The Wide Right Turn of Doom

I try not to be an angry pedestrian, because it's not useful. Just like arguing won't win libertarians over to your side, yelling at badly behaving drivers just increases the overall rage and entrenches poor opinions of pedestrians.

BUT this particular intersection really tries me.

It's on my new walking route to drop my son at daycare, and several other parents similarly tote their kids across throughout the day. These are workaround streets used by commuters to avoid the really gnarly traffic on the main road out of New Haven.

It's important here to know that most New Haven intersections have a dedicated pedestrian cycle, in both directions, when all the vehicle lights are red. This particular intersection, like many in the city, has a no turn on red sign at that right turn we're looking at.

You can see that many drivers speed around the turn after the light has turned red, when the pedestrian signal is on, and in fact when a pedestrian (me!) is approaching. In this instance, while filming, I did not have my son with me, but I often do.

A new school in the area has generated many more trips than before, both vehicular and pedestrian (and at least one bicycle w/trailer). This is a collision waiting to happen. This intersection needs a dual traffic calming and enforcement plan to prevent tragedy - especially in light of the rising number of ped deaths nationwide.

There are plenty of intersections in New Haven that have similar issues. But this is the one that I'm ferrying my toddler across daily, so it's the one I'm focusing on for now.

Multimodal with Squish - Part 2

Squish is no longer as squishy as he once was. Rather than a bundle who can be toted wherever I need to go, he is a real-life person who walks around and has a strong opinion about which direction we travel.

We've discovered a new mode: baby cart

His understanding of our neighborhood at 18 months is amazing. He knows, as we stroll down the driveway, that turning left will take us to the school playground or the corner market and turning right will take us to the coffee shop or the tennis courts (a fascinating spectator sport for a toddler). Typically, he points in the direction he wants to go. Typically, if we don't follow his advice, he cries in outrage until distracted by, say, a leaf or an acorn.


In a thrilling transportation development for our family, we have finally managed to get Squish into a walking-distance daycare! In New Haven, where bus service is not exactly fabulous, this is a big deal. No longer will we have to make two short but terribly annoying drives each day. I'll just strap baby into his chariot and walk ten minutes down the street, dodging the irresponsible right turners and waving at neighbors (seriously, our neighborhood is idyllic). Then, I will cross the street to my co-working space. What a life.

Multimodal with Squish

Like everything else, living multimodal is so much harder with a baby. It's the kangaroo problem: unless he's in daycare, Squish goes where we go.

Bicycles aren't a possibility during the first year when it's not safe to put babies in trailers - and even then, not sure how we're going to handle exposing him to the absurdly aggressive Connecticut drivers. Bus is certainly doable with a carrier,  but we don't have the most reliable system and I'm less willing to risk being stranded in the cold/dark than I used to be.  Ride share services won't sneeze at a child under a year old, and even the old standby of walking gets complicated when you add infant accoutrements.

Always stroller life

One day last summer I waited with Squish at a bus stop by daycare for fifteen minutes before deciding to just walk home. There I was, sunburned lady trudging down the sidewalk with a baby strapped to my chest and three bags on my arms, trying to shield his bald head from the sun with one hand and feed him a pumped bottle with the other. It was a hot mess moment that I could have avoided entirely in an air conditioned car.

We're lucky that we have a car, and that we don't always have to use it: we have enough flexibility in our schedules to make bus and walking feasible. I have had a few multimodal rockstar days, like when I took baby to daycare on the bus, ride shared to a meeting, bike shared to a doctor appointment, walked to work, and carpooled home.

But this required meticulous planning and several bags with milk/pumping equipment/helmet/sunscreen/laptop/diapers and more. The cavalier urbanism of a younger me is gone, and that's not all bad - urban design isn't good if it only works for childless twenty-somethings with strong calves.

Which brings us to my working wishlist for multimodal parents

• Frequent, reliable buses with sheltered, well-lit stops
• Protected bike lanes and separated bike paths
• Well-maintained and connected sidewalks

Anything else?