In early November, a survey was conducted throughout Newtown regarding pedestrian safety. That survey was the beginning phase of Newtown’s Safe Streets 4 All (SS4ALL) initiative.

The SS4ALL program is an initiative started by the Biden-Harris Administration that promotes pedestrian and traffic safety with the ultimate goal of zero traffic-related deaths. Newtown was awarded a grant in 2023 of $100,000. The first phase of the grant is called the “planning and demonstration.” The next grant, that the town is currently working on applying for, is called “implementation.”

Police Chief David Kullgren and Director of Public Works Fred Hurley are co-leading this project to improve pedestrian safety in town. The SS4ALL committee is made up of a police sub-committee, community sub-committee, and a Fairfield Hills/town-owned buildings subcommittee.

Using funds from the planning and demonstration grant, the first step Newtown had to take was hiring a traffic engineer to study the areas in town that need the most help.

The town hired an engineer from VN Engineers, Inc, an engineering company based in North Haven. Now, the SS4ALL committee is supplying the answers to the survey and extensive crash data to help understand traffic from the community’s perspective.

Kullgren showed the crash data as little blue pins on a map of the town where motor vehicle accidents have occurred. Roads like Route 25/South Main and Main Street, Route 34/Berkshire Road, and Toddy Hill were blue from almost start to finish on the map.

Kullgren explained that the traffic engineer is going to come up with a “comprehensive safety action plan” to identify which areas of town need to be addressed first. This process should take about four months, so the results should be ready in June or July.

“I’m looking forward to see what the traffic engineer’s recommendations are,” Kullgren said. “That will tell myself and the full committee, based on the crash data, what we should tackle first … the implementation grant will tell us what we can afford to do.”

Kullgren added he would “love to see” the Flagpole and Main Street areas, as well as the Sandy Hook center area, be addressed first.

Kullgren hopes the traffic engineer from VN Engineers will use the engineering study done in 2016 of the Flagpole and Main Street area to build on those ideas and improve not only the flow of traffic, but pedestrian safety as well. Some suggestions from that study included lights in the pavement to illuminate crosswalks from the ground, as well as “curbing out” the crosswalks to add more visibility to crossing pedestrians.

Hurley said, “In some cases … there can be some very subtle changes that actually can have a significant impact in terms of pedestrian safety. It doesn’t have to be a big show.”

Kullgren said work will not start until at least 2026. The town is working on applying for the implementation grant, but it is not a quick process. With both the planning and demonstration and implementation grants, the town also has to match the amount given. For example, the planning and demonstration grant was an 80/20 in-kind match.

As readers know, the 2025-2026 budget year is proving to be difficult to manage, and extra funds for an in-kind grant match might be hard to find.

Despite this setback, Kullgren and Hurley are excited to start working with the traffic engineer to identify problem areas in town and find ways to alleviate the issues.

“The two things that I wanted to see come out of this,” Hurley stated, “[were] greater awareness that pedestrian safety really is a problem … [and] to increase the support of people around town.”

Kullgren said, “This is traffic safety for our community.”

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.