Around Town

Town Weighs Fix for Awkward Traffic Island at Canoe Hill and Laurel

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If the geometry works, town officials may recommend enlarging the traffic island where Canoe Hill and Laurel Roads meet, so as to avoid confusion about what path cars should take, and when. Signs posted on the small island instruct motorists to stay to the right, and those coming from Laurel Road must yield. As it is, motorists traveling down (east, toward 123) Canoe Hill face the non-intuitive prospect of going around the traffic island, which sweeps cars slightly to the right (toward Laurel) in order to continue on that road, which then jogs left. The road also feels wide enough to motorists on that approach that it should accommodate two-way traffic on the left-hand side of the island. “It’s just unnatural to go around it, the way it is,” Police Capt. John DiFederico said Tuesday at a meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group.

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.

Around Town

Town: Sightline Problems Caused by Two Trees along Main Street

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Town officials say a pair of trees at the start of Down River Road have created sightline problems, including for motorists traveling southbound (away from town) on Main Street, and should come down. Two of the evergreens planted on the corner in front of 5 Down River Road should be removed for safety reasons (and, for aesthetic reasons, not simply pruned back), according to members of the Traffic Calming Work Group. The group, which fields traffic-calming requests in New Canaan, includes officials from the New Canaan Police Department, Department of Public Works and Fire Department. “When they were planted, they were planted almost directly on the line [between private and public property near Main Street],” Tiger Mann, assistant director of DPW, said during the meeting held Monday at police headquarters. “But now it’s been a while.

Business

Town Officials Weigh Re-Designation of 15-Minute Spots around Mrs. Green’s

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While Mrs. Green’s eyes customer parking at a lot beneath its building, town officials are raising questions about how on- and off-street parking designations near Park and Pine may be adjusted to accommodate the new mini-hub there. In New Canaan, on-street parking is handled by the Police Commission, and off-street by the Parking Commission. The eight spaces that run alongside what is now the Mrs. Green’s building long have been 15-minute spots, as have designated spaces in the lot on the other side of Pine (opposite CVS), from when the New Canaan Post Office was located at 2 Pine St. Town officials this week weighed whether an ADA-required handicapped parking space for Mrs. Green’s should be located in the underground lot (if there’s an elevator) or on Pine Street right next to the building. “Instead of putting one underneath, it would be better served to have that first spot there [outside, nearest the main Mrs. Green’s entrance],” Department of Public Works Assistant Director Tiger Mann said Monday during a meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group.

Government

New Canaan Eyes Road Safety on God’s Acre [VIDEO]

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via YouTube

[Note: This video was shot during the 9 a.m. drop-off on March 12.]

Prompted by safety concerns from a popular preschool, town officials are contemplating how to slow down motorists zipping along Oenoke Ridge at the turn near God’s Acre. Toddlertime Nursery School operates out of space behind the Congregational Church of New Canaan. At drop-off and pickup times, parents either pull off of Oenoke and park street-side at the top of the hill—in front of the church—or pull into a lot behind the church that lets out onto Oenoke opposite the Historical Society (the lot operates with one-way traffic flow). At the most recent meeting of a group of public works, police and fire officials that fields residents’ requests for traffic calming, Toddlertime co-owner Barbara Davis said the preschool faces two challenges. First, there’s no safe way to walk across Oenoke—for example, if a group of preschoolers are headed for a field trip to the New Canaan Nature Center, or if there’s a parent walking a child across Oenoke from a program at St.