Local Government 2.0: Text to Vote on Civic Issues

Useful news this week from SeeClickFix, the open-data civic governance system that has been officially adopted as New Haven's "311," and which has been rapidly spreading to hundreds of other American cities and internationally.

Users can now flier for their issues with an easy print flier button, and can also text to vote on their favorite issues by sending "issue X" to the company (41411).

For example, if your issue of greatest concern is http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/1300 -- i.e., the Tomlinson Bridge "Disaster" -- you can tell your neighbors to text "issue 1300" to 41411 if they are too busy to visit the site and add comments or votes.

SeeClickFix-related flyers have been popping up around Downtown New Haven as a result of this new feature. For example, dozens of flyers are affixed to a series of pedestrian-scale lightposts that have burnt out in the residential neighborhood along the northern edge of the Yale University campus.

These activities, and the burgeoning use of SeeClickFix to address everything from barking dogs to individual reports of muggings to creating neighborhood visions for public art projects, are a model for community engagement and local media that supports improved public spaces.

Transport Blog Outlines New Haven Streetcar Proposal

Original Post, 4/23/09: Nationally-renowned transportation blog The Transport Politic has published a great analysis of New Haven's proposed streetcar line, including the map shown at left (which is by no means a "final" route). Most likely funded through the Federal New and Small Starts program, the line would incorporate the Yale campus, Union Station and a boulevardized Route 34. Blog editor Yonah writes:

While I have confidence that this project would be relatively succesful, having lived in New Haven for four years and understanding traffic patterns well there, one-way operation would be a problem for people attempting to get to the station from downtown, as they’d be forced to go north before heading back south. That’s one easy way to turn off potential riders. Meanwhile, this line is too Yale-centric, a problem for a city that already has some signficant town-gown disparities.

Click here to read The Transport Politic's post and comment.

Update 5/5/09: Yonah blogs about America's streetcar renaissance on today's Infrastructurist.

Update 12/2/09: Yonah writes that New Haven could be a beneficiary of USDOT's plan, announced yesterday, to fund $280 million worth of city center streetcars.

Legion Avenue Envisioned as Two-Way Boulevard

Mary O'Leary of the New Haven Register provides excellent news coverage of a community meeting last week on the future of Route 34 West. According to the Register, residents strongly preferred a plan that would create a two-way boulevard, freeing up much of the land surrounding the current North Frontage Road for smaller-scale, traditional development (similar to surrounding districts) and a narrow, interconnected street network:

A large swath of the Legion Avenue neighborhood was cleared during the 1960s to make way for a state connection to Route 34 over the West River to the Naugatuck Valley, which never materialized.

Pat Kane, a newcomer to the Dwight area, said a two-way landscaped Legion Avenue would function more like Whitney Avenue in the East Rock neighborhood, that moves traffic, but leaves the neighborhood intact. State approval has always been seen as the biggest barrier to eliminating North Frontage Road. “The thing to understand is that it (the connector) is not needed anymore,” Kane said. For decades, the city has forfeited taxes and human capital that once constituted a poor, but thriving neighborhood. Having destroyed it, Kane said “the state has a moral obligation to give back” by allowing a new road configuration.

Previous DNH coverage of meetings about the future of the Route 34 Corridor, including the Route 34 West MDP project, may be found by clicking here.

DNH Reader Polls: Results on Transportation Questions

These two DNH reader poll results are highly unscientific and imprecise, but we thought that we would create a permanent record nonetheless before the data disappear (again). What do you think of the results? Do you have suggestions for future polls?

Thank you for voting. Our new website, still in development, will have many additional features for user feedback, including an improved poll system.

POLL: How do you get to Downtown New Haven?
Walk / I live here already 43%
Bicycle 39%
Drive 27%
Local Bus (CT Transit) 18%
Train, Air, or Other 8%
250 Votes (possible to select more than one choice), June 2008-November 2009. DNH had about 30,000 unique visitors during this timeframe, but considering that the poll was not very prominent on our site and only 5,000 or so of our unique visitors hailed from Connecticut (presumably most of the voters), it is not a bad response rate.

POLL: How often should Chapel Street (Downtown) be pedestrianized?
Always 44%
Once a week 21%
A few times per year 28%
Never 4%
100 Votes, May-November 2009

Short Stories, Improvised Music in Downtown New Haven Reviews

The New York Times recently published a great piece about Listen Here, the series of free weekly short story readings organized by the New Haven Review, as well as a story about the New Haven Improvisers Collective (NHIC). These two arts collectives are just two out of the many that make New Haven such a great community for those interested in arts, music and design.

An excerpt from the NYT piece about Listen Here:

Mr. Lovett-Graff created the series with David Brensilver. They modeled Listen Here on “Selected Shorts,” the radio program produced by Symphony Space and WNYC in which actors read short stories, but Mr. Lovett-Graff had certain criteria in mind. “It had to be low maintenance,” he said. “It had to be short fiction, no poetry. We wanted material to be already published because in essence it had already been vetted for its quality.”

They chose to stage the readings in coffeehouses in an effort to incorporate the slightly bohemian aura — hissing espresso machines and all. “It feels like the right spirit of the thing rather than sitting in a tiny black box with one actor with a spotlight over his or her head,” said T. Paul Lowry, the creative director and producer of the New Haven Theater Company, whose actors are donating their time. “My definition of theater is storytelling with tools,” he said. “Short stories for me are really a good way for an audience to be part of a narrative without investing hours and hours in a theater or a movie or days and days in reading a narrative.” .... He said he has also learned that while some stories may be classics, they do not necessarily work when read aloud. “Short stories that are too cerebral really don’t work,” he said. “It has to have a certain amount of dramatic content, and it has to have entertainment value.”

Among the New Haven Review and its contributors are some of the Northeast's most preeminent writers, journalists and story-tellers. Brian Slattery, a writer affiliated with the group, discusses the NHIC on the New Haven Review's website. He compares the NHIC's occasional host venue, Firehouse 12, which you can also read about in the NYT here, to New York's famous CBGB nightclub:

As just about everyone who’s lived in this area for longer than a year or so knows, New Haven labors under a reputation that is probably about ten years out of date. Many people outside of New Haven think of the place and imagine a city in trouble. But we know that it is not so. New Haven has its share of struggles, of course—and I do not mean to belittle those troubles at all, or perhaps even worse, aetheticize them—but it is a positive thing as much as it’s a problem. It energizes the place, makes it vital. It makes the people who live here give a damn about it. And right now, New Haven is that wonderfully unstable combination of interesting and affordable. It is ethnically and culturally rich, thanks to both the town and gown sides of things. It is economically diverse. And it’s a place where something like Firehouse 12 and the New Haven Improvisers Collective can exist without having to fight, every single minute, for survival.

The month or so before CBGB closed, you may remember, was a great time to write an article about a) the death of New York City as a vital cultural force or b) the inability of American pop culture to replicate anything like the heady heyday of the late 1970s. Obviously both of these statements dramatically overstated things. But nestled within the hyperbole is a kernel of truth: It is difficult to innovate and take chances—artistically or otherwise—when the cost of simply living is too high.

Could a relatively moderate cost-of-living be one of the reasons that New Haven's artistic and literary communities are more vibrant than many of those found in cities 10 times its size? Is New Haven a "Sixth Borough" of New York?

While you ponder, here are a few upcoming Downtown New Haven readings and concerts:

November 5: In the Blink of an Eye
Koffee on Audubon 7-8PM
Ambrose Bierce's "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
Dave Eggars' "After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Was Drowned"

November 7: New Haven Improvisers Collective
Firehouse 12
The New Haven Improvisers Collective returns to Firehouse 12 to celebrate the release of its new CD, Inflection, bringing two new groups. Set 1 (8:30PM) features the Erasmus Quintet. Electro-chamber-minimalists focusing on eternal rhythms. Intense, Interlocking, hypnotic. Searching for that everlasting ONE. Set 2 (10:00PM) features Mayhem Circus Electric. Extravagant improv lowdown jazz with more expressive rhythms, a nod to the deep groove of electric miles, and a fresh look at the limits and joys of tonality.

November 12: The Future of Our Discontents
Blue State Coffee 7-8PM
Harlan Ellison's "Along the Scenic Route"
Ursula LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

November 19: Family Romance: Pre-Thanksgiving Special
Lulu: A European Coffeehouse 7-8PM
Steve Almond's "The Soul Molecule"
Marie Bertino's "North of"

Paul Goldberger Tonight on Why Architecture Matters

Original Post 10/28/09: The New Haven Public Library at 133 Elm Street hosts an event this evening, Wednesday, October 28 at 6:00pm, entitled "Civic Conversations on Public Architecture."

Paul Goldberger, author of newly published "Why Architecture Matters" and Pulitzer-Prize winning architecture critic for The New Yorker, will join Tom Condon, the Hartford Courant's "Place" editor and excellent columnist on smart growth and other urban issues, for a civic conversation focused on public architecture.

The event is free and open to the public. A frequent visitor to Yale, Goldberger will also be participating today in a private lunchtime fundraiser for the Library with Bob Stern and a Master's Tea for undergraduates at the College.

Update 10/29/09: Allan Appel of the New Haven Independent's post-event coverage, which has an interesting discussion of how smart growth and federal policies currently discriminate against cities (see previous DNH article on this), can be found here. An excerpt:

“I’m someone who desperately wants to live in an affordable city,” replied Jason Stockmann in a question from the audience. The Yale graduate student in medical physics lives on Chapel Street. He is committed to riding his bike, not owning a car, and keeping that carbon footprint as petite as possible.

So he asked the gurus how come federal policy even under President Obama seems to be persisting more in greening the suburbs as part of an environmental campaign against global warming, rather than in developing long-range policies for revitalized urban centers, like New Haven. You can fuel your cars with “granola” and put in dozens of solar panels and cells in your suburban house, he said. Still, all that added up would not equal the energy savings of moving into the most modest apartment in the city.

Plattus, who is on the Yale Architecture School faculty, offered an answer. He acknowledged that equivalents to the federal highway support and other policies that created the suburbs post-World War Two were nowhere yet in place for the new urban centers.

Paul Goldberger could not attend due to a family emergency, but a trio of excellent panelists -- Pat Pinnell, Alan Plattus and Douglas Rae -- were present to discuss these issues. Rumor has it that Goldberger will be returning soon to do the talk that he missed.

School Reform Panel Features National Education Leaders

The city has issued an invitation to those interested in school reform to join Mayor John DeStefano, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Reginald Mayo, and New Haven Federation of Teachers President David Cicarella in an education panel this Monday.

Guests include:
Randi Weingarten- American Federation of Teachers, President
Martha J. Kanter - United States Department of Education, Under Secretary
Charles P. Rose - United States Department of Education, General Counsel

The panel will address the state of school change in New Haven and education reform around the nation. Moderated by the excellent Hartford Courant columnist, Rick Green, panelists will answer questions from a pool submitted in advance. If you are interested in submitting a question please visit the City’s website: www.cityofnewhaven.com.

The event will take place in the Ground Floor Theater, which vaguely resembles Shakespeare's Globe, of the Cesar Pelli-designed Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School (pictured here), at 177 College Street in Downtown New Haven, on Monday, October 26, 2009 from 3:30 - 5:00pm. Seating is limited and doors will close at 3:30pm.

For background on school reform in New Haven, the New Haven Independent is providing up-to-the minute coverage and has a long thread of past articles on the topic. You can also read about the city's "School Change Campaign" and reform programs on the NHPS website.

500-unit Shartenberg Mixed-Use Development Progresses

Larger-than-Expected Grocery Store for 360 State Tower (Posted 10/21/09): At a meeting of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team last night, 360 State Street developer Bruce Becker gave an update on plans for the 32-story tower. The structure of the tower (shown at left) is already up to about 23 floors, and its major impact on the New Haven skyline can already be felt from virtually anywhere within the Downtown or its surrounding neighborhoods.

The most exciting announcement was that, after trying to negotiate with Trader Joes for a 14,000 foot neighborhood grocery store, Becker & Becker is instead on the verge of signing a lease with a much-larger, 140-employee, 30,000 SF grocer -- a fact which has necessitated a complete redesign of the basement and first floor of the building.

The city's push for a Downtown grocery store, such as a Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Fairway or Shop-Rite, even resulted in a ticket being created on SeeClickFix. Bruce Becker anticipates that a lease will be finalized by Thanksgiving.

Becker & Becker also confirmed that the lot at the corner of Orange & Chapel, originally planned as a temporary pocket park (until, perhaps, an Apple Store could be convinced to move in) now will be developed as part of the structure. It will host a state-supported daycare facility for Downtown New Haven employees and residents on the 2nd floor and a premium office space above, in addition to part of the grocery store at retail level.

The company also confirmed that Bozzuto will be in charge of leasing, and will be renting a nearby ground-level retail space to serve as its leasing office in the near future.

Design New Haven liveblogged the presentation on Twitter, with five Tweets:

DWSCMT live: Bruce Becker developer of $190m 360 State #nhv project: new 32 story tower to begin marketing units in Jan 2010 w/ nat'l mgr. (continued) swimming pool @ 6th flr terrace level has views of Long Island Sound, first move-ins Aug 2010. 500 spaces w/ @zipcar @Hausladen (continued) construction by Suffolk on time w/ 10,000 task schedule, 250 workers. Adding 1 floor every 4.5 days w/ staggered truss system. (continued) BB had hoped for 14000SF Trader Joes orig'ly, has negot'd for 5 months w/ 30000SF grocer, requiring expanded project scope #nhv (continued) 2nd flr daycare ctr confirmed w/in CHFA bdgt; 6000SF 3rd flr corner office only space remaining. Expect grocery lease by Nov 09.

See reporting in the New Haven Independent and in the New Haven Register for more information and images from the meeting. Business New Haven has recently done an in-depth interview with the developer (PDF File here), also worth reading.

-- Previous Coverage Below --

Original Post: Construction Begins (4/21/08): Becker + Becker's "360 State" development on the former Shartenberg Site at the heart of Downtown New Haven is now beginning early-phase and underground construction. An 8-foot high blue fence with concrete barriers has been erected around the complete perimeter of the block, and informational graphics along the length of the fence will be installed this week (see photos below). Utility and site work has already begun, with a significant amount of underground work planned as part of the project. Major construction activity will be underway within the next few weeks.

Scheduled for completion in 2010, the 355-foot-tall tower will be the second-highest building in New Haven, bringing the residents of 500 new apartments to Chapel Street between Orange and State.

The site is conveniently located across the street from the State Street train station. Aside from its dense urban location, the development contains energy efficient design features. Elements like geothermal heating and cooling and solar cells, if used, would benefit from various state subsidy programs designed to promote energy efficiency. There will also be indoor bicycle parking spaces for each unit. The project also is planned to contain a massive ornament program, running the full length of the facade, designed by internationally-renowned New Haven-based public sculptor Kent Bloomer.

The 500-unit, 34-story building is designed to be set back from the street and tower above a retail and parking garage base with glass entrance towers. The project, tentatively called "360 State" for its actual street address as well as its panoramic views of the region (and the fact that it is 36 stories tall), will even feature a half-acre landscaped terrace (sitting on top of the parking) with an outdoor pool. The developer expects to get the same rents as what the 227 Church Street luxury building currently gets -- $3,500 for 3BRs, $2,300 for 2BRs, $1,700 for 1BRs and $1,250 for studios. Most of the building will consist of studios and 1BRs. 10% of units in the building will have subsidized ("affordable") rents tied to income level.

According to Business New Haven this week, a "high end" grocery store on the first floor may be leased shortly. The city hopes that the project will help encourage walkability between the Downtown New Haven core area and Wooster Square, a historic neighborhood just a couple blocks to the east of the site.

Click here for the preliminary renderings by Becker + Becker; updated renderings should be available shortly. In the meantime you can also download a CT Business article about the Downtown New Haven project.

Update 5/1/08: New Haven Independent coverage of the 360 State project appears here, along with a new rendering of the project. It appears that the building on the corner of Orange and Chapel Street has been changed from its original design, which was to have continued the retail and parking garage along the entire length of the block. If the building ends before the corner with Orange Street, it might create an opportunity for another developer or architect to create a concept for a second building on the site.

Update 7/31/08: The New Haven Independent reports that building permits have been approved for a revised design, following a brief delay to adjust for rising prices and a change in the construction manager, formerly Fusco, to Suffolk.

Above-Ground Construction Begins; No Pedestrian Crosswalks at New Intersection? (Posted 10/1/08): State tax credits for the 360 State Street project are now in place, including the $3.2 million sales and use tax exemption that developers had requested from the Connecticut Development Authority. Major excavation work began this week and construction trailers are currently on the site. Please click here for the New Haven Independent's report on a community meeting held this week to discuss the construction phase of the project.

From start to finish, the project schedule is now 27 months, as the type of structural system used for the tower has been modified from its original design. Since the project is 90% financed through equity (through the Multi-Employer Property Trust, a fund that invests public employee and corporate pension plans), and 10% financed through state credits, the current financial crisis will have no impact on construction schedule.

Interestingly, a new traffic intersection will be added added directly across from the parking garage and tunnel entrance - and, on the other side, across from the State Street Station. A cut will be made in the median, allowing traffic to more easily flow into and out of the garage, helping to enable the success of the grocery store which will be located on the ground floor of the building.

However, despite the enormous numbers of pedestrians spilling out of the 1,000-person apartment tower and the heavily-serviced (and rapidly-growing) train station directly across the street, the new intersection in between the two will not include any pedestrian accommodation or crosswalks.

Over the next two years, this is something that the city may wish to rethink as it reportedly moves forward with a study on narrowing this section of State Street. In general, pedestrian accommodation should always be provided along major "desire lines."

360 State will be one of the largest mixed-use "green" (LEED ND Pilot) buildings in the Northeast, and represents the largest commercial private sector investment in New Haven's history.

Update 11/6/08: A critical review of the project appears in the Hartford Courant. Coverage and analysis by DNH here.

Update 12/1/08: Coverage of 360 State's official groundbreaking ceremony.

Steel Frame Erection Begins (Update 7/7/09): Mary O'Leary of the New Haven Register covers the ongoing progress on the impressive tower's construction. No word yet on whether the first floor has been leased to a grocery store. Excerpt below:

The crane has been “jumped” and the steel frame of a 27-story apartment tower is next up on the construction schedule. The five-story concrete garage and ground-level retail area is in place for 360 State St., a mixed-use development that will feature 500 apartments across from the [State Street] Train Station.

Last week, workers “jumped” the massive crane on the building lot with state and local building officials overseeing proceedings. The crane lifts itself up on a jump frame, which is wrapped around the crane tower. Four 20-foot sections were added to the frame, raising it 80 feet and putting it in position to erect steel to at least the 14-floor, officials said.

On Monday, a crane operator moved steel around the Suffolk Construction site and lifted equipment to the sixth level of the project, where a green space, pool and other amenities are planned for the apartment dwellers.

Economic Development Director Kelly Murphy said the building’s developer, Becker & Becker of Fairfield, is shooting for a gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation for the building. The development agreement with the city called for a silver LEED designation. A number of energy-saving technologies, including photovoltaics and a fuel cell, are planned for the building. The project, which will be completed in September 2010, is on schedule.

APA Names New Haven Green Among "Great Public Spaces": Nominate Your Own!

The American Planning Association today named the New Haven Green a "Great Public Space," placing it among the ranks of the nation's greatest urban gathering spots such as Central Park, Washington D.C.'s Union Station and the Squares of Savannah, Georgia.

Dovetailing with an increasing focus on placemaking strategies within the urban planning profession, the list of "Great Places" is eagerly anticipated each year. A full list, including more information about the history of the New Haven Green, can be found here.

Framed by historic architecture and dating back almost 400 years, the 16-acre Green is also one of a select number of National Landmark Historic Districts recognized by the National Park Service, and is also a National Historic Planning Landmark. Along with the adjacent College/Chapel area, the Green is also on the Project for Public Spaces' similarly-named list of Great Public Spaces. The district is also generally very tourist-friendly, with popular sights such as the Yale campus, summer outdoor events, and the incredible Center Church Crypt (shown below).

A description on the APA site reads:

Historical sites abound in New England, but few boast as rich a history as the New Haven Green. Established in 1641 as the marketplace of the Puritans' New Haven Colony, the Green has seen much in its 365-year-plus history. General George Washington spoke here during the American Revolution. The Amistad captives were exercised here, Abraham Lincoln gave a presidential campaign speech, and rallies were held during the Vietnam War and civil rights struggles. Easily accessible by bus, car, bicycle, and pedestrians, the Green is the city's public gathering place.

The Green is not without its shortcomings. Two of the most common complaints: 1) given its significance and the annual economic impact that results from the number of visitors to the Green, it deserves much better interpretive signage, and 2) the streets surrounding the Green on three sides were redesigned as high-speed, high-capacity one-way arterials in the 1950s, and are still quite chaotic and unattractive -- as well as inconvenient for people of all ages and abilities to walk or bicycle along or across (though thankfully, one of them has since been partially-converted back into a two-way street).

Citizens may nominate neighborhoods and places for the program. In the past, Design New Haven has considered nominating Downtown New Haven, as well as the following nearby city neighborhoods:

+ Dixwell: Significant developments through Science Park and new affordable housing, great streets and historic architecture, close to large employers, new community center and partnerships with Yale University, significant African-American history. Furthermore, the new Farmington Canal linear park and brand-new Scantlebury Park easily meet the "great public spaces" requirement of the nomination.

+ Westville Center: WVRA involvement, access to several great park systems, revitalized main street, new artist housing, chili.

+ East Rock and Upper State: Extraordinary recent efforts on historic preservation, walkable and friendly to multi-modal transportation, local retail, founding location of the national community governance website SeeClickFix, close to large employers, excellent parks as a locus of community engagement.

Please add comments here on which neighborhoods you think best qualify for a nomination - and contact us if you would like to help out or suggest others!

Yestermorrow Information Session on Hands-on Design

An information session for Yestermorrow will be held on Monday, October 12, 2009 from 7:30-8:30pm at the Kroon Center, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Rm 319, 195 Prospect St, New Haven, CT. Yestermorrow is a Warren, Vermont-based school that inspires people to create a more sustainable world by providing hands-on education that integrates design and craft as a creative, interactive process.

The school comes highly recommended by Elizabeth Turnbull, who has received national attention for her "Tiny House" in New Haven (pictured here). More from the school's website:

Yestermorrow’s courses are specifically designed to demystify the designing and building processes using hands-on, experiential learning to teach students the art and wisdom of good design and the skill and savvy of enduring craftsmanship as a single, integrated process. This creative process offers students unique insight into the oftentimes disparate worlds of the architect and the builder. Architects are routinely trained without any building experience that might inform their designs, and builders are trained to execute without a sense of the overarching purpose or design of the project.

At the event, you will hear an introduction to the School, see a slide show of the campus and recent class projects, and meet faculty members, alumni and former interns. Over 150 classes are offered annually in design, construction, woodworking and more, including certificate programs in sustainable building and design, urban regeneration, natural building and woodworking. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP to kate [at] yestermorrow.org.

$20 Nonstop New Haven <--> Boston (and Philly!) Bus Fares Now Available: Thanks SeeClickFix!

Original Post 10/1/09: Transport Azumah has released its preliminary schedule for the new direct bus service here, and it looks like tickets have already gone on sale. The service begins on Friday, November 20th, with a round-trip, 1-2 bus/day Friday through Sunday schedule that we think is likely to be expanded to meet demand. Tickets are generally $20 including all booking fees, but some may be found for as low as $1. The buses connect the Yale Campus and Downtown New Haven to Downtown Boston and vice versa.

For additional background on how the community rallied to bring new bus service to the city, see this post at Cap'n Transit and this post at the SeeClickFix Blog. The latter discusses how to effectively and immediately lobby for transportation improvements through social networking, community organizing, media and legislative strategies. If you can think of other things that can be "fixed," discuss here or simply head over to SeeClickFix and post them.

Click here for the original issue report on SCF, which was reported by Ben Berkowitz and promoted by TGWNN, Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team, Downtown Aldermanic candidate Mike Jones and Dixwell Alderman Greg Morehead, and others. Over 250 people voted to "fix" the issue. The Board of Aldermen passed unanimous legislation as a direct result and, according to officials within the Economic Development Office, the city then lobbied bus operators for a new service.

Unlike Amtrak and many other commercial bus services, these buses will allow bicycles to be taken aboard -- a key consideration for many New Haveners. According to Cap'n Transit:

Azumah writes, "We will be able to take unboxed bicycles as long as they are tagged with the owner's name and contact phone." That is a huge improvement over the current options for travel in this area.

They are also more affordable and faster than any of the current competitors. Click here for DNH's earlier thread on the "Bolt Bus Rally" which discusses the issue in more depth.

Update 10/5/09: Service will also connect from New Haven to Philadelphia.

Breaking: 2008 Census ACS Bike to Work Data

New Census American Community Survey (ACS) data, released just this week, shows that New Haven continues to measure up pretty well in terms of walking and bicycling.

Since it takes the Census a full year to crunch the numbers, the data below were actually collected in 2008, not 2009. Due to the collection methodology, these are very rough estimates with large margins of error, and like much of the ACS in general, you can not use them to create city "rankings" in the traditional sense.

Still, many organizations (including LAB) love to use these regardless of their precision. Though limited, they can give you a general picture - for example, that the City of New Haven (pictured here, courtesy Paul Dorn) has close to 1/3rd of the state's bicycle commuters, despite having only about 3% of the state's total commuting population.

It's important to remember that these are figures for commutes only -- not for the total number of trips, which is the more valuable indicator from an urban economic perspective and which tends to be higher (compare San Francisco's figures on total trips to the Census data below to see what we mean). Bicycling advocacy groups also often cite their own surveys and/or city reported data about the population that "uses a bike" each day. For example, TA estimates that between 100,000 and 200,000 people use a bicycle each day in New York City for some purpose.

Here's a quick run-down on the ACS's figures on Commute to Work for Workers 16 Years and Over (2008):

City of New Haven
Drove Alone: 55.2%
Public Transport: 13.9%
Walked: 12.6%
Carpooled: 10.5%
Worked at Home: 3.2%
Bicycle: 2.3% (about 1,300 daily commuters to work)

New Haven-Milford Metro Area (city plus surrounding suburbs)
Bicycle: 0.4% (about 1,700 daily commuters to work)

Connecticut (entire state)
Bicycle: 0.2% (about 4,100 daily commuters to work)

Bicycle commuting in a few other cities (also 2008):
Portland OR: 6.0% (about 17,300 daily commuters to work), Minneapolis: 4.3%, Seattle: 2.9%, SF: 2.7%, DC: 2.3%, Boston: 1.6%, Philly: 1.6%, Austin: 1.3%, Chicago: 1.0%, Pittsburgh 0.8%, Syracuse NY: 0.7%, NYC: 0.6% (about 24,000 daily commuters to work), San Antonio TX: 0.1%, Stamford CT 0.1%, Dallas TX: 0.0%.

Within most of the bicycle-friendly cities, including New Haven, the bicycling mode share appears to have increased significantly since 2000.

Even though most commuters theoretically lie within the "No Excuse Zone," the city's ability to entice significantly larger numbers of residents to bicycle to work (calculated at 55% in Copenhagen, for example) will continue to be limited until we have complete streets that balance the needs and safety of all road users. Despite the massive potential benefits to the city, relatively little action has been taken so far. For one thing, one of the largest and most important neighborhoods in the entire city, Fair Haven, still lacks a viable bicycle route to Downtown New Haven. Improving multi-modal access to the train station (and on trains themselves) is also essential, but ConnDOT and the city haven't even come through on their longstanding promises to add enough bike racks there.

The city can best push this agenda by creating a specific goal for bicycling use (e.g., 15% of total trips by 2012). Many cities have also done this through sustainability, pollution-reduction or climate change legislation, though we would argue that economic development and job creation are the strongest reasons for doing so.

Stay tuned here and elsewhere for more analyses of the 2008 ACS and an update on Census 2010. The Decennial Census will be able to provide much more detailed and reliable data at the neighborhood level.

BoltBus Rally: Community Calls for More Sustainable Transportation Options to Downtown New Haven

Original Post 9/3/09: A petition and discussion about bringing BoltBus to New Haven has become the most popular community issue on SeeClickFix, with nearly 200 "I want this fixed" votes and hundreds of comments. The Yale Daily News covers the story here, and Ben Berkowitz has a summary on the SeeClickFix blog:

"I took a trip to Philadelphia recently via BoltBus after a few New Haveners turned me on to it via an email discussing the potential of a New Haven stop for the Internet Enabled discount bus service. When I returned from my Bolt bus trip I was on the band wagon and gave a shot at using SeeClickFix to get the city's help to lure BoltBus. Enter http://seeclickfix.com/issues/7425.

The issue description read, "If you want BoltBus or similar to run a line from New Haven, CT to New York, click "I want this fixed too" and add your email. Bolt bus has wireless Internet, outlets, leather seats and it's cheap. You can also put a bicycle underneath for free."

The Yale Daily News Reported today that, "The Board of Alderman will vote this Tuesday on a resolution to support the addition of a New Haven stop to the BoltBus, a coach service owned by Greyhound Lines. Alderman) Morehead said he was prompted to draft the resolution one month ago, after he saw a popular discussion thread about bringing the BoltBus to New Haven on SeeClickFix.com."

To read Ben's entire post, click here. A service like BoltBus would certainly be a welcome addition to the menu of transportation alternatives in New Haven, where an "unacceptably" costly Amtrak train or intermittent bus is currently the only way to quickly and efficiently travel to nearby cities like DC, Philadelphia and Boston.

You can read reviews of BoltBus here, here and here. Reviewers consistently praise the service's comfort and multi-modal connectivity, particularly the ability to store bicycles on board, which most bus and train services do not allow. An excerpt:

The seats are at least as comfortable as airline seats, with a nice bit of lumbar support and the ability to recline enough to let you really relax. You don't have to feel guilty about the person behind you because there's plenty of legroom. I'm 6'2" but my legs are long for my size, so if you can hit your knees on this bus, you probably play basketball for a living. The bus is air conditioned, of course, and rides as smooth as a plane in slightly choppy air. It seems quieter, though, but that may be a function of the lower pitch of its noise. No turbine engine a few feet away, no 600 mph air stream out the window.

One nice thing I saw was a rider taking a bike down to DC to provide transport there. It fit easily into the cargo bay and looked like it would arrive in good condition, ready to take to the streets at the other end. That's smart traveling.

You can follow the story as it develops from here by clicking on the issue on SeeClickFix (more evidence that citizens, and not the media, are increasingly generating and disseminating local news content themselves). Click here for our ongoing series of SeeClickFix "issues of the month."

Update 9/15/09: Success? "TransportAzumah, a New York–based private bus company, has offered to start a Friday–Sunday express service from New Haven to Boston and New York. Owner Joel Azumah said this service, which may later include an additional stop to Providence, R.I., would seek to fill a demand present in areas routinely passed by express services. Azumah said his preliminary plans come in part as a response to increased pressure from the Board of Alderman to provide a new low-cost transportation option such as the BoltBus, a coach service owned by Greyhound Lines. Azumah said he is currently drafting a tentative schedule for the service to show the New Haven community, adding that if feedback is good, the line should run in time for Thanksgiving break." To see bus operators (including Azumah himself?) chatting about the potential of the new service, check out this forum.

Update 9/21/09: The SeeClickFix site has collected quite a response, and now has ongoing news about Transport Azumah (which is proposing a pilot weekend NYC-New Haven-Boston service leaving from the center of the Yale Campus) and other options for service. Meanwhile, Cap'n Transit writes about how to create reliable service for buses from Connecticut to New York -- currently a major problem:

So why do we care if the buses are slow and unreliable? There's train service; shouldn't we put our government dollars into making that better? Well, maybe not; the old New Haven mainline is pretty much at capacity right now, and it's clearly not serving all the people who currently drive on these highways. Many people want a one-seat ride to a place that's not on the train, like Stockbridge or Northampton. Others want a level of comfort that they can't get on Metro-North, but maybe aren't willing to pay Acela rates. Some, as has been said before, want wifi, power outlets and a place to stow their bicycles.

We want to decrease the demand for building and rebuilding the highways of New England. We want to decrease the pollution and carnage along I-95 and US 1. We want these drivers to shift to the bus, and to do that the bus has to be at least as fast and reliable as the car.

That's why buses heading to the north and east need their own XBL, where they can be free from intersections and car traffic until they get to less congested highways.

Update 10/1/09: An update on how to purchase tickets for the new service can be found here.

New Haveners Embrace Sustainability, Scones With Three New Park(ing) Spots

New Haveners were again out in force to celebrate Park(ing) Day, a one-day global event where urbanists, artists and advocates transform metered parking spaces into temporary public parks. Started in 2005 by San Francisco's Rebar in 2005, the event first hit Downtown New Haven in 2008.

Three different organizations of New Haven architects and sustainability advocates sponsored parks this year -- giving New Haven about three times the per capita prevalence of park(ing) spaces as New York City and five times that of Brooklyn.

The event highlights the inadequacy of the public realm in American cities. According to Rebar, for example, up to 70% of San Francisco's downtown outdoor space is dedicated to the vehicle, while only a fraction of that is allocated to usable public open space.

Writing in the June 2005 issue of Governing Magazine, Alan Ehrenhalt identifies the overabundance of parking in America's downtown areas as a major economic development issue:

In the central business districts of older cities, the amount of parking keeps increasing and the number of buildings keeps declining. Buffalo and Albuquerque devote more central-city land to parking lots than to all other uses combined. For anyone who wants to come downtown, a member of the Buffalo City Council lamented a couple of years ago, "there will be lots of places to park. There just won't be a whole lot to do here."

That's one of the simple ironies of this whole depressing subject. But there's an even bigger irony: The central city districts that have done really well in recent years aren't the ones that have provided the most parking; they're the ones that have provided the least. Portland, Oregon, instead of expanding its downtown parking capacity, has spent the past 30 years restricting it. There was less parking per capita in downtown Portland in the 1990s than there was in the 1970s. And Portland, as any visitor notices at once, has one of the most successful downtowns in America.

Some of the New Haven participants this year got particularly creative with the concept of creating open space in the center of the city. The theme of Gregg Weis & Gardner Architects' elaborate construction, located in front of the New Haven Urban Outfitters and American Apparel outlets near Yale, was "A Day at the Beach."

According to architect Samuel Gardner, whose New Haven firm has recently been specializing more on transportation sector work such as a traffic calming project in New London and a new intermodal Metro North train station in West Haven, the theme recreated the landscaping and feeling of a local beach:

"The space implies taking it easy and relaxing. A wood curve was constructed with the types of leftover materials that one might find on a local Connecticut beach," Gardner said.

In the well-constructed pavilion, a large group of architects and local outdoorsy types were observed taking in the dappled shade of the swooping, temporary structure and its trees. Only one traffic cone had been knocked over all day, they said.

Nearby, sustainability and transportation advocates from Yale and Elm City Cycling gathered in a park(ing) space on bales of hay to play chess.

A few blocks away, right in front of New Haven City Hall, Architecture for Humanity, a global organization of design professionals who offer nonprofit design services for a variety of groups in need, had set up a particularly well-positioned park. The park(ing) space featured delicious scones and monolithic stacks of used cardboard paper rolls. Having just completed designing a school in Kenya, the young architects were busy sitting amongst cattails and ruminating on their latest ideas for social entrepreneurship.

Architect Britton Rogers, who heads up New Haven's very own chapter of Architecture for Humanity, which meets every month at BAR, explained that the design of this pavilion was driven by necessity:

"We have a ton of extra empty rolls of architectural drawing paper, and we decided to make a design out of them. The screens, benches and table are made out of cardboard tubes, which are remarkably structurally strong. They haven't resisted the wind that well, but we improvised with ties. We got the New Haven Land Trust to bring a bunch of plants and integrate greenspace into the parking space. It's just to encourage enjoyment of the space as a park."

Britton continued, "we've encouraged interaction with baked goods, encouraging people to stop by, have a seat, talk to us, and make suggestions as to what they'd see come out of a parking space. If they write down an idea, they get a free baked good or a lemonade."

Dear New Haven. Love, Artspace Underground

Artspace, Downtown New Haven's well-known non-profit organization that presents local and national visual art, and provides access, excellence and education for the benefit of the public and the arts community, continues its regular series of off-the-grid, arts-oriented party events this weekend. Here's the invite:

Artspace Underground: The better you look, the more you see. Dear New Haven: we're baaack! Did you miss us? The hottest art/dance/whatever party in New Haven is back and funkier than ever. Grab your BFFs, come down to the gallery and rock out with us. Saturday, September 19, 2009, 8:00pm - 11:00pm.

+ NEW ART!!! "The Weekend Inventor" show, Sept. 13 - Oct 31; City-Wide Open Studios juried exhibition, "Dispersion"+ Fake Babies performs live + New Haven art scene regular Phil Lique creates a surprise "happening" + Resident-DJ Peter Kuhn spins the hottest indie hits + $5 door; $2 if you wear something fabulous. One free drink; $6 drink specials by 116 Crown. Artspace is located at 50 Orange Street, corner of Orange and Crown.

Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!

Original Post, 4/8/08: A fantastic cover story appears in today's Yale Daily News about the proposal to tear down (or at least modify) sections of the wall surrounding downtown New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery, one of the nation's most historic burying grounds -- the first incorporated cemetery in the United States, and a National Historic Landmark.

Vincent Scully: “Yale is cut right through the liver by that cemetery,” the emeritus Sterling professor of the History of Art said with characteristic zeal. “It would make a great difference if the cemetery were more welcoming.”

The argument is that many more local residents would be able to appreciate this incredible historical resource if a visual corridor or pathway were added through the site. Agreeing with Scully's assessment, Yale Professor David Cameron added an op-ed about this New Haven landmark in today's Yale Daily News. But would adding a simple new gate or portion of iron fence have an impact on the site's character?

The proposal raises questions about the nature of historic preservation. For example, preservation highlights the need for society to conserve the material and cultural qualities of a built place for future generations -- and in this case, given the low volume of visitors currently, it is conceivable that improving visual and pedestrian access from both sides of the site could actually help the site be preserved over generations by making it much more meaningful to a large number of people on a daily basis. There is also a question about the nature of the site's original intent (an issue brought up in the YDN article):

"Denison Olmsted 1813, a Yale science professor, speaking at the gateway’s dedication, expressed his hope that there would be strong interaction between New Haven’s residents and its burial grounds.

“Let us all come hither to think calmly but wisely on our own inevitable destiny,” he pronounced.

Townshend, in his [1947] speech, added a few words that are perhaps the perfect explanation of the importance of open walls to achieving the ideal of Olmstead’s lofty words."

In these veins (no historically-relevant cadaver puns related to the Yale School of Medicine intended), have the cemetery owners and Yale considered tearing down a section of wall and adding an interpretative museum about the cemetery? What about a new community conference center or a bike path? Or a cafe, a la cemeteries in Boston? The views of the cemetery are certainly beautiful, especially given the landmark's incredibly extensive history of horticulture. Paul, in the YDN comments, sums up this view:

The concerns voiced here that providing more pedestrian and visual access to Grove Street cemetery would somehow intolerably disturb it and its dead fly in the face of many counterexamples. For example, Trinty Church in lower Manhattan has a lovely cemetery that is quite open to the public, physically and visually. Boston has many such cemeteries. The list goes on and on. Resistance to providing more pedestrian access to Grove Street Cemetery in the face of world wide counterexamples and changing needs is just reactionary.

Although the issue of personal security is also raised within many comments, would these concerns be any different from what they are now, assuming appropriate levels of patrol and/or continuing to limit access to daylight hours?

Update 10/22/08: The New York Times highlights Grove Street Cemetery in a feature piece on regional cemeteries which are "home to the rich and famous." The article is accompanied by a slide show with beautiful photographs of Eli Whitney's and Noah Webster's gravesites:

The famous names, in tombs and sarcophagi wedged along pathways wide enough for the original horse-drawn carriages and later for cars, read like a “Who Was Who” of American history. Among them are Charles Goodyear, who vulcanized rubber; Lyman Beecher, abolitionist and father of Harriet Beecher Stowe; Noah Webster, compiler of the first American dictionary; and Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin. A more recent arrival, in 1989, was Angelo Bartlett Giamatti, known as Bart, the 19th president of Yale, the commissioner of Major League Baseball and the nemesis of Pete Rose.

Update 9/16/09: Carole Bass of the Yale Alumni Magazine has an update on the cemetery situation and related upcoming meeting, which is raising some concern from local and state preservationists. They have launched a petition on the topic here and plan to present their concerns at the upcoming meeting in October. The article includes Bob Stern's rendering (shown here) of the visual links that could be potentially created through the wall, in tandem with Yale's two new residential colleges located just north of the site:

Stern, who is designing the new colleges and is also dean of the School of Architecture, will present his proposal October 6 at the annual meeting of the Proprietors of Grove Street Cemetery, the preservationists say.

The notion is that the wall forms an intimidating barrier along Prospect Street, and that partly opening it will make the cemetery more inviting and park-like. (A related suggestion, for putting a second gate in the cemetery’s north wall, is apparently not on the agenda for next month.)

Preservationists respond that the plan would damage not only a historic landmark, but also a haven of quiet and privacy for visitors to the cemetery. “Cutting the wall in any manner could undermine the entire wall,” New Haven Preservation Trust President Pedro Soto says in the press release. “The wall has done its job well for more than 160 years, blocking out the clamor of the city and allowing the cemetery to remain a sanctuary of peace and tranquility.”

Update 10/7/09: The New Haven Independent provides coverage of a heavily-attended community meeting about the future of the wall.

ConnDOT Expands Free Parking Bus to Train Station, But Little Movement on Bike/Pedestrian Access

A press event takes place tomorrow morning (Wednesday, September 16) at 10:00AM at Union Station to celebrate the expansion of bus service linking Downtown New Haven's parking areas to Union Station. But when will ConnDOT show the same sense of urgency on behalf of Downtown New Haven's multitudes of cyclists and pedestrians?

ConnDOT and the City of New Haven will announce tomorrow that the bus service, which began on August 31st, now connects rail passengers using Union Station to additional off-site parking locations, including the Temple Street Garage and the parking lot at the former Coliseum site. All shuttle trips also now extend to the New Haven Green, creating easy connections to all other CTTRANSIT local bus routes in New Haven. Additionally, the shuttle operates throughout the day on weekdays every 20 minutes (see schedule below) -- previously, the shuttle was only available during morning and evening commutes. The press event will feature Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. and ConnDOT Bureau Chief Jim Redeker. With dozens of international (and perhaps "out of control"?) media outfits parked around Union Station to cover the Annie Le case at Yale, there should be no problem finding reporters.

“We encourage residents and employees to use rail services and buses whenever possible in lieu of driving to reduce our carbon footprint and contribute to a greener and cleaner New Haven. The expansion of this shuttle service will help to facilitate increased rail use in New Haven,” said Mayor DeStefano, Jr. “Not only does this enhanced service make it easier for people to get in and out of the City during the week, but this also creates a more inviting environment for businesses and events.”

ConnDOT and the City's efforts to make Union Station more accessible for bus and rail riders (but primarily, to regional drivers) by better-connecting transit to the many large parking lots and offices scattered throughout Downtown New Haven are a good step towards improving multi-modal options for local residents, students, businesses and visitors -- even if they encourage a few more people to drive into Downtown New Haven in order to catch a train. They dovetail with other economic development efforts such as the New Haven streetcar proposal, the new Gateway Community College (now beginning construction), 360 State, and the possibility of a new large-scale mixed-use development surrounding the station.

However, these developments stand in striking contrast to the lack of progress on making Union Station more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians. Despite the fact that Union Station is the single key economic connection to Downtown New Haven and its tens of thousands of office workers, the streets and intersections approaching Union Station are still high-speed, wide and incredibly unfriendly to pedestrians: particularly to the children and older persons who would be key to any downtown economic revival.

Access for bicycles and motor scooters is similarly problematic, with a frequent lack of bicycle parking observed at the station, and according to some who commute to the station by scooter, no parking at all. According to posts on SeeClickFix, local government promised the addition of about 70 new, sheltered bicycle and scooter racks at the beginning of 2009, but since then only a small temporary rack has been added at the building's rear.

On the bright side, a significant amount of progress has been made within the past two years in terms of planning documents for Union Station bicycle access, including this year's Downtown bike-ped gap analysis, a feasibility report for a "bike station" within the rail facility, and a planned system of markings and bike lanes indicating that drivers should "share the lane" with cyclists (even if the roads themselves are currently wide, high-speed lanes that are avoided by all but the most experienced cyclists). Residents and civic associations have also expressed strong support for pedestrian improvements such as traffic calming and better speed enforcement, and the area around Union Station may be one of the first places addressed by the city's new Complete Streets Steering Committee. Unfortunately, these currently exist only on paper.

The city and state can capitalize on these opportunities for economic development and improved livability when they finally listen to the community's overwhelming desire for improved access to what, in an unusually dense setting like New Haven, is more often than not the most convenient, cost-effective and sustainable form of transportation: walking and biking.

Local Design and Marketing Networking Group Holds Logo Contest

The Greater New Haven Design and Marketing Meetup is a local community of creatives from all industries, including graphic designers, programmers, marketing professionals, videographers, photographers, printers, illustrators and freelancers. The group meets on the second Wednesday of each month at local design hotspot 116 Crown for casual networking, and also periodically organizes presentations and special events.

Established by David Fischer in 2006 as a way for local graphic design professionals and freelancers to network, the group has grown to a community pushing 300 members from different creative fields, though each of the monthly meetings tend to be small and low-key. At a recent meeting, a diverse crowd was observed chatting about new media companies, design-related career paths and jobs, and economic development.

Kicking off what the group hopes will become a series of member design contests will be the GNHD&M Logo Design Contest, in which members create a new logo for the group (the current temporary logo is shown here). Submit logos now; judging will take place at the group's next meeting on October 14. Avity, a Downtown New Haven-based web design and marketing firm, has sponsored a $100 prize for the winner.

It is free to join the group, receive the newsletter and submit a logo for the contest, though a $3 organizational fee is requested for each meetup attended. For more information, or if you are interested in sponsoring the group, please contact co-organizer Cassie at cathswart at gmail dot com.

Yale Launches Animated "Smart Streets" Traffic Safety Education Website

Original Post 4/14/09: Click here to test this colorful, comprehensive new website (yale.edu/smartstreets), which aims to educate road users on how to safely walk, bike and drive around New Haven. The safety PSA expands on similar sites such as New York City's "LOOK" campaign, but also features dozens of animations depicting drunk bicyclists, obnoxious crowds of pedestrians, and speeding drivers. Statistics such as the fact that 45% of pedestrians are killed when hit at 30 miles per hour, versus just 5% at 20 miles per hour, are prominently featured by a barking dog, and on the site's quiz.

Currently there is nothing on the website about policy items such as reducing urban speed limits to levels that will stop killing people and create more economically vibrant streets -- which the City of New Haven must do if it wishes to meet the goals established by the New Haven Safe Streets Coalition -- but DNH understands that the University shares those goals and will be working closely with the City on comprehensive policy changes over the next year.

Yale's recently-launched traffic safety campaign will also include educational workshops for incoming students and staff, as well as longer term improvements to physical aspects of the campus. Traffic stops have also been on the rise. Bike Portland recently highlighted the University's "sustainable transportation" office in a feature article:

Parker was hired away from a similar job at Harvard by Yale’s new director of sustainability after she gave a presentation here about her work in Cambridge. She has a key role in some of the major changes that office is bringing to the city. “I keep telling people, in five years you won’t recognize New Haven,” Parker told me at the beginning of our interview.

The University's efforts follow on the heels of of a city-sponsored "Street Smarts" educational drive and landmark "Complete Streets" legislation, as well as constant traffic safety advocacy by students, staff and other members of the university community, including Ward 1 Alderwoman Rachel Plattus and other local elected officials and candidates for office with ties to Yale. For example, the LivableStreets Alliance was recently invited by students at the Yale Medical School to give several talks to students and high-ranking officials. Last year's open public letter to the President of Yale University also resulted in significant momentum for "safe streets" on the campus (see Yale Daily News coverage here, here, here, here, and here).

Campus agitation was initially sparked by a very large number of serious traffic incidents affecting students over the past three years, including a 2008 pedestrian fatality and a 2006 serious pedestrian injury on Route 34 adjacent to Yale-New Haven Hospital, as well as a student hospitalized in 2007 after a hit-and-run on Elm Street, not to mention numerous other high-profile collisions across the city as a whole (12 traffic fatalities were reported in 2008).

Please leave DNH your comments on what you think of the new website.

Update 9/10/09: A Yale student writes an excellent op-ed about unsafe traffic conditions around the heart of the Yale Campus.

New Britain Busway Could Have Been Connecticut's Second - After New Haven

Original Post 4/1/09, By Dmitriy Tarasov, DNH Associate Editor

Nothing, it seems, divides transit planners and policymakers like BRT. Some see it as the solution to a city’s transportation problems at a fraction of the cost of the traditional remedies. To others, it represents a triumph of marketing over substance and is proof that, given good public relations, any less-than-sound policy can be foisted upon an uncritical citizenry. BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit, and for many years now, a BRT busway linking Hartford to West Hartford, Newington and New Britain has been in the making - one of many such proposals around the country. The line was first proposed in 1998 and may (or may not) begin operation within the next 3-5 years.

But few are aware that New Haven, too, once came very close to having a BRT corridor.

The concept of BRT is simple. Part of a street is set aside for a dedicated, bus-only lane so that buses, separated from other traffic to a degree, are able to run more often and at higher speeds. Articulated buses, having a longer body with a joint in the middle so as to be able to bend around curves, are often used to increase capacity. On some systems, passengers board buses the same way they would a subway train, by entering a high-floored vehicle from a raised platform. As in a subway, they pay their fares before boarding. This is done in order to speed up the boarding process. On a BRT line in Los Angeles, traffic signals give priority to the buses in another attempt to improve speed and frequency.

The Brazilian city of Curitiba pioneered the concept in the 1970s, and since then dedicated bus lanes or bus-only roads have been adopted in such cities as Bogota (pictured in photo above) and Pereira in Colombia, Jakarta, Lagos, and Adelaide, Australia, to name a few.

Like the New Britain busway, the line in New Haven was to utilize an abandoned railroad corridor. After the final closure, in 1987, of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad line along what had been the Farmington Canal, plans were afoot to use the former railroad’s right-of-way for a dedicated, bus-only road. According to Brian McGrath, former parking and transportation director of New Haven, “very fast buses” would have linked downtown New Haven to downtown Cheshire through Hamden, serving Hamden Plaza along the way. The busway was “nearly built,” but ran into opposition from neighborhoods along the route. As the cliché goes, the rest is history, and the proposed busway’s right-of-way is now occupied by the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail.

Apparently, even earlier, another novel type of bus along the same corridor was similarly derailed (almost literally). According to a posting on rootsweb, in the 1970s, when the railroad tracks along the canal were still extant, the predecessor of today’s CT Transit experimented with a bus equipped with railroad wheels in addition to rubber tires. Presumably these buses would have traveled in normal mode through the streets of New Haven, then taken to the rails to speed along the canal line to Hamden and points north. One such prototype "Railbus" was tested on the tracks of the Shore Line Trolley Museum (see photo at left by Doug Grotjahn, courtesy of the site). If the experiment had succeeded, New Haven would have probably been unique in having buses of this type in operation.

Had either of these projects been carried out, New Haven would have been one of the smaller cities with BRT. Almere and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Crawley in the UK, and Douais in France are all cities of comparable size with dedicated busways, but for the most part this type of transit is to be found in larger cities, such as Abidjan, Lagos, and Ankara, in addition to the ones mentioned above.

BRT begs to be described as a sort of “poor man’s subway,” since many of the cities that implement it have populations sufficiently large to justify subways but presumably cannot afford them. In Jakarta, a project to build a network of monorails has recently fallen through. In Bogota, off-and-on talk of a subway has so far come to nil. And Curitiba, where it all began, has, according to Allen Morrison, contemplated replacing its busways with rail transit of some description—with the same results.

Proponents of BRT, such as the New York-based Institute of Transportation and Development Policy, advocate bus rapid transit as “a sophisticated, high-quality transit at a fraction of the cost of other options.” While a bus lane, without a doubt, has lower costs than a subway line, the jury is still out as to whether it can provide all the benefits. Based on information on the website of Transmilenio, the BRT system of Bogota, its buses carry 19,444 people per mile on an average day. For comparison, the subway in, for instance, Taipei has a throughput of 26,385 people per mile per day, and the figure for Toronto is 29,387. Another potential drawback of BRT is its reliance on finite, and often imported, oil or natural gas. Even light rail, which BRT proponents like to compare unfavorably with bus rapid transit, lacks this Achilles’ heel. Furthermore, it would be hard to squeeze two bus-only lanes into most streets in Downtown New Haven, and communities might oppose their use on other streets if they caused congestion. In fact, Singapore opted for heavy rail over BRT in the 1980s on the grounds that buses would use up valuable street space in a city where land is in short supply.

As for the “rapid”: According to Transmilenio’s website, the average speed of its buses is 16.9 miles an hour. Buses on Metrobús, a BRT line in Mexico City, usually travel at around 12.5 miles an hour. Certainly this isn’t bad compared to the crawl to which traffic must slow down in those cities during rush hour. Yet trains on, for instance, line 14 of the Paris Metro travel at 25 mph, and their counterparts on the Delhi Metro, where stops are somewhat less frequent, can run even faster. On the other hand, Clarence Eckerson, Jr. points out on Streetsblog that one the Orange Line, the busway in Los Angeles, allows its buses to reach almost 55 mph at times, shaving around a half-hour off a trip that used to take 81 minutes (NYC has also had recent success). One must remember, however, that Orange Line bus stops are spaced, on average, a mile apart, with fourteen stops on a 14-mile-long line. A bus in New Haven would probably have to make more frequent stops.

Incidentally, the French term for bus rapid transit literally translates as “High service level bus” or “High-quality bus.” Perhaps this is a more appropriate name for BRT. Somehow, it sounds much less controversial.

Update 9/9/09: A Connecticut "bus rapid transit symposium" will be held this October 15th in Hartford. The symposium features presentations on bus rapid transit projects in the tri-state region and a panel of BRT experts, ConnDOT representatives and elected officials. Tri-State Transportation Campaign has more information about the event. In other news, TheCityFix has a great article on what Washington, DC's first BRT corridor may look like - it is very intermodal.