Hartford

New Traffic Calming Pilot Coming to Hartford

NBC Universal, Inc.

Mayor Luke Bronin and city officials are looking to lessen the number of issues and accidents happening on city streets with the new traffic calming pilot. 

The new initiative was unveiled Friday at the intersection of Lawerence and Russ streets with a goal of making neighborhood streets safer.

“Rather than rerouting streets or redesigning streets, we came up, in partnership with the neighborhood, a quick creative tactical solution to make this neighborhood safer,” Bronin said of the pilot.

It consists of diagonal diverters forcing all traffic to turn, preventing vehicles from traveling straight through the intersection.

“These were put up in less than a day and they are going to be transformative for these streets,” says Aaron Gill, Frog Hollow NRZ chair.

“They look beautiful they add a great aesthetic element to the neighborhood as well and we already see people utilizing the crosswalk," Gill continued.

Residents said it’s a much welcome change that they hope makes a difference.

“I like it because it’s hard for me to cross the street,” said Rosaury Alamo, a resident of the area. “People don’t stop where they are supposed to be stopped.” 

Christian Diaz, another resident in the area, sees it as an inconvenience but thinks it’s a much-needed safety change for the community.

“For somebody like me I park here a lot and I usually take this turn so I can take my daughter to school so it’s inconvenient because I have to go an extra 5 to 10 minutes just to get to where I need to go," Diaz said.

“It’s going to force people to stop because you can’t go 100 going this way and you can’t turn this fast because you’ll probably hit something or somebody else so it’s best to keep people safe," Diaz continued.

City officials said that although they have data to determine where some of these traffic calming spots should gom they are encouraging residents to reach out with suggestions and be a part of the process of making their streets and communities safer.

Contact Us