Government

New Crosswalk Opens Safe Pedestrian Routes for Old Kings Highway Residents

By |

Residents of Old Kings Highway now have a safe pedestrian walkway that connects them to the new sidewalk near the entrance to Kiwanis Park and, ultimately, Main Street and downtown. The Police Commission at its most recent meeting unanimously approved a new crosswalk across Old Norwalk Road at Old Kings Highway. The crosswalk hooks up to a wooded trail that skirts the edge of Kiwanis Park and lets out near its entrance, where a sidewalk completed last year runs up to Main Street. Police Capt. John DiFederico said at the commission’s Sept. 15 meeting that residents of the area had requested the crosswalk last year.

Government

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

By |

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.

Around Town

Residents Call for Safety Measures at Complicated Locust Avenue-Route 123 Intersection

By |

Saying ill-timed traffic signals at Locust Avenue and Route 123 are prompting motorists to speed and run red lights, residents of the area are calling for town officials to boost police enforcement and ensure pedestrian safety. An increased number of families with young kids live in the area—there are five bus stops on Locust alone between Cherry and 123—and cars at peak times back up as far as Cherry Street itself, according to third-generation New Canaanite Lauren Cerretani, of Locust Avenue. “There are more people running red lights and I can stand on the corner and see the close calls,” Cerretani on Thursday told the Traffic Calming Work Group. The administrative team includes members of the police, fire and public works departments, as well as CERT, and fields requests for traffic calming. “It is just very dangerous there,” Cerretani said.

Government

‘Like It’s Indianapolis’: On Forest, a Call to Change On-Street Parking for Safety’s Sake

By |

Saying motorists take Forest Street “like it’s Indianapolis,” a New Canaan resident is calling on town officials to re-jigger parking so that cars pulling out of driveways there can safely enter the roadway. On-street parking on Forest currently is allowed to about number 54—the last residence on the west side of the street before the vacant Bank of America building, as zipping motorists travel south, Chris Hussey told the Police Commission at the group’s most recent meeting. When those parked cars are SUVs, “if you are coming out of that driveway—and there are two driveways, three buildings with four families in them—you cannot see,” Hussey said at the group’s May 20 meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “It is a blind spot, and you are coming out and you are the driver and they are they are coming down Forest Street like it’s Indianapolis, and by time you get out, they are there on top of you. And what I had suggested and hoped they would do at some point was to push the parking back, maybe not even not quite to Hillside Avenue—because there’s a condo complex there on the right, Forest Knoll—but maybe to that driveway, just so you have an opportunity to come out and see who is there.

News

New Canaan Woman Re-Launches ‘Slow Down In Our Town’ Campaign

By |

Kimberly Norton remembers the first time she spotted the iconic ‘Slow Down In Our Town’ image in New Canaan—five years ago, just after she’d moved here, in the parking lot at New Canaan Library. Printed in Rams black-and-red and encircling the silhouetted tree of our official town seal, ‘Slow Down In Our Town’ for years has graced street-side signs and bumper magnets throughout New Canaan. Its message soon struck a chord with Norton, who had lived in New York City for 20 years prior to moving to Green Avenue—accustomed to walking everywhere—and she began noticing how fast people drove here and sought to teach her kids pedestrian safety. “I heard that we had seven pedestrian accidents last year, and started hearing about people not crossing in the crosswalks,” Norton said. After a close call where a motorist nearly struck her husband, a commuter, on his walk to the train station in the morning, Norton sought to educate pedestrians and urge motorists to be more mindful at the wheel.