Hamden Mayor Sendroff, DOT Commish Eucalitto, U.S. Sen. Blumenthal, New Haven Mayor Elicker, and State Rep. Winter at Thursday’s ribbon cutting. Nine years ago, Aaron Goode was hit by a truck while biking on the Farmington Canal Trail at the intersection with Goodrich Street. On Thursday mo rning, he joined two mayors, a U.S. senator, the head of the state’s transportation department, and a host of municipal engineers and trail advocates to cut the ribbon on one of 12 new raised intersections designed to slow down cars where they cross paths with pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists. Goode, the founder of the Friends of the Farmington Canal Trail Greenway, was one of a half-dozen speakers at that press conference Thursday at the intersection of the canal trail and Shelton Avenue in Newhallville. Goode said that, back on that early summer day in 2017, the truck drove over his leg and his bicycle. He might have died had he not been wearing a helmet and a backpack full of books that helped cushion his fall. “Everything about this trail is personal to me,” he said Thursday. Especially the safety of all members of “my trail family” — from kids riding tricycles to “Spandex-clad weekend warriors.” “I feel personally responsible for their safety,” he said. And getting hit by a truck while riding on an off-road trail like the Farmington Canal is “a betrayal you never get over.” “Traffic violence,” he said, is a result of political and engineering choices made; these cannot be dismissed as mere “accidents.” That said, the intersection upgrades celebrated Thursday mark a significant improvement for the safety of all users of the bike-ped path, which runs 80 miles from New Haven to Northampton. “This is what Vision Zero looks like,” Goode said. “This is the gold standard. This is meeting the moment of our pedestrian and bicyclist fatality crisis.” Goode joined New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, Hamden Mayor Adam Sendroff, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Connecticut Department of Transportation (CT DOT) Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto at Thursday’s presser to celebrate the completion of the construction of 12 raised crossings along the canal trail. Those intersections are at Munson Street, Division Street, Thompson Street, Shelton Avenue, Ivy Street, Brewster Street, and Bassett Street in New Haven, and at Goodrich Street, Alling Street, Dudley Street, Morse Street, and Hamden Park Drive in Hamden. As City Engineer Giovanni Zinn explained, these intersections have crosswalks that have been raised to sidewalk level, creating an elevated “table” that slows down vehicle traffic. They also have rectangular rapid flashing beacons with bike-detecting sensors that alert vehicles and passerby that a vulnerable user is crossing the street. And they have new bollards — single, yellow fixtures that Goode described as best in class. While the project has been years in the making, construction began this spring and wrapped up early this summer. Blumenthal said that 80 percent of the $2.1 million project was funded with federal dollars. New Haven and Hamden took the leads in designing the improvements for the intersections in their respective municipalities, while CT DOT handled the actual construction. “It’s just amazing to think of how far this trail has come,” Elicker said, as he thought back two decades to the groundbreaking of New Haven’s downtown stretch of the canal trail. He noted that the relationship between the City of New Haven and the CT DOT “hasn’t always been perfect.” This type of project is evidence of how well they’re working together, now. Eucalitto said that there have been 16 pedestrian and cyclist crashes at these 12 newly raised crossings over the last decade. “That’s unacceptable,” he said. He said that this project is proof that “small, targeted investments can have a meaningful impact.” Joel LaChance (center) thanks Elicker for helping introduce bike-safety classes to NHPS. Newhallville Learning Corridor founder Doreen Abubakar. City Engineering Department staffer Adam Weber, who helped design the newly raised New Haven intersections. Now that right there is a best-in-class bollard. Goode: “This is what Vision Zero looks like.” The newly raised Shelton-canal intersection. The post Ribbon Cut On Raised Canal Crossings appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less