Notice that the 2nd driver almost went through, because the Cadillac did, but then stopped when they noticed the light.

Thank your for raising awareness about this issue, and for putting up that helpful video clip.

Best,

Zak
Community Manager
SeeClickFix

I don't see what is inherently dangerous about this situation. Even if drivers assume there is no protected left turn, then they still have to yield to oncoming traffic. As long as drivers are waiting for a sufficient gap, the oddly placed signal head seems to me to be unfortunate, but not an imminent safety hazard. If all drivers see is a circular green signal then they should know to yield to oncoming traffic (and pedestrians, in every city except New Haven). Even I know that rule of the road.

The biggest problem is that this is one of the major commuting arterials in the city, so there is a built in population of regular drivers on this street who are simply not expecting a car to be crossing their path when they have a green light.

Combine the pretty darn high speeds that people hit on this road with a total unawareness that a car will be crossing their path, and you have a dangerous situation.

Crossing over the two lanes plus the median is a pretty wide turn. Someone using poor judgement and trying to "make the light" expecting the cars in front of him to slow down, when they would not be expecting a last minute maneuver like that at all and so would have reduced reaction time is what would cause an accident.

It's not the person using common judgement that worries me, it's the absolute lack of awareness among the oncoming drivers that something like that might even occur that causes the dangerous situation.

Bottom line- the old light that had been in place for 20 years didn't have this problem, the new one does. This needs to be fixed.

There is also likely evidence that an accident has already occurred here. A few weeks ago, I saw for the first time since I've lived near this intersection (7 years) an accident that had occurred. It hadn't occurred to me until now, but one of the cars (couldn't see the 2nd one) appears to have been making a left turn at that light.

This does seem unusual. If I recall correctly, most arrow signals in New Haven are hanging with the cluster, even if they apply to separate lanes. There are many examples on Whitney Avenue.

wow, this is absolutely a dangerous new light system.

Mark, these eye-level lights are definitely a rarity in New Haven. I can't off the top of my head actually think of where there is one currently set up.

In Illinois, they are actually the de-facto style of light in some towns. I almost drove through a few intersections when I was visiting that I thought were uncontrolled because I was so used to looking up for the lights and not to the right or left, so I definitely can see how this happens.

That is horrible. Really dangerous and asinine. Needs to be fixed ASAP

there was a pretty serious crash here on saturday afternoon, forgot to post it. it could have been due to the signal change?

I've lived near this intersection for 7 years and had never seen an accident up until the one I saw a few months ago, and now there is another one at this intersection. I'd be interested in seeing what the police reports say, but this is yet more compelling evidence that this design is dangerous.

It looks like someone came out and moved the two existing lights further to the left, so that now the leftmost one looks like it belongs to the turn lane. This is WORSE, City of New Haven, not better. If you're moving them at all, go the other way so the left turn drivers might actually notice the one intended for them.

Have you heard anything back about this?

I heard from Mike P that they are looking into this, but that's been about it. Here is another video to prove that this isn't just a "sometimes" thing.
I don't know if the city gets it, but for about 40% of the cars, this is now the default way that they travel through the intersection.

When I walk down to get a morning cup of coffee, I wait at the intersection, and WITHOUT FAIL within 5 minutes, someone has blown the light.

Today, there was another variation. The person drove up, and stopped WHILE the left turn was green. THEN, when it turned red, he proceeded with the non-turn green light!! The next car after him simply proceeded past the left turn signal like "normal."

I recorded it with my phone and once I get it onto youtube I'll post a link.

The longer this happens, the longer this gets reinforced as normal behavior and the higher the likelihood that someone gets involved in a serious accident.

Unfortunately, thanks to the existence of this site and this thread, any attorneys for drivers involved in accidents at this intersection can leverage posts/videos here to sue the City for failure to rectify a known problem. And do we think settlement/legal costs won't work back into our tax rate next year?

One more incident, this time coming from north, a driver ran through the red left arrow even though it IS hung with the other signals at the same eye level. In addressing this intersection, maybe part of the problem is the arrow with no solid red light as well. Perhaps these left turn lanes should have four lamps: Red stop AND Red left arrow, yellow, green left arrow. This intersection is more dangerous than others on state because of the clusters of trees planted on the medians here: attractive, but they do obstruct visibility.

Here is the video. Worth watching directly on Youtube to see it at full resolution.
You can see the light turning yellow, then green THEN the pickup drives through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXU6pPprZs

Fantastic video. Clearly there is a problem here.

This still hasn't been acknowledged by anyone in a position do so. Is this a state DOT matter, or is this a local NH matter?
I'm still seeing cars drive through, or almost drive through and then get stuck mid-intersection, on almost a daily basis.

Transportation, Traffic and Parking (City) received an email when the issue was first posted (they do not subscribe to comments). I would imagine that the email just happened to get burried in their inbox. I would suggest using the Share function to email the issue to one of the emails listed on the department website. (ehutchin@newhavenct.net has worked for me in the past).

I saw a taxi cab almost get completely destroyed here, when it didn't pay attention to the signal, yesterday morning.

A day in the life of ConnDOT, I suppose.

This is really just getting ridiculous. Are the powers that be really going to wait until someone is killed at this intersection to do something? Can anyone in the city or state level at least give us some sort of explanation? I can walk down and video tape for a few minutes, but I've done that 3 times already. Last week I saw 4 cars go through the intersection and another 2 sitting in the middle (they are the ones that notice only when they are half-way through the turn).
I see someone go through about every other time I'm in the intersection.
Thanks, Brian I'll email that address with this.

Woops. The new share feature only allows sharing from existing contacts in your address book.. pretty limiting!

Hey Pedro,
You can always just post the issue URL into the email to a new contact. What do you want the share feature to look like?

Thanks,
Ben

This is a state controlled signal. The contractor responsible for maintaining the signal will be contacted as well as DOT. Thank you for the post.

Thank you. There is a great deal of red light running taking place here because of the confusing signal. Intersection safety cameras would help influence drivers to not be so callous with other people's lives.

Any word back from ConnDOT and/or the contractors?

This Traffic Signal is now under city control. The mast-arm is not long enough to accomodate an addtional signal head, hence the installation of the pedestal indicator for NB vehicular traffic turning left from State onto Grove. As a result, the current installation of the signalized intersection will remain the same. However, due to the issue posted, the department has installed a sign to alert NB drivers of the pedestal indicator. We will also continue to monitor the approach at this intersection.

Thank you, Transportation Department.

We can all keep an eye on this and see if driver behavior is changing. Please post if you see that drivers are often still confused.

Do we feel this is resolved?

i think it might not be that drivers are unaware of the arrow at this point, but that they do not care if it is. i walk this way to work and see drivers go through it more often than not.

Has there been any progress on this? I saw another nearby collision. Only a matter of time before someone is killed due to the simple fact that the signal is not on the same level.

The other issue is that due to the new traffic camera controlled lights, there is now no discernible pattern that the lights operate.
Northbound and NB left will turn, then NB left will switch off, then, Southbound turns green, then all straight travel turns red, and the turn lights go.

When the lights were on a strict timer, it was very easy for pedestrians to cross the street since they knew what lights turned when, and could cross with the light. Yes, jaywalking, but considering that the crosswalk is timed only to cross HALF the street, something that needs to be done.

I think that this new light system now that is been in place for a year has been a big fail. It's not pedestrian friendly, and confusing to drivers. How in the world is this an improvement than what was there before?

I was nearly hit here for this reason a few weeks ago.

We are continuing to monitor this issue.

What is being monitored? Are we waiting for someone to die? Because I almost saw that happen twice, now.

The Signal Division will be working on a solution at this location next week. Thank you for your patience as we continue to monitor this issue.

Please keep us updated as to what solutions are applied! Just today saw two people ignore the left turn signal, one who almost got hit.

Thanks!

We shall do so.

The Signal Division is increasing the height of the pedestal traffic signal this morning.

This work on the pedestal has been completed.

Issue resolved