Description
Road edge on north side of Skiff Street at the Parkway overpass is eroding and bush covered. Many parents ride with their kids on the north side of Skiff Street between their neighborhoods along Whitney and the canal trail. There is a sidewalk until the parkway overpass, which then disappears entirely. In this area, there is only a narrow strip of unstable dirt and a lot of bushes as you approach the overpass, and parents with children are forced to step into auto traffic on Skiff at this point. On the western side of the overpass, a beautiful sidewalk is installed for trail pedestrians and riders. The south side of Skiff between Whitney and the trail is even less kid-rider friendly, with almost no sidewalks. At the very least, the bushes and unstable dirt on north side of street need to be stabilized and cleared. Sidewalks along Skiff would be ideal!
3 Comments
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Valerie (Guest)
Having made the original complaint, I was asked to submit a comment about whether this issue has been resolved. The answer is "No." The north side of Skiff Street, between the parkway and Partyka Chevrolet, is still dangerous. The bushes have been removed, however, which is an improvement.
If you're walking from the trail on this side, you first have a beautiful wide sidewalk before you get to the parkway overpass. Then there is a walkway on the overpass with a white line dividing car traffic from pedestrians, still with a fairly wide area for those on foot.
The problem area is the next stretch of the road where there is crumbly dirt that slopes upward from the road at a ten degree angle. It is very difficult to walk on the part that slopes, and the ground is so unstable that one is at risk of losing one's footing and stumbling into the car lane.
The only part of this area of the path that is flat and even puts the pedestrian less than a foot from very fast moving traffic with no real division between cars and the walker.
I'm addressing the issue as a pedestrian without a bike. When I try to walk up to the trail from Whitney with my daughter, it is almost impossible to safely walk on that stretch of the road with a bike. My daughter is too young to safely ride her bike in the Skiff Street traffic.
The southern side of Skiff is better in the area between the parkway and the Hamden Hall playing fields, however the overpass has no striping to demarcate the division between pedestrian and car traffic, so this side is also dangerous.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
--Valerie
Closed SeeClickFix Admin (Verified Official)