Sharraxaadda
I was walking around downtown this evening and within the span of an hour, I observed about 15 bicyclists zipping around pedestrians on crowded sidewalks. A few weeks ago, I witnessed a woman narrowly escape being clobbered by a cyclist careening around the corner at Temple and Crown. I myself have had multiple close calls. This has been a growing problem in the downtown area recently and I have not once seen a cyclist issued a citation for breaking the law. I urge the police to take this issue much more seriously because of the hazards it creates for pedestrians. At the very least signs should be put up around downtown reminding cyclists that it is illegal to ride on the sidewalks.
1 Faallada
Garrett (Isticmaale Diiwaangashan)
I’m a cyclist myself and I totally agree. I think a major issue is the lack of consistent bike lanes on all roads downtown as well as adequate education for drivers. Chapel And York streets for instance could really use a green bike lane much like the one on elm street.
I also think a major opportunity is for YALE University to educate their students better on how to legally ride their bikes in a downtown setting. Maybe they could give out flyers during orientations or something, it seems like an easy enough solution to help this problem.
It’s sad that neither YALE Police or New Haven police see any close calls as issues. Instead they wait until something bad happens to act. They need to be more proactive than reactive when it comes to this issue.
I can’t tell you how many times myself or my dog have been almost hit on a sidewalk from a cyclist. It is a growing problem, and growing quickly, and if our city really wants to live up to its reputation of being “bike friendly” they should really do more infrastructure updates to protect their civilians; walkers, cyclists and drivers alike.