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Research Targets Troublesome Traffic Light and Other Problems Vexing State

A student holding a paper stands speaking to a group of people eating lunch in a classroom
Keegan Vacanti ’27 presents his research to current and former government officials. The paper was written for Professor Zachary Liscow's course on state government.

A traffic light placement that has long frustrated Connecticut drivers was among the real-world problems students examined in Professor Zachary Liscow’s course on state government last year. Now, student research on that and other nuts-and-bolts matters addressed by Connecticut at the state level are available for the public to read.

The fall 2025 course, Connecticut Policy Lab, studied the legal foundations of state government effectiveness. As a final project, students each wrote a research paper on a single issue that is under the purview of state government and in need of improvement. Those papers are now online, published recently by Yale’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy.

For Tiger Bjornlund ’27, the topic was the unsuccessful 20-year quest to remove traffic lights blamed for clogging traffic and causing crashes — one every other day — on a busy stretch of Route 9 in Middletown. Among the causes for the failed effort Bjornlund cited was excessive outreach. In one instance, the state held five meetings on the removal plans when the law required only one. 

A woman seated at the center of two classroom tables speaks to a student stand at the end of one of the tables
Liz Keyes (seated at center), Connecticut Department of Transportation chief of legal and regulatory affairs, responds to research by Keegan Vacanti ’27 (standing) on speeding up the state’s hiring process. Next to Keyes at right is Professor Zachary Liscow, who teaches a course on state government effectiveness.

Another student, Keegan Vacanti ’27, studied ways to speed up the state’s hiring process. Vacanti found that state job vacancies take five to eight months to fill on average, compared to 36 days in the private sector. He identified two mechanisms that slow down the process. 

Papers also address why high-speed rail along the East Coast runs at barely 40% of its top speed through Connecticut on average, the barriers that keep the state’s 169 towns from sharing services, and why healthcare costs are so high in Connecticut prisons despite a declining number of prisoners, among other issues.

Last spring, students presented their findings for feedback from current and former government officials. Responding to the presentations at Yale Law School were Liz Keyes from the Department of Transportation; Garth Harries, former New Haven Public Schools superintendent; Patrick Hulin ’20, former policy director for Gov. Ned Lamont; and former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin ’06.

“The main point of the class, of course, is learning, but maybe we’ll also make a difference on the ground by helping people inside government make Connecticut work better,” Liscow said.