Put on your Walking Helmets — it’s time to experience construction projects as a pedestrian.
On Capitol Avenue at Forest Street, there’s some flavor of I-84 renovation, which makes no sense when a major overhaul of the viaduct is allegedly on the horizon and while car ownership is waning. If you are unlucky enough to find yourself on the south side of Capitol Avenue, you’ll encounter signs letting you know that the sidewalk is closed. These are not posted anywhere near a crosswalk, which would be considerate and reasonable. No, these are placed randomly, without thought to the experience of the person encountering them. Maybe drivers stop for a tall construction guy wearing his hi-vis, but the average pedestrian is going to have to do meditative breathing or play Frogger. Once you make it across, either safely or because your carcass has been flung into a ditch, you’re greeted with soul-shattering noise and the stink of a thousand nail salons.
It’s true that most of our infrastructure is not designed in a way that shows care for pedestrian safety, but across town, near Hartford Hospital, a redesigned intersection (Wyllys, Jefferson, etc.) hollers a loud “fuck you” to those on foot who want to use it both safely and efficiently. Without there being high demand for use by tractor trailers, a slip lane was installed to take vehicles east to south down Maple Avenue. Are we extending the Berlin Turnpike? The 2016 Complete Streets Ordinance, seemingly toothless, was in place before this recent construction made an already ridiculous intersection harder to navigate as a pedestrian. It’s also unclear if the construction is done, what with remaining cones and curb cuts that were created out of the way from where anyone seems to travel.
The intersection is hella wide. Like, you could build several houses in the space. This raises the question: why is this considered the best use of space? Was there a competition for shittiest design? Why not install a roundabout? At minimum, why not shorten each phase and provide an automatic pedestrian phase? To get to the pedestrian phase., one waits longer than the ideal time. That’s obscene. It’s right next to a park. Down the road from a hospital — you’d think that they would push harder for measures that actually promoted health. It’s unknown why north of downtown in a comparably shitty intersection — Albany and Main and Trumbull — a traffic circle is in the plans, but south of downtown did not merit design that would slow vehicles.
And then, there’s the situation underway at Capitol and Buckingham at Washington. Going east up Capitol Avenue is an adventure, as every day the cones and yellow tape are in different spots. The ramp is haphazard. Does it work for those using wheelchairs? I hope so. There is no clear entry point until you are well into the intersection. Basically, this looks like if I attempted construction — random materials everywhere with no sense of order. That would be worthy of applause since I do not have the training. However, I expect more from those whose vocation this happens to be. But wait, it’s not just the risk of being squashed by an impatient driver while a pedestrian tries to figure out how to get up and over the ditch. If you opt to take Buckingham instead, you may recently have been turned away because of the street being closed. Was this announced anywhere? Word on the street, coming from the construction workers, is that Buckingham is closing permanently to make way for parking garages. What the what?
I’m not against closing roads. There are times when it makes sense to do so. Those times, though, should be limited to when such closures offer improvement to our quality of life. I’m thinking about how New York City reclaimed several pieces of roadway for human use — parklets and so forth. Hartford’s Pratt Street is a prime spot to shut down to cars and open to people. But that would require a massive shift in ideology among those who continue to worship at the altar of the dying automobile.