The roundabout proposed for Whalley, Goffe, Dixwell, Tower Parkway, Broadway, and Howe — with a vote of support and a left turn quibble. Jemimah Mandjata: Bring down the fares! Dedicated bus lanes going two ways on Elm. Traffic lights dynamically paced to help late buses catch up. A roundab out at the notorious seven-way intersection where Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell meet. Those are some of the infrastructure changes anticipated in conjunction with a planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in New Haven. An array of state Department of Transportation (DOT), CT Transit, and consultant representatives presented those plans to 60 people in the Hall of Records’ ground floor meeting room Wednesday. They presented a proposed map of express bus routes for Whalley Avenue, Grand Avenue, Congress Avenue, and Dixwell Avenue — along with a host of traffic calming measures and bus stop infrastructure to go along those routes. The state DOT now expects the express bus routes to come to fruition by 2030. In order to make that happen, the state will need to find an estimated $300 million to pay for it. So far, it has received a $25 million RAISE grant — in 2023 — from the federal government. (Update) DOT spokesperson Josh Morgan wrote Thurday morning that the department is seeking “a combination of federal and state dollars” and is currently applying for additional federal grants. “MOVE New Haven BRT will also be programmed and planned in our five year capital budget forecast.” The BRT system is one of the biggest ticket items on the state-funded, decade-in-the-making, 2019-completed Move New Haven transit study, which provided a host of proposals for how to improve public transit in the region. Wednesday’s meeting at 200 Orange St. was part of an early environmental review for the project required by the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act, which entails a public input process. It will be followed by four route-specific meetings in the Hill, Fair Haven, Dixwell, and Westville in mid-February. The proposed routes, as depicted on DOT’s website. The meeting unveiled a more specific proposal for bus routes and stops along the proposed routes. The Whalley-Grand route will run from Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), through downtown and into Fair Haven, and eventually ending near Walmart on Foxon Boulevard. The Dixwell route will run from Union Station up to Hamden, ending near Skiff Street. And the Congress route will run from downtown to the West Haven train station, by way of Congress and then Campbell Avenues. According to current plans, each of the three bus routes will have between 10 and 15 stops total. They will supplement, not replace, the existing local bus routes along those streets. Buses will run every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 20 minutes on weekends. Street, Infrastructure Changes Planned An inbound bus lane proposed for Dixwell Avenue (with some post-it feedback calling for raised crosswalks). To support plans for the BRT system, the presenters listed a host of proposed changes to the streets that will host the rapid routes. DOT intends to add designated bus lanes along parts of the various routes. The bus lane segments were prioritized for areas with the “most congestion, most delay” based on data about how the bus system operates currently, according to Maggie Maddox, a consultant on the project with VHB. Many of the designated bus lanes, such as the ones slated for Whalley and Dixwell, will take up just one side of the street, likely serving only the buses going toward Downtown New Haven. But on Elm Street between Broadway and Church, which is currently an eastbound one-way street, DOT is planning to include a bus lane for eastbound routes as well as a “contra bus lane,” the only lane going west. This would eliminate parking on the street, according to a diagram in one of the presentations. While the bus lanes will generally be reserved only for buses, emergency vehicles will be allowed to make use of the lanes if needed. How To Weigh In… The Department of Transportation has planned the following route-specific meetings: 2/11/26 | Wilson Branch Library, 303 Washington Ave, New Haven, CT 06519 | 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. 2/11/26 | Stetson Branch Library, 197 Dixwell Ave, New Haven, CT 06511 | 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. 2/12/26 | Fair Haven Branch Library, 182 Grand Ave, New Haven, CT 06513 | 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. 2/12/26 | Mitchell Branch Library, 37 Harrison St, New Haven, CT 06515 | 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. You can also provide online input via this form. In addition to setting aside bus lanes, DOT plans to install new bus shelters for the BRT stops — potentially with trash cans, seating, designated space for wheelchair users, and real-time information about buses’ arrival. And at the ends of each BRT route, DOT intends to build what it’s calling “mobility hubs,” terminal stops that may provide bathrooms for bus drivers, electric bus charging stations, and transfers to other routes. The department also anticipates new roundabouts at four of the city’s most complicated intersections. One of the roundabouts would go where Whalley, Goffe, Dixwell, Tower Parkway, Broadway, and Howe all meet — a three-island, nine-crosswalk maze of an intersection that separates Yale’s campus (and the rest of downtown) from the western half of the city. Roundabouts are also being proposed for the Munson Street Triangle (where Orchard merges into Dixwell and Shelton splits off) and the five-way Hamden intersection where Dixwell meets Putnam Avenue. VHB consultant Rick Plenge noted that the intersection of Grand and Ferry is also slated for a roundabout. Other pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, such as raised crosswalks, rapid flashing crosswalk signals, and curb extensions, will be incorporated near bus stops, according to the presenters. Bike lanes may be reshuffled as a result of the project. Finally, the department intends to reorient how traffic lights operate throughout the city based on real-time bus data. Using cellular location signals from both ordinary and rapid transit buses, the traffic light system would receive data identifying individual buses that are falling behind schedule. The system would then automatically time the traffic lights ahead of those buses to reduce stops and help the buses realign with their schedules. Bella Vista Service Questioned With a heap of new information to process, community members who attended Wednesday’s meeting raised an array of questions, ideas, and concerns, from the cleanliness and safety of bus stops to the capacity for parking near SCSU to the need for more raised intersections on Dixwell. Aaron Goode and Nigel Lowndes (a devoted 212 passenger) questioned why DOT hasn’t resumed bus service across the Grand Avenue Bridge since that bridge reopened in 2022. They pointed out that Fair Haven Heights and Bella Vista residents no longer have a direct bus line to Downtown. Barry Diggs, CT Transit’s director of rapid transit and zero emissions, responded that even when open, the bridge ended up delaying buses due to the number of times it has to be raised for boats to pass through. While a transfer is necessary to get downtown, Diggs said, “it’s a tradeoff.” The new system is “more reliable,” and “you have more service than you did before” in terms of frequency. Michael Cutler, a frequent rider of the 201, wondered how Yale University would react to the proposal for two bus lanes on Elm Street, especially given the likelihood that parking would need to be eliminated. It’s not that he thinks it’s a bad idea, Cutler said — but “Yale, they’re very picky and whatnot.” “There will be parking impacts for sure,” conceded Plenge. Remember Free Buses? One attendee, who declined to provide his name, asked, “Is the fare going to go up?” Currently, a two-hour standard bus pass costs $1.75. After a split second’s pause, Jemimah Mandjata called out, “Y’all hear the question?” The room laughed, and Graham Curtis, a DOT public transit assistant administrator, attempted to respond. “It hasn’t been decided,” he said. “That means yes,” said the attendee. “It’s going up.” That exchange stood out to Jemimah Mandjata, who remained skeptical of the whole BRT proposal by the end of the meeting. Mandjata graduated from Woodbridge’s Amity High School in 2023, commuting from Edgewood in New Haven. She said that there often wasn’t enough space for her on the school bus designated for New Haven students at Amity. So at the end of the school day, she would usually take a different school bus to the Woodbridge-New Haven border, and then ride either the 243 or the 246 the rest of the way home. Her high school years overlapped with the Covid-19 pandemic, during which passengers could temporarily ride the bus for free. She recalled that many people rode the bus because they couldn’t afford a car. In the face of “gentrification,” said Mandjata, free buses should be a priority for DOT. She added that when passengers didn’t have to spend time paying for the ride upfront, the bus system became “more rapid.” “That’s when the buses were peaking,” she said. Proposed bus lanes are marked in red: along Whalley Avenue, Dixwell from the town border to Putnam, and both sides of Elm, Church, and a portion of Boston Post Road. A rendering of a possible bus shelter with additional amenities. A rendering of what a “mobility hub” at the end of each route could look like. A peanut-shaped roundabout for the Dixwell-Shelton-Munson-Orchard intersection. The post Years Later, DOT Details BRT appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less