Homepage Featured

Town To Tap State Officials for Traffic Study on Dangerous Stretch of Route 123

By |

Town officials say they’re tapping state officials to conduct a traffic study along Route 123 in the area of Michigan Road following a pair of serious car crashes there recently. It isn’t clear what can be done to make the intersection safer, though Police Deputy Chief John Federico said Tuesday the biggest problems appear to be that motorists on Michigan Road have poor sight lines for southbound traffic on Route 123, and that those traveling on the state road northbound have poor sight lines for those trying to enter the road. “Anything to clear up the line-of-sight in both directions would be a big help,” DiFederico said during a meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group, held at police headquarters. Public Works Director Tiger Mann said that although there isn’t much vegetation right now blocking views, “there is a very large rock outcropping” that the state may need to look at. The outcropping is located on the east side of Route 123, just south of the Michigan Road intersection, he said.

Government

Traffic Officials Respond to Church Street Residents’ Call To Eliminate New Double-Yellow Centerline

By |

Voicing frustration at times during a meeting with traffic officials Tuesday, residents of Church Street agreed to wait until next year to find out whether a double-yellow line recently painted down the center of their road could be nixed from future post-paving plans. Since a new centerline appeared on Church Street last month, residents have said it’s speeding up motor vehicle traffic and is out of character with their neighborhood. 

Andy Towers told members of the Traffic Calming Work Group during a special meeting that local Realtors also have been unanimous in their feedback that “living on double-yellow line road is less desirable for people and their families than one that is not.”

“Certainly we are all concerned with kids and the pets and everybody and I understand and respect that you guys have a job to do,” Towers said at the meeting, held in the New Canaan Police Department’s training room. 

“The reality is this attacks our bottom line if the perception from the people that are in the business is that people don’t want to or are less apt to buy houses on streets with a double-yellow line and all of our net stakes are connected to that, I would think there would be recourse for our group to address that. It just seems as though, what is the difference between throwing down two yellow lines in the middle of the road and saying you owe us $200,000, you owe us 6 percent or 5 percent or whatever the numbers are? You are hacking into the value of our property. There is no question about it.

Government

Police Field Complaint About Motorists Holding Up Traffic To Pull into Starbucks Lot

By |

Police have fielded a complaint about motorists who create traffic tie-ups downtown while traveling south on Park Street and then turning left, across the oncoming traffic lane, to the bustling Starbucks parking lot. 

According to the complaint, discussed by the Traffic Calming Work Group at its most recent meeting, the offending motorists often sit in the roadway before they can turn, holding up traffic and “causing other drivers to sit through two long traffic signals.”

That is “inconvenient for many citizens headed to the train station for work, to town for work or to other appointments,” according to the complainant. 

The complainant recommended installing a ‘No left turn’ sign to head off the problem, according to the letter, sent to Police Capt. John DiFederico, who sits on the Work Group along with public works, parking, fire and emergency management officials. The problem “does not really happen that often,” DiFederico said at their most recent meeting, held Sept. 18 at the New Canaan Police Department. “I don’t think many people pull that way in and if you have to sit through two cycles of a traffic light, it’s not the end of the world. But I don’t see that many people wanting to go into Starbucks that way, because it’s such a hassle.

Around Town

Main Street Resident Lodges Traffic Complaint

By |

New Canaan Police received a complaint from a Cobbler’s Green resident regarding overcrowded parking on Main Street during services at the decades-old funeral home next door. During funerals at Hoyt Funeral Home, the resident said in an email to police, “park cars in such haphazard way that it is impossible for us to get out of the unit as we cannot see anything as cars blocks the view.”

“Today it is the same situation now,” the resident wrote in an Aug. 31 email sent to police through the MyPD app. “Also, on weekday evenings, [the] next door dance school parents park illegally on street and make it hazardous for us to drive. It is [a] disaster waiting to happen.

News

‘40 Kids Is a Lot of Kids’: Town Officials Lay Out Plan To Calm Traffic on River Street

By |

Responding to safety concerns from residents who live along a densely housed residential street where motorists tend to speed, town officials say they’re looking at a number of ways to slow down traffic. River Street runs for about a half-mile parallel to Route 123 between Brushy Ridge and Strawberry Hill Roads, along the Fivemile River, with most of its houses—many of them multi-family dwellings—on the east side of the street. It has no speed limit signage, faded ‘no parking’ signs on one side, needs (and is scheduled) to be repaved and often sees drivers cut the light while traveling northbound on 123 at Brushy Ridge Road, speeding up to 50 and 60 mph, according to Christine Simmons, a representative of River Street and Charles Place residents. “We have 40 kids on River Street between the ages of 1 year old to 18 years old and the elementary school kids they get picked up on multiple places on River Street and in the fall and winter it’s dark,” Simmons told members of the Traffic Calming Work Group at their most recent meeting. “There are no street lights and we have the older kids that honestly they need education on driving on River Street because they are sometimes the violators of the speed,” Simmons continued at the meeting, held March 20 at the New Canaan Police Department.