New ConnDOT Commissioner Joseph Marie has taken over an agency that has been marred by corruption and is in dire need of policy reforms that shift its culture away from prioritizing the expansion of roadways and towards maintaining Connecticut’s existing road and bridge infrastructure, promoting mass transit, and investing in smart growth. Those aren’t the only challenges facing the agency, though. Recent events in New Haven show that the agency has work to do when it comes to effectively incorporating community input into projects, particularly road designs.

An article in the New Haven Independent not only highlights ConnDOT’s aversion to funding bike and pedestrian projects (read about ConnDOT funding priorities here), but also shows how ConnDOT is turning a deaf ear to the burgeoning safe streets movement in New Haven, a movement that grew out of the tragic car-on-pedestrian fatalities of Yale medical student Mila Rainof and 11 year old Gabrielle Lee earlier this year.

According to the Independent article, community leaders, residents, and safe streets advocates are opposing the $13 million planned widening of Whalley Avenue in New Haven, between the 63/69 interchange and Dayton Street, into a four-lane road. The surrounding community would prefer the project be more accommodating to pedestrians and cyclists and less focused on moving more cars at faster speeds through an already dangerous corridor. Community suggestions to improve the route have included traffic roundabouts, bike lanes and a narrower road.

Unfortunately, the ConnDOT project manager for the Whalley Avenue project has publicly dismissed these suggestions out of hand.

To be fair, the agency has scheduled a meeting to be held this evening with residents concerning the Whalley Avenue project, after requests from local elected officials. However, to dismiss project improvement suggestions from the people who live and work along this corridor before sitting down with them is irresponsible and a poor example of community driven planning.