Speed Bumps

Over Real Traffic Management?

To the Editor:

Last month the Police Commission, acting as the town traffic authority, voted to continue pitting neighbors against neighbors and streets against streets in the ongoing Queen Street Traffic Study scandal. What a shame!

The commission chose to ignore the majority of the borough government’s stinging critique of the traffic study, specifically their opposition against numerous speed bumps on Queen Street, and even ignored the borough’s offer to explain why they were against many of the study’s recommendations.

Instead they recommended barricading Queen Street with three 15 mph speed bumps, with no questions asked. They effectively voted to eliminate Queen Street as a major route into and out of Newtown’s central shopping area. Not once did the commissioners ask about diversion of traffic onto other street such as Main or Glover, nor what the consequences of the recommendations were. The fact that it is not even legal in Newtown didn’t seem to bother the Police Commission.

Residents of Queen Street, like many of Newtown’s 260 miles of streets, have legitimate complaints about speeding and the lack of pedestrian safety features such as sidewalks. The traffic study rightfully recommended sidewalks as the most logical solution to resident’s complaints about pedestrian safety. The commission and borough government agreed wholeheartedly. Sidewalks unite a neighborhood. They provide real safety for children walking to school. They encourage walking and can open up a pedestrian route all the way from town to Fairfield Hills. Everyone benefits and no one loses.

Speed bumps barricade neighbors, divert traffic, punish those who don’t speed, jeopardize emergency response times, force school buses onto accident-prone roads, and cut off logical and needed routes into town. Speed bumps pit one street and one group of neighbors against another. No one wins.

Queen Street sidewalks solve 90 percent of the resident’s safety concerns. Speed bumps cause more problems then they solve. The Police Commission was elected by the residents of Newtown to ask the hard questions, to be fair to everyone, not to play favorites and above all to make objective, educated, and careful decisions. They did none of these things.

It is time for the commission to actually address the issue of traffic management in Newtown. Where is the planning and the plan? The Institute of Transportation Engineers, the bible for traffic professionals, recommends the three E’s: education, enforcement and engineering, in that order.

What is the education plan, what is the enforcement plan?

The chief is for zero tolerance for speeders yet has no plan to significantly increase enforcement. Does he plan to double or triple the number of speeding tickets next year or just put in more speed bumps?

It appears that the commission would rather play political favorites with Queen Street rather than do the heavy lifting of creating a plan for the entire town. They need to get above the trees, especially those on Queen Street, and see the whole picture.

Let’s get a plan. Let’s do it once and get it right.

Slow down in Newtown!

Bruce W. Walczak

12 Glover Avenue, Newtown                                               May 1, 2007