Route 1, Route 5 Are Deadliest for Pedestrians in Connecticut

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign has gone through statistics of fatalities on Connecticut’s roads between 2008 and 2010 and rates U.S. Route 1 in Westport and Route 5 in East Hartford as the most dangerous in the state. One hundred twenty one deaths have been reported on Connecticut streets over the three-year-span. Of those, seven were on Route 1 , or Boston Post Road (including 3 in Westport), and four have been on Route 5 (including 3 in East Hartford).

There have been more deaths on the roadways in New Haven County than any other county, according to the report.  In 2010, there were 13 pedestrian deaths in both Hartford and New Haven counties.  The analysis does not include highways and other roads where pedestrians are prohibited.  The mission of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign is to reduce dependency on cars in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

More People, Less Parking; Fewer Cars, Longer Life

There has been an increasing focus in Connecticut and nationwide on walkable cities, transit oriented development, the imperative for more people and less parking, and the impact of redesigned streets on public safety. Among the initiatives are the iQuilt plan in Hartford, and the efforts of the New Haven Urban Design League.  The League hosted UConn's Norman Garrick, a leader in the field,  in a public session where he highlighted comparisons to Cambridge, where transit has been emphasized with good result - less so in Connecticut's major cities.  (For example, the proportion of Hartford’s land covered by parking jumped from 3.1 percent in 1960 to 8.4 percent in 2000.) Hartford's Real Art Ways brought in the recent documentary film Urbanized, which pointed out that 50 percent of the world's population now lives in cities, with that number expected to climb to 70 percent within a few decades.  (Note that Connecticut's major cities increased in population during the past decade.)

Dr. Richard J. Jackson of UCLA recently pointed out that "People who walk more weigh less and live longer."  As a result of the restructuring of cities within the past fifty years, placing the perceived needs of cars over pedestrians and cyclists, he said that without dramatic changes "people in the current generation (born since 1980)will be the first in America to live shorter lives than their parents do."

Ticket to Ride

The first automobile law was passed by the state of Connecticut in 1901. The speed limit was set at 12 miles per hour.  In 1937, Connecticut became the first state to issue permanent license plates for cars.  And in 1982, Connecticut made legislative history by approving the country’s first Lemon Law to aid owners of defective new automobiles.  (Oral history archived at Central Connecticut State University.) Connecticut was not first to prohibit the use of cell phones or mobile electronic devices while driving, but has joined a growing number of states that do so, while continuing to permit hands-free devices.  The National Transportation Safety Board is now urging the first-ever nationwide ban on driver use of portable electronic devices (PEDs) while operating a motor vehicle.

Walkway Over the Putnam

The Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG) reports that the Putnam Bridge, which carries Route 3 over the Connecticut River between Glastonbury and Wethersfield, has a pedestrian walkway in its future.  The six-foot wide walkway will be constructed at a cost of approximately $5 million, added on to a $26 million State Department of Transportation bridge rehabilitation project set to get underway this year and be completed in 2014.  CRCOG is working with local communities to seek funding for a feasibility study to develop multi-use pathways on either side of the bridge to connect with local roads.

Death by Driving

Connecticut had 223 vehicular deaths in 2009, the latest stats available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  Most deadly state in the nation?  California, with 3,081.  Runner-up, Texas with 3,071.  The only other state with more than 2,000 vehicular fatalities:  Florida with 2,558.  At the safest end of the spectrum:  Alaska with 64 deaths, Vermont with 74, Rhode Island with 83.