Police Commission Seeks Queen/Glover Intersection Traffic Study

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Commission members have endorsed seeking funds for a traffic study with the specific goal of improving traffic safety at the problematic, congested intersection of Queen Street and Glover Avenue.

Commission members unanimously voted October 2 to seek funding from the selectmen for such a traffic engineering study. Panel members did not state how much money they would seek. The Police Commission serves as the local traffic authority.

Earlier this year, commission members discussed the findings of the Queen Street Area Traffic Improvement Plan, which addressed many possible traffic improvements in the town center, including the Queen Street/Glover Avenue intersection.

Police Commission members, however, did not agree with the recommendations for changes at that intersection made by Stantec, Inc, a traffic planning firm formerly known as Vollmer Associates, LLP.

Stantec had proposed a reconfiguration of the triangularly-shaped intersection for safety reasons.

Police Commission members’ concerns included that creating a modified T-shaped intersection there would result in annoying automotive headlamps shining into a home on Queen Street at the intersection.

At the Queen/Glover intersection, eastbound traffic on Glover Avenue is controlled by stop signs before entering either northbound or southbound Queen Street. Northbound traffic on Queen Street has a stop sign. However, southbound traffic on Queen Street has no stop sign.

That arrangement results in some confusion by Glover Avenue motorists who are seeking to enter northbound Queen Street, because they do not necessarily know whether southbound drivers on Queen Street are going to continue southward on that street, or turn right onto westbound Glover Avenue.

In its report, Stantec had recommended that the triangular intersection of Queen Street and Glover Avenue be reconstructed as a modified T-shaped intersection, with a southbound right-turn bypass lane to Glover Avenue be provided on Queen Street, plus the installation of associated crosswalks and traffic signs. Each leg of the intersection would have a stop sign. Motorists who are entering westbound Glover Avenue on the bypass lane from southbound Queen Street would have to yield.

Also, crosswalks would be painted on the western and northern legs of the modified T-shaped intersection. A landscaping buffer to shield automotive headlamp glare would be planted in front of a house on Queen Street on the eastern side of the intersection. To make way for a safer modified T-shaped intersection, an existing triangular traffic island with mature trees and ornamental shrubs would need to be removed.

Police Commission members said October 2 they want some firm other than Stantec to perform a traffic study of the Queen Street/Glover Avenue intersection.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe told commission members that posting a stop sign on southbound Queen Street at the intersection could increase traffic congestion in that area. The intersection is just south of the southern driveway entrance to Newtown Middle School at 11 Queen Street.

The police chief has provided Police Commission members with the accident reports for the Queen/Glover intersection dating back to 2001.

Police Commission member Duane Giannini suggested that to clarify the traffic rules at the intersection, a warning sign should be posted for Glover Avenue motorists stating that southbound Queen Street traffic does not have a stop sign. Such a warning sign would be a temporary measure until some permanent intersection changes could be made, he said.