Yale Bus Speeds on Bishop and Probably Other Streets in East Rock

Tristan -- that secton of Whitney Avenue is a HUGE PROBLEM thanks to the city's decision to stripe 13 foot lanes there, instead of the 10-11 foot lanes used elsewhere on the avenue.

It seems that the city engineers don't understand the direct relationship between lane width and vehicular speed.

Agree with Eddie. This attention is absolutely paying off. Next step is to bring speeds down to 20 miles per hour - no reason to have speeds greater than that on any of New Haven's dense urban roads.

I doubt that anyone posting here is anti-bus. That's not the issue. The issue is that Yale buses in particular have a long and well chronicled history of driving too fast through residential neighborhoods, to the point where they are a public nuisance and a hazard.

Frankly, some of the Yale Shuttle Bus drivers should be fired. I have seen buses cruise down Humphrey Street at speeds approaching 50 miles an hour. Had I managed to get it on video, you can @#$% well bet I'd go public with it -- and I'd expect to see someone's job on the line. There are people on my street with young children.

I do have some sympathy for the drivers, but being behind schedule is no excuse for driving dangerously. I suspect the real culprit is management. Tight schedules translate to lower costs.

Feel free to depict us as a bunch of whiners, but the attention we've brought to this issue seems to be paying off. In the last few months I've noticed far fewer speeding shuttle buses, and I suspect the drivers are aware they're under scrutiny.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody is trying to "threaten" the use of Yale shuttle buses.

I believe the only thing people are asking is that the bus drivers operate within the traffic laws and regulations that all of us have to drive. Is there some particular reason you are defending public transportation drivers who break speed laws and use more than one lane when driving?

It simply seems if these bus drivers are too harried and pressured to operate under unmanageable schedules, the schedules should be adjusted or more buses added.

I wouldn't expect other citizens to ignore dangerous driving because the operators are harried and pressured.

The use of these buses should be encouraged, not threatened by these threads. They provide an essential function for the university, which is the central institution of the city. The bus drivers work long hours and shuttle thousands of people to and from school and work every day. They are also important energy reducing machines, and the Yale buses have already started shifting towards bio diesel fueled rides. The buses are loud because they are buses, and you all live in a city- deal with the noise.

The bus drivers are under a lot of pressure to adhere to a schedule while having to deal with people in a hurry and horrible downtown traffic. Instead of trying to get one bus driver fired with your video camera so you can eat pizza, go down to city hall and ask them how they are going to rectify the ongoing traffic logjams on Whitney avenue and orange street in the mornings.

Tuesday evening, around 10pm, I was traveling Whitney from Hamden to New Haven. Along the route, about the area of Edwards Street, I was practically driven into the oncoming lane of traffic by a Yale Shuttle bus which was speeding, not only above the speed limit, but using both his AND the next lane as well. I believe the bus number was 27 - but I didn't report it because I can't be absolutely positive that was the number.

Scary moment.

If that's true, anonymous commenter, it seems that the schedules should all be readjusted assuming longer travel times and far slower travel speeds (and then those speeds should be enforced through some kind of speed monitoring system).

From an economic development, quality of life and public health perspective, there's absolutely no reason why vehicles like these should be traveling at more than 15 miles per hour anywhere within New Haven's central street grid.

Does Yale currently have a policy on the top speeds its drivers should go? If not, it needs to set one. Just because there is a posted speed limit doesn't mean that that is the ideal speed.

Maybe the Yale students should learn to walk where they want to go, and not demand instant service from the Yale shuttle. The drivers are flogged if they are a minute late on the estimates the transit dispatch gives students. Expect realistic times for your free rides and maybe the shuttles will slow down.

I saw a Yale Shuttle bus driving at the speed limit last night. This was nice and instantly improved my quality of life that evening. Thank you, Yale shuttle driver!

But seriously, when you guys speed, it really ruins the ambiance of this town.

We spoke with Yale Transit about this issue. They are happy the public is reporting what is happening out in the streets of New Haven.

Please use this form to report unsafe driving habits. Please try to get a bus number # or a location and a time.

http://www.yale.edu/transportationoptions/feedback/index.html.

Please keep this thread alive and update it if you see good or bad driving by Yale Transit.

to "G" @ 07/31/2009 at 05:51PM

Let me make sure I understand this... you called the NHPD, told them you were blocking a transit bus because he ran a red light and they said they'd call you back?

Okay... I think this is an even worse situation than the busses. When the police don't even respond to calls... especially one that can get violent quickly... then there's a major issue.

I see these Yale shuttles in the daytime pretty well behaved, A lot of them are chock full of passengers.Anytime i see one of those buses at nite i might see one passenger on them - having the ride of their life too - one flag fun ,six flags way more fun ,like adventure
Maybe a tax issue or credit Yale is using,to use those at nite like that. It's a real nice service they are providing it's staff and grad students, but are they too terrified to use the service.Offering the ride on one hand and strongly deterring one from using it .They do have it if u dare
The police are probably hesitant to enforce the law as they don't want to offend the University ,plus it's probably their kid on the bus riding like the NightRider

After seeing a Yale bus blow through a thoroughly red light going south on Whitney at Canner last night, even though the light at Willow was red and there were cars stopped just the other side of the intersection (so he wasn't going to get far). I followed him until I could get ahead of him, stopped my car so that he could not move the bus, and called the police. They never called back, and the driver denied it. Where is the response to this guy? I have a feeling it was the same one who didn't stop going down the Canner hill crossing St Ronan the previous day when I was running and in the intersection. Oh, so sorry, maniacal Yale Bus Driver, didn't mean to stop you for petty traffic rules that keep you from killing people.

Once we get the Yale Shuttle buses to slow down, I'd like to work on the New Haven Public Works trucks.

I saw a big panel truck with city markings getting off the highway onto Humphrey Street yesterday afternoon, swerving around a car waiting to turn onto State (blasting his horn all the while), and then gunning it up Humphrey. I swear if I could have caught him I'd have put my bike lock through his window and punched him in the face.

There are families with kids living on my block. Next to Yale Shuttle buses, city trucks are the worst violators.

So much for that response posted on the other thread about the yale buses. Last night, between 8-9pm (was in the middle of a movie, didn't notice time), one of those buses came through at such a high rate of speed my entire apartment rattled to the point where the bottle of water next to me fell over.

We spoke to the Yale Police and they are going to address this quality of life issue.

They hear "our complaints" and will be addressing them.

We have a call into the Transit Department at Yale and should be updated on Monday August 3, 2009.

We will post the highlights of our conversation.

Thank you See Click Fix-ers.....keep this thread alive with updates and good information.

i posted this on one of the other many yale shutle threds:

i dont thnk these drivers understand that streets like mansfield are a shared space with many children, cyclists and pedestrians --- not just a conduit for vehicles to speed thru as fast as possible . i wish they would show some respect for tohers.