including converting Eugene O’Neill Drive to two-way traffic and upgrading intersections for pedestrians, which would cost millions of dollars, the Bank Street change only cost the city the price of the paint.
When Mayor Michael Passero talked with business owners about what could be improved along the roadway, he said he heard that “everything is studied to death.”
“They said ‘can’t you do something?’” Mayor Michael Passero said. “And this is just one part of the plan.”
“I don’t think anyone would disagree that Bank Street is a very tense, stressful place to operate,” Passero added. “The idea of this is to change that perception.”
However some were skeptical of the change.
Roderick “Rod” Cornish, owner of Hot Rod Cafe, said he was “trying to keep an open mind” about the traffic change. He had become frustrated when the city cleared traffic off Bank Street to re-stripe the road Wednesday night during prime business hours. He ended up closing early because there were fewer customers, and he wished city officials had waited until later at night.
“It just seemed like poor planning,” he said.
Mike Molinari, a designer at Electric Boat offices in New London, said he views the reduction to one lane as a provocation by the city on workers who commute to Electric Boat.
On a normal day, traffic getting out of EB is “an absolute nightmare,” Molinari said. “People try to decide when to leave just so they can miss the traffic.”
Of the conversion, he said people at work he talked to thought it would make Bank Street worse.
“A lot of people just told me they were going to flat-out avoid” the street, he added.
Passero said he would be working to secure grant money for implementing other elements of the parking and traffic study, including improvements at various pedestrian crosswalks and signals across the city.
Officials have said the city will be trying out the new traffic pattern for 90 days, and it may become permanent if it goes well.