Parking officials are trying to figure out just how to prevent motorists—oftentimes those with handicapped stickers—from pulling into what appears to be a space at the “50-yard line” of Elm Street but which actually isn’t.
NCPD Community Impact Officer Roy Adams helps a motorist back out of the non-spot at the Playhouse crosswalk on Elm Street. People park there regularly, thinking it’s a spot. Credit: Michael Dinan
The yellow hatch markings just below the pedestrian crosswalk on Elm Street, on the Dunkin Donuts side of the street, indicate that the area isn’t meant for cars to park there. There’s a handicapped spot right next to it, but people regularly park not only there but also in the yellow hatch area.
The matter is in the hands of the Police Commission, which oversees on-street parking in New Canaan. Members of the Parking Commission at their most recent meeting described the difficulty as trying to decide just how to deter motorists from pulling into the spot.
Part of what may confuse motorists about the spot is that the handicapped parking sign (for the next spot over) appears to be located directly in front of it. Even so, this photo was taken a few weeks after the one above and—curiously—it appears to be the very same car that’s parking in the spot again. Credit: Michael Dinan
“The last I heard, they [the Police Commission] were trying to figure out what item to put there, because plants with trees would block people from seeing pedestrians” and anything shorter may not be noticed by motorists and so they may pull right in and hit it, Parking Commissioner Pamela Crum said at the group’s Sept. 4 meeting, held in the Douglas Room at Lapham Community Center.
A guest at the meeting, Jeff Holland said that a parking study done in the past recommended “curb extensions” for that spot, adding that state law requires a full 25 feet between parking spaces and any pedestrian crosswalk (a distance scarcely preserved in New Canaan).
Chairman Keith Richey said he was eager to see what the Police Commission is thinking for the spot.