Police Commission Addresses Several Traffic Issues

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Commission members have learned that the State Traffic Commission (STC) has approved certain speed limits for some town roads, deeming them to be suitable speed limits for those streets.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe told commission members on January 4 that the STC had acted fairly swiftly on setting those speed limits. On December 7, Police Commission members had reviewed the STC’s recommendations for 38 separate speed limits on local streets.

The Police Commission serves as the local traffic authority.

The STC has approved speed limits of 25 miles per hour for most of the roads it has reviewed, with the majority of the remainder receiving 20 mph recommendations. The town will now be required to post suitable speed limit signs, as needed.

Because some local roads are long and have varying characteristics along their lengths, the STC sometimes creates different speed limits for different sections of a given road.

The STC has created two different speed limits for sections of Butterfield Road —  25 miles per hour for Butterfield Road section lying between its intersections with Currituck Road and Parmalee Hill Road, and 15 mph for the steep, narrow, winding section of Butterfield Road lying between its intersections with Hanover Road and Parmalee Hill Road.

The town-owned roads or road sections for which the STC created 25-mph speed limits include: Riverside Road, Birch Hill Road, Bradley Lane, Button Shop Road, Cemetery Road, Cherry Street, Cold Spring Road, Flat Swamp Road, Head of Meadow Road #2 and #3, High Bridge Road, Hundred Acres Road, Little Brook Lane, Narragansett Road, Old Bethel Road, Old Green Road, Orchard Hill Road, Palestine Road, Peck’s Lane, Philo Curtis Road #1, Pine Tree Hill Road, Pocono Road, Pole Bridge Road, Scudder Road, Swamp Road, Violette Road, Walnut Tree Hill Road, and Yogananda Street.

The STC created 20-mph speed limits for roads including: DG Beers Boulevard, Dickenson Drive, Keating Farms Avenue, Oakview Road, Pootatuck Park Road, Simpson Street, and Trades Lane.

Last March, in a move to make the posting of speed limits on town roads more consistent and in conformance with applicable state standards, Police Commission members submitted to the STC a list of proposed speed limits for various town-owned roads.

A past study by the police department’s traffic enforcement unit showed that many town roads had speed limit signs posted on them that did not match the then-current STC-approved speed limits for those roads. The police traffic unit consequently submitted work orders to the town public works department to have the correct speed limit signs posted on affected roads.

Speed limits are derived through an analysis of the width and gradient of a road, the development that exists alongside the road, the sight lines for motorists traveling on the road, and the prevailing speed of vehicles that travel on the road.

Key Rock Road

In another traffic matter at the January 4 session, Police Commission members received a report on the effectiveness of some temporary “speed calming” measures that the town employed at Key Rock Road last fall to slow the speed of traffic there near a school bus stop.

During a test period, two “speed tables” or large speed bumps were installed on Key Rock Road, on both legs of its T-intersection with North Branch Road.

Police Commission Chairman Duane Giannini said that statistics collected on the speed calming experiment indicate that the presence of the speed tables had a significant slowing effect on motorists’ speeds in that area. The two temporary speed tables were set up 479 feet apart.

Mr Giannini said that this spring Police Commission members will consider whether permanent versions of speed tables should be installed on Key Rock Road.

Resident James Walsh of North Branch Road has spearheaded a drive among his neighbors for better traffic speed control by police in that area.

Underhill Road

In another traffic matter, Police Commission members are reviewing a report prepared by police Officer Steve Ketchum on a proposal to make a section of Underhill Road in the Riverside section of Sandy Hook a one-way street as a public safety measure.

In October, police received a complaint from an Underhill Road resident suggesting that a section of that street be made a one-way road in view of the traffic hazards posed by the street’s narrowness, poor sight lines, and high traffic speeds.

Under consideration is making an 880-foot-long section of Underhill Road a northbound one-way street in the area between its intersections with Alpine Drive and Round Hill Road.

Police Commission members took no action.

In another Riverside matter, Chief Kehoe asked that commission members forward any comments they may have to the state Department of Transportation (DOT) about its plans to replace the two Interstate 84 bridges that pass above Center Street in Riverside.

Center Street intersects with Underhill Road. Notably, Underhill Road may be used as an occasional detour for Center Street when the I-84 bridge replacement project is underway.

The DOT plans to replace the two spans starting in 2012 due to the physical deterioration of the reinforced-concrete girders that support the bridge decks.