2 Blocks Of Chapel Go 2-Way

By Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — “We found our first one,” city crossing guard Penelope Suggs said at around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday as a Toyota Corolla continued west on Chapel Street — in a lane newly designated for east-bound traffic only.

The car made it only 20 feet or so from the College Street intersection before city police Officer Rafael Ramirez intercepted the wrong-way-driving vehicle and helped shepherd the car into the right lane of traffic.

That was the scene Tuesday morning during the first day of two-way traffic on two blocks of Chapel Street between College, High, and York streets.

The Elicker administration has undertaken this roadway changeup in an effort to reduce car speeds and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike. As of 6 a.m. Tuesday, what had been two lanes of west-bound vehicle traffic now consists of one lane in each direction, with on-street parking preserved on both the north and south sides of the street. The city ultimately plans to make Chapel Street two-way from downtown as far west as Ella T. Grasso Boulevard.

Yellow-vested crossing guards were stationed at each of the three Chapel intersections Tuesday, helping pedestrians cross safely and figure out the new traffic pattern. Police officers parked in cruisers set up near each intersection, as well.

It’s been “a little hectic” so far, said crossing guard Joe Cordy, a 58-year-old Hill resident who also works a maintenance job at the Veterans Affairs hospital. “It’s gonna take a while to get used to.”

As of around 10 a.m., he said he hadn’t seen any cars driving in the wrong lane. “Just people crossing and not knowing where to go.”

A block away, crossing guards Marcus Mitchell and Dominic Punnett worked the York-Chapel intersection, holding up stop signs to help pedestrians get to and fro.

“You’ve got to wait for the light to change,” Mitchell told a driver who was about to turn right on red from York onto Chapel’s new east-bound lane. “Yeah, it’s a two-way” now.

Asked about how the morning was going so far from his perspective, Mitchell said, “So far, so good,” before hustling into the street to help another group of pedestrians cross.

Punnett said he had just finished up a crossing-guard shift at Whitney Avenue and Canner Street earlier Tuesday before heading down to Chapel and York. His top priority today: “Make sure no one gets hit.”

Suggs, a city crossing guard working at Chapel and College, said the morning had been going well so far. Still, this is different, she said, and that will take time for drivers and pedestrians to get used to.

“That’s life,” Suggs said sagely. “Change.”

Eva Geertz crossed south on Chapel at College Tuesday on her way to work at the Institute Library. First she was going to make a stop at a College Street bodega to pick up a favorite sandwich, what she calls her “librarian special” — Provolone cheese on a hard roll with tomato and onion, but no lettuce. (The lettuce just falls out of the sandwich.)

Geertz, who grew up on York Street, described this stretch of Chapel as her home neighborhood. She said that most law-abiding drivers and pedestrians likely won’t have any trouble with the new two-way conversion.

The people she’s worried about, she said, are the jaywalkers. What if a pedestrian walks into Chapel Street, only looking one way because they’re used to the one-way street. That could spell trouble.

Just then, Suggs and Geertz spotted the car in the wrong lane of traffic on Chapel. Suggs said that was the first wrong-way driver she’d seen so far Tuesday morning. Geertz expressed surprise that that was the first Suggs had seen so far.

Officer Ramirez, a 15-year New Haven Police Department (NHPD) veteran, quickly helped that car get in the correct lane. Ramirez said he’d seen “a few” wrong-way drivers thus far on his Tuesday shift.

This change, he said, is just something “you’ve got to get used to.”

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.