New Haven secures funding to make Chapel Street safer for pedestrians and bikers

Major upgrades are on the way to New Haven's bustling Chapel Street.

“A lot of disregard of people who ride bikes - I know a lot of people get hit here often,” Blu, a New Haven resident, said.

"It depends on the time of day. Lesser traffic means it’s more safe for the pedestrians,” said Marcus, another New Haven resident.

Parts of Chapel Street are bustling with activity in downtown New Haven with bikers, pedestrians, drivers and buses all going from point A to point B.

But with so much busy activity comes an increased concern for safety.

“It has the third highest for city-owned streets that have traffic fatalities, the highest number of serious injuries. It also has the highest number of crashes of all city-owned streets,” Mayor Justin Elicker said.

New Haven secured $11 million from the federal government's Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program to improve Chapel Street.

Elicker said the city will be putting in more separated bike infrastructure, raising intersections and crosswalks to make pedestrians more visible, adding push button crosswalk signs and inserting bump-outs that narrow the road for those on the sidewalk.

"We are going to make the section of Chapel Street two-way. Most of the stretch is only one-way. Making it two-way actually makes the road safer, because typically traffic will go more slowly when there's not a kind of big one-way stretch for the cruise down,” Elicker said.

The focus will be on a particularly busy 1.6-mile stretch of the 4-mile street. The city said this corridor alone only represents less than 1% of the city's roadways -- yet 4.4% of crashes where people were killed or seriously injured came from it.

 "I wish they would renovate the streets more and give more space for bikers,” Blu said.

“Depending on how well the bike lane art is on there, you can't really tell whether it’s a bike lane or not,” Samuel, of New Haven, said.

"If you're a driver, make sure you think of other people first,” Marcus said.

Elicker said they are going to start the design process for the renovations. He said residents can expect community engagement sessions in the future to help with that process.

According to Elicker, they're anxious to get started - the grant proposal indicating the project completion by 2029.