Most motorists are traveling at reasonable speeds on Mill Road, according to new data released by the Police Department, meaning a perceived public safety issue on the residential street cannot be solved by radar enforcement alone.
Residents about two months ago raised concerns to the Police Commission about speeding motorists zipping by pedestrians and others on the narrow, windy road in southeastern New Canaan.
The department followed up by gathering data on driver volume and speed over about two months, getting consistent results, according to Police Deputy Chief Andrew Walsh.
The 85th percentile of motorists on Mill—a data point that traffic consultants view as indicative of overall speeds—travelled at about 28 mph at last count, while the maximum speed on the road was 45 mph, Walsh told members of the Police Commission at their Nov. 21 meeting.
“In looking at it, it seems to be less of an enforcement possibility to be dealt with,” Walsh said at the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
He continued: “We had our officer set up a few times, and to no result. The speeds are spread out. It’s happening interspersed throughout the day—days of the week, times of the day. I recently attended training with the Federal Highway Administration and their suggestions for when you’re dealing with a mixed-use road you’re going to use ‘road diets’ which you need an extended width for—which is obviously one of the main issues on Mill Road, being that it’s so narrow—and also having bike safety lanes and sidewalks, obviously. And obviously with the narrow road issue on Mill Road, that’s above our pay grade as a Police Department. So as far as enforcement there’s not much that we can do or need to do at this point.”
At the Oct. 16 meeting, police shared that approximately one week’s worth of data on Mill Road showed that 85th percentile traveling at 31 mph northbound and 29 mph southbound. Residents of the area have said traffic-calming is desperately needed on Mill, where there are speeding motorists nearly clipping walkers and others out on their properties. They’ve called for speed cameras and speed bumps. At the October meeting, they also voiced concerns about nearby valet parking at Greybarns.
Town officials and police have said they’d communicate the concerns regarding the restaurant to Norwalk, where Greybarns technically is located, and would also cut back on side-road overgrowth to improve sight lines on Mill.
At last week’s meeting, Commissioner Shekaiba Bennett asked whether there’s room for sidewalks on Mill Road.
Walsh responded that the town likely would need to “reclaim some roadway” from private homeowners to ensure there’s enough width for sidewalks.
“Sidewalks would be great if there’s room for it,” Walsh said. “If it’s wide enough, then that would be great for pedestrians.”
Police Chief John DiFederico said that in order to introduce sidewalks “people would have to give up frontage of their properties.”
“Some are in the right-of-way and the town would have to take back some of the right-of-way,” he said. “There’s not enough [width] available in the road.”