Town officials are seeking state approval to designate parts of four roads in New Canaan as part of a new “School Zone” and to reduce the speed limit on three of those roads.
Specifically, the proposed School Zone will encompass parts of South Avenue, Farm Road, Gower Road and Putnam Road, covering South School, Saxe Middle School, the New Canaan YMCA and New Canaan High School, according to Gina Musinksi of Fuss & O’Neill, a Hartford-based engineering firm that is working with the town.
Gower and Farm Roads would see a reduction from 30 to 25 mph during two blocks of time on school days—7:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.—while South Avenue (roughly between Surrey Road and Crystal Street) would see a reduction from 35 to 30 mph during the same time, Musinski said.
“And then on Putnam Road, the speed limit would be maintained, but it would be published as a school zone,” she said during the appointed body’s meeting, held at police headquarters and via videoconference.
The changes would involve new flashing signage to alert motorists to the speed limits when the School Zone is active, and also would allow police to double the fines for exceeding speed limits within the newly designated area, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“That would be up to the PD’s discretion at that time, or the officer’s discretion at the time, if it was egregious, say, you could double the fine,” Mann said.
Commission members Jim McLaughlin, Arvind Bajaj and Shekaiba Bennett voted 3-0 in favor of the proposal.
Police Chief John DiFederico voiced support for it.
“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” he said.
McLaughlin said the effort appears to date back to 2012.
Finally, about three years ago, Mann said, a change in the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices “opened up an avenue for us to look at our school zones more holistically, specifically Putnam Road.”
That’s when the town “asked Fuss & O’Neill to come in, take a look at all of our school zones that we had, and then reapply to the [ConnDOT] Office of the State Traffic Authority for those zones, and also including Putnam Road,” he said.
According to Musinski and Mann, getting agreement from the town’s designated “local traffic authority” (the Commission) is required as part of the overall application for the new School Zone designation. With that in hand, the town will seek an encroachment permit from the state.
Asked when the changes would take effect, Mann said, “I wouldn’t say it’s going to take very long.”
McLaughlin asked whether the new flashing signs alerting motorists to lower speed limits will be activated outside of the two-hour school drop-off and pickup windows.
Mann said only if the police decide to activate them for a special event—for example, graduation or a performance at a school— “where you wanted to make sure that everyone was slowing down.”