Government

Residents Ask Town Officials To Slow Drivers on Parade Hill Road, East Avenue

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Concerned after she saw an accident two weeks ago very close to a bus stop on Parade Hill Road, a New Canaan woman is asking town officials to consider repainting the road at its eastern intersection with Rural Drive. Mary Maechling, a mother of three young boys, told officials with the Traffic Calming Work Group at their June 25 meeting that a “choker affect’ could be created by painting a curb white or with reflective paint so that motorists—especially those traveling southbound—pay more attention to a curve in the road and slow down instead of crossing momentarily into an oncoming traffic lane in order to maintain their speed. “People are coming fast on Parade Hill Road, up and down, they speed up speed and it’s a straight shot up the hill,” Maechling said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “Because of the natural curve of the road, it forces southbound cars to really cross over a line, but there is no line there because of the intersection,” Maechline told the group, which includes members of the police, fire, public works and emergency management departments. “So when cars are coming southbound they naturally go over the center line because they think it’s the road, then they correct themselves.

Now & Then

Poodle Skirts on Parade Hill: Halloween, 1980

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Mr. Gabe Jeantheau, beloved fifth grade teacher at Center School, nicknamed us the “Tea Party Ladies.” We were the last people anyone would pick to be on a kickball team because we were terrible at fielding kickballs (I tended to get hit in the head with the reddish rubber globe). He gifted us that moniker because we stood in the outfield chatting. We stood in the kicking line and chatted. I recall him saying, “Ladies!

Government

Concerned Parents Seek Oenoke Ridge Crosswalk at Parade Hill Lane

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Parents in the area of an acknowledged major intersection for commercial trucks are requesting a crosswalk to give their kids a safe route to town. A number of new families have moved into Parade Hill Lane and the houses fronting Oenoke Ridge Road near it, so that up to 20 children are now in the area, including many that are now at an age where they want to walk to town, according to John Sheffield of 24 Parade Hill Lane. “We wanted to see what the possibility would be to put in a crosswalk across Oenoke, from Parade Hill Lane to Parade Hill Road on the other side,” Sheffield said at the Sept. 17 meeting of the Police Commission. The idea would be to hook up with the sidewalk that runs down toward God’s Acre along the eastern side of Oenoke Ridge Road.

Around Town

After Resident Petition, Town Eyes Traffic-Calming on Parade Hill Road

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Town officials are collecting data on cars’ speeds on Parade Hill Road and plan to enforce selectively the 25 mph limit there after residents said that pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers are at risk because trucks and other motorists travel and take blind turns too fast. Parade Hill is a popular cut-through between Routes 124 (Oenoke Ridge Road) and 123, including for commercial traffic on Interstate 95. Residents this spring petitioned the town to slow down the vehicles that use it. On Tuesday, members of the Traffic Calming Work Group agreed to put up speed sentries and, with hard data in hand, selectively enforce the 25 mph speed limit there. Parade Hill Road resident Mary Maechling said vehicular traffic seems to be getting increasingly fast, especially on weekdays, and that she sees many near-misses up near a blind curve toward the top of the road.

Around Town

Parade Hill Road Residents Petition Town for Traffic-Calming

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Saying their neighborhood sees vehicles driving dangerously fast around blind turns as well as heavy commercial traffic, residents of Parade Hill Road and adjoining streets are appealing to town officials for traffic-calming. A petition signed by 33 residents of Parade Hill Road and its offshoots—Hampton Lane, Rural Drive, Siwanoy Lane and Riverbank Court—calls for town officials to consider a speed limit reduction, sidewalk construction and/or limitation of the streets as a cut-thru for commercial traffic (traveling between Oenoke Ridge Road and Route 123). Mary Maechling, a mother of three boys—South School third- and first-graders and a 3-year-old preschooler at home—said that in order for her kids to play safely in the front yard of her home on Parade Hill Road, she must position herself at the end of the driveway. “I’m sure any parent would do that on a busy road, but I’m scared because even if a driver sees them [the kids], nobody slows down,” Maechling told NewCanaanite.com. At its southern end, Parade Hill starts at the “off-ramp” for southbound traffic on 123—one of the worst intersections in New Canaan—and follows a roughly straight line past Riverbank Court, then abruptly turns 90 degrees west and climbs a steep hill with another sharp turn before coming perpendicularly into Oenoke Ridge Road.