2023 New Haven
Mayoral Candidate Survey
In advance of the 2023 mayoral election, the New Haven Safe Streets Coalition distributed a questionnaire of multiple choice and short-answer questions about safe streets topics to New Haven’s six mayoral candidates — Shafiq Abdussabur, Liam Brennan, Justin Elicker, Tom Goldenberg, Wendy Hamilton, and Mayce Torres — and received responses from all candidates except Torres.
We’ve gathered the results below to share where candidates stand on these key issues. Reach out to us with any questions!
Though they differed on many issues, 100% of candidates support:
Vision Zero, the goal of fully eliminating road deaths
Vision Zero is a comprehensive commitment that communities across the world are making to eliminate all preventable traffic deaths. Learn more about CT’s Vision Zero commitment here.
Automated traffic enforcement
When properly implemented, automated red light and speed cameras offers a more transparent, equitable, and effective tool for enforcing dangerous traffic violations.
See Safe Streets organizer Abigail Roth’s recent case for HB 5917, a bill now headed to Governor Lamont’s desk that would authorize municipal automated enforcement programs.
Reducing speed limits to 20 mph or less in New Haven
Reducing speeds to 20mph is often the difference between life and death.
Successful case studies, standard design principles, and numerous studies all demonstrate that 20mph or lower speed limits are the best practice for safe, multimodal cities.
Prioritizing fare-free bus service in Connecticut
Public transit is the most equitable, safe, and sustainable form of mass mobility. Fare-free service is an integral part of increasing ridership and ensuring access to those who need it most.
See coverage of Safe Streets organizer Stasia Brewczynski and others advocating for fare-free bus service here.
The majority of candidates also support crucial policies that have not had state and/or municipal support in the past, including:
Using executive power to implement safety improvements without alder approval
All candidates other than incumbent Justin Elicker say they would use their executive power (as given with approval of the Safe Routes For All Plan) to implement safe street improvements even if the alder for that street was not in support.
It is worth noting, however, that Shafiq Abdussabur’ has walked back his full support on his website, saying, “This would depend on the improvement and the Alder and whether the cost was worth the price.”
Eliminating parking minimums
All candidates other than Wendy Hamilton support eliminating parking minimums, a zoning amendment that groups across the state and country have shown is crucial for the development of affordable housing and dense, walkable neighborhoods.
Acknowledging that the flexible delineator-marked bike and micromobility lanes used in New Haven are insufficiently protected
All candidates other than Tom Goldenberg acknowledged that flexible delineator-marked micromobility lanes are insufficiently protected. This aligns with proven best practice and means that only about 4% of New Haven streets roadways offer sufficiently protected micromobility lanes.
Of course, candidates did not always agree:
On policing
Shafiq Abdussabur asserted that his experience as a police sergeant gives him “firsthand [experience of] the importance of public safety and reducing fear or crime.” He also likened his approach to overcoming barriers to transportation and mobility justice to “walking a beat”, saying, “If you can rule the sidewalk, you can rule the streets.
On the other hand, Liam Brennan criticized mayor Justin Elicker’s proposed budget, which, he says, “over concentrates its spending on new police department personnel,” while he notes schools and the Livable City Initiative are short-staffed.
Our current reliance on police officers for traffic enforcement has proven to be neither effective nor safe, especially for Black drivers and pedestrians. “Self-enforcing streets,” however, are shown to make a marked difference. Self-enforcing streets prioritize safe street design, treat traffic violence as a public health crisis, and thoughtfully implement automated enforcement to create more transparent and less biased enforcement.
On New Haven becoming a Pedestrian Safety Zone
While Shafiq Abdussabur, Liam Brennan, and Wendy Hamilton all support New Haven becoming a Pedestrian Safety Zone, Justin Elicker isn’t sure.
Among other benefits, becoming a Pedestrian Safety Zone allows municipalities to set speed limits on municipally owned roads, gain access to training and funding sources, and better track and implement safe street improvements. Despite HB 5429 authorizing the creation of Pedestrian Safety Zones in 2021, New Haven has yet to take advantage of this legislation.
On measuring transportation impacts
Despite the passage of HB6107 in 2021, in which Connecticut became the first state to expressly allow zoning regulators to use the best practice “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT) standard, New Haven still studies, plans, and implements street projects based on “level of service” (LOS), an outdated and problematic standard that deprioritizes road users' safety.
When asked if candidates support measuring local transportation impacts in VMT rather than LOS, Liam Brennan and Shafiq Abdussabur supported the beneficial change, while Wendy Hamilton, Justin Elicker, and Tom Goldenberg said they didn’t know or declined to respond.
On prioritizing bike and micromobility lanes over street parking
In the context of commercial corridors, Shafiq Abdussabur, Liam Brennan, and Tom Goldenberg advocated for prioritizing micromobility lanes over street parking
Study after study has shown that well-constructed micromobility lanes improve safety for all road users and that micromobility lanes are good for business. In fact, business owners that advocate against micromobility lanes regularly change their mind after implementation.
The questionnaire also highlighted how candidates’ lived experiences can influence their ideas about policy and priorities:
Wendy Hamilton stressed the importance of “appropriate corner crossings for the disabled like me,” including “slanted curbs for small wheels and affected gaits.” Hamilton’s concerns echo those raised by local safe streets and disability rights organizer David Agosta, who has argued that “the city [of New Haven] has neglected sidewalks to the point of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and impeding disabled New Haveners from reaching basic needs.”
Liam Brennan, who estimates that he travels 80% of the time by bicycle or other micromobility vehicle, shared his experience as a bike rider who has been hit by cars twice on Edgewood Avenue, once while transporting his three-year-old. He cites these experiences as reasons he advocates for “a connected network of bike lanes that can stretch fully across the city, re-configured (and narrower) lanes that do not incentivize speeding, and more traffic calming at all points across the city,” and suggests that his decade-old proposal of “segregated biking facilities, particularly on Edgewood Avenue,” was a possible precursor to the still-unfinished Edgewood Avenue cycletrack.
Justin Elicker, who estimates he travels 30% of the time by bicycle or other micromobility vehicle, shared in conversation during a Safe Routes for All public meeting that he himself has been pulled over by police for rolling through a stop sign while riding his bike, aka performing an “Idaho Stop.” The Idaho Stop, also known as a “rolling stop” or “stop-as-yield” for bicyclists, is proven to be safer and more efficient than requiring bicyclists to make a full stop, yet Elicker was the only candidate to say he would not support legalizing the Idaho Stop.
Beyond supporting a return to fare-free service, some candidates also shared ideas about improving public bus transportation in New Haven:
Liam Brennan championed greater connectivity between New Haven and its suburbs to “encourage more non-car trips across the metro area, and make commuting easier for workers throughout the city and region.” He also suggested adding a circle line within the city to help positively address limitations of New Haven’s current hub-and-spoke model.
Justin Elicker identified “Bus Rapid Transit” — typically defined as a network of dedicated bus-only lanes — as the solution to “creating a bus system that is frequent, convenient, and fast” and putting “buses on level footing with private vehicles.” Additionally, he touted the importance of traffic calming, ADA compliance, and sidewalk-hazard mitigation, particularly in conjunction with bus corridors.
Most of the candidates noted how dangerous-by-design state-controlled roads negatively impact New Haven:
“Whalley Avenue needs to implement bus lanes and think about removing the parking from most, if not all, of Whalley Avenue [...] The distance between the crosswalks on Route 10 between Ellsworth and West Park is treacherous. We need another signal to cross pedestrians around Hobart Street.”
— Shafiq Abdussabur
“The city needs to take an active role in pushing the state Department of Transportation to increase safety on state roads — narrowing them, protecting crossings and making them more livable for the people who have to live on those roads. This includes direct lobbying with the DOT and well as using the mayor’s bully pulpit to call out the state when it makes bad calls.”
— Liam Brennan
“We have worked hard to push the state to do more on state roads for the safety of all users. While there is more work to be done, we have made significant progress. Part of this is due to our advocacy and the advocacy of many others in the New Haven community. Part of this is because there is more openness by the new Commissioner of the State DOT, with whom I am regularly in contact with. We’ve seen the state, for the first time ever, approve the installation of a raised crosswalk in front of Nathan Hale School on Townsend Avenue. We’ve seen the state be responsive to our concerns about drag racing by installing plastic bollards on Ella Grasso Boulevard. We also worked closely with the state on the installation of a much-needed sidewalk on the Boulevard that is now installed. We are working with the state on a redesign of Route 80/Foxon Boulevard for more pedestrian safety and to discourage the use of this road for drag racing, to name a few examples.”
— Justin Elicker
In 2018, the Safe Streets Coalition of New Haven was founded in part to help address systemic challenges blocking and obscuring the implementation and maintenance of safer streets through transportation and mobility justice in our community. “As mayor,” said candidate Justin Elicker in his questionnaire, “I have realized that most of the work of implementation lies not just in the will to change, but rather in working to change a system to make it work more efficiently and working with many stakeholders who often don’t fully agree with change.” No matter which candidate wins, the Coalition understands New Haven’s mayors do not work in a vacuum, and acknowledges that our city is best served by leaders and advocates that work with — and when necessary push against — stakeholders to create the change we need and deserve.