Town residents expected to see a surge in morning rush-hour traffic following a recent decision by the Police Commission have filed a petition opposing the plan.
According to a professional study, installing ‘No left turn’ signs at either end of Nursery Road may lessen the 300-plus vehicles now using the short street to avoid congested Merritt Parkway traffic—yet it would “have the same negative impact on other residential roadways in New Canaan.”
Ten residents of a street who live on one of those roadways, Willbrook Lane—affected areas also include Marvin Ridge Road, White Oak Shade Road and Old Norwalk Road—last week lodged a petition with the town objecting to the change, supported unanimously by the Police Commission at its Jan. 16 meeting.
Todd Gaines, who drew up the petition, said, “We don’t want that traffic down Marvin Ridge Road.”
“Obviously, common sense did not apply here, because this traffic is coming from Norwalk,” he added. “You cannot just come to a conclusion without getting input on a conclusion. This is kind of asinine, if you ask me. You cannot just do something without getting public input on the matter. This is frustrating to me and my neighbors.”
Though Police Commission Chairman Sperry DeCew and the command staff for the New Canaan Police Department voiced reservations about the plan, the appointed municipal body voted in favor of installing a “No Left Turn” sign for northbound traffic on Marvin Ridge Road onto Nursery Road from 7 to 9 a.m. weekdays for a trial period of six months, and another sign preventing motorists at the western end of Nursery Road from turning south onto White Oak Shade Road. The signs are not yet in place.
The decision to install them, backed by First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, results from many months of deliberation among traffic officials.
Residents of Nursery and Gerdes Roads have said the spike in morning traffic is due to navigation apps such as Waze directing motorists who want to skirt the Parkway. Starting in 2017, residents of the neighborhood began citing safety concerns that result from high-volume traffic, and that led ultimately to the town commissioning a traffic study. Yet the Commission ultimately voted to go against that study’s recommendations. Created by engineer Michael Galante of Frederick P. Clark Associates, a Fairfield-based planning consulting firm, the study is embedded below as a PDF.
Ultimately, the study recommends that New Canaan “maintain fulll-movement traffic flow on Nursery Road, maintain traffic flow without any closures and maintain traffic flow without any turn restrictions.”
The study added: “It is recommended that the identified sight restrictions at the Nursery Road/White Oak Shade Road intersection be mitigated with the removal of vegetation or the trimming back of this vegetation, which is located on the east side of White Oak Shade Road south of the Nursery Road intersection. It also would including trimming of vegetation with the median on Nursery Road at the White Oak Shade intersection.”
Gaines said the decision to go against the study’s recommendations “doesn’t make sense, for all of lower New Canaan.”
“You are going to throw that 350-car traffic onto Marvin Ridge Road and then they are going to take Old Norwalk Road, which is already congested in the morning, and then go up Farm Road, which is highly congested in the morning” he said.
At the January meeting of the Police Commission, Chief Leon Krolikowski said he thought motorists prevented from turning left onto White Oak Shade Road from Nursery would simply go right and then turn around in Horton Lane or private driveways. The chief also said he was concerned about sending more cars zipping past a nursery school in Kiwanis Park and the schools near South and Farm.
Gaines said he and his neighbors share those concerns.
“We are just worried about safety issues, the school bus stops, property values and quality of life,” he said.
Instead of acting on the ‘No left turn’ idea, Gaines said, New Canaan should consider installing a “No right turn” sign at the bottom of Nursery Street (not Nursery Road) below the Merritt Parkway, effectively preventing motorists coming up from Norwalk from entering the town to jag around Route 15.
The Commission’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27.
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The decision to install the no left turn signs was the right move and I thank our First Selectman and our Police Commission for their wisdom in taking these steps. The eastbound morning traffic has caused a major problem for this area. I feel Todd Gaines’ comments, are a misguided in that the decision to act came after months and months of public dialog, not as he states: “You cannot just come to a conclusion without getting input on a conclusion. This is kind of asinine, if you ask me. You cannot just do something without getting public input on the matter. This is frustrating to me and my neighbors.” I am confident the six-month trial period will prove out the wisdom of this decision. As for Mr. Gaines’ concerns of some sort of uptick in traffic on Marvin Ridge Road, there is essentially no reason for traffic to use it. It isn’t in the path that would be beneficial to eastbound commuting traffic. There have been mornings where eastbound traffic has been backed up Nursery Road from White Oak Shade Road all the way up to Marvin Ridge and cars have used my driveway to turn around. After they go back up Nursery Road they invariably turn right and go south. I literally stand in the street every morning when my son pulls out of the driveway to go to New Canaan High School. I do this because the situation is dangerous. I want to keep my family safe and I am grateful for our town government for sharing in that concern.
This doesn’t make sense to me. There are numerous alternatives that will still be faster than being backed up on the parkway. They all go through residential neighborhoods, and some pass through the school zone.
I am all for a sign Phil Williams – Just not where it then affects other New Canaan streets – Put one on the Norwalk Nursery Street before they make a right over the Merritt overpass (that intersection is in New Canaan) and have the sign say “no right turn” The traffic would be forced to take a left onto Weed Ave. and back into Nowalk.