What a Whirlwind of One-Way Streets
In New Haven, it is all too common of an experience to be making your merry way down a perfectly normal, two-way street and have it suddenly, with little forewarning, turn into a one-way — going the opposite direction!
Heck, if you follow Elm Street — well, never mind, you can’t really follow Elm Street. Look at it. At its center, it’s a two-way street for a single block from Howe to Park. East of there, it’s a one way going east until it sort of becomes Grand, a two-way. West of there, it’s a one-way going west, until it hits Ella Grasso, where it again becomes a two-way street for its final several blocks before the park.
Elm Street could just be renamed Absurd St and I wouldn’t really have many qualms with it.
While I’ve been aware of these various one-way streets for as long as I can remember, it didn’t really strike me until recently that, when living here, you can never really go back the way you came. It’s really something for the new resident, never mind the person just visiting town.
Furthermore, when you’re on a bicycle, many of those two-way streets are exactly the streets you’d like to avoid most, further exacerbating the issue.
So, I thought I’d make a map of all the two-way streets here in town. Why? I like making maps and I was curious what I would find when all the two-way roads are highlighted.
Obviously, the further you get from downtown, the more two-way streets you’ll find, but even then, some parts of town are still chock full of confusing and, in my humble opinion, likely unnecessary one-way streets.
Now, I don’t meant to simply be jumping on the anti-one-way-street bandwagon here. I’m not a super policy wonk and I don’t know all the statistics for and against anything. But I do know what it’s like to navigate a city that makes sense and I feel like what we have going on here is a little bit crazy town.
I’m not sure where the discussion is on one-way streets here in New Haven — or if there even really is one — but I wonder if we could benefit from some conversions. And as far as being on a bicycle goes, I look forward to the two-way cycle track on Edgewood, that way there is finally an east-west route heading west out of downtown that doesn’t force riders to take one street one way and another street another.
Some of those one-way streets that let you get out of downtown — Chapel for example — become rushing highways of aggression come rush hour and sharrow, IMHO, just don’t cut it. But alas, what is a cyclist otherwise to do?
