Roughly ten residents of Hall Lane attended the January 2 Police Commission to express concerns over traffic using their road as a cut through.

The Police Commission is looking at signage or possibly changing part or all of the road to a one-way to keep traffic off the local road. Chief David Kullgren said that a lot of the problem is that when the highway backs up, navigational apps like Google and Waze send motorists over less traveled roads.

Deputy Chief Bryan Bishop noted that during a week-long traffic study of Hall Lane in July, there were 300 vehicle trips on Monday, 1,100 on a Tuesday when an accident backed up Interstate 84, 500 on Wednesday, 400 on Thursday, 554 on Friday, 155 on Saturday, and 67 on Sunday.

Resident Chris Fallon said he was “interested in less crazy traffic on the road” and that he’d rather deal with part of the road being one way than deal with traffic from the highway.

Resident Honey Hilton expressed concern about making the road one-way, as the road has several steep inclines that could be “scary” in inclement weather. She suggested something to prevent trucks from passing over the road.

Resident Kevin Donovan said he grew up on Hall Lane and while he has since moved away, he came to the meeting on his parents’ behalf. He also was concerned about the street being one-way, as his parents live on a very steep part of the road that could trap them in their house during snowy or icy conditions.

“During snow or ice, it’s impossible to go up, the only way is down,” said Donovan. “Please consider limiting traffic to small cars or local traffic only. No one wants the crazy traffic but making the street one-way will severely limit my parents’ ability to get out of their house.”

Resident Scott Baggett agreed with those who spoke before him, and said that Hall Lane residents have been “very patient” but the situation is “deteriorating.”

“It’s only going to get worse,” said Baggett.

Baggett noted that Hall Lane has some inclines approaching 20 percent that can be difficult in the snow. While he said he would love to see the road one-way and to “lose 500 cars per day,” he wasn’t sure if that was the right answer.

Kullgren said that the traffic situation is not “easy to identify and fix” and is a “nationwide issue.” Newtown traffic units have done studies on Hall Lane, and have also done studies on nearby Blakeslee Drive, which has “comparable” traffic counts to Hall Lane.

He said there were a wide variety of options, such as “No Through Trucks” and “Narrow Road” signage. He also said that varying lengths of the road could be made one-way, possibly even just the first ten feet of the road, to deter navigational apps from sending traffic over the road.

Also among the possibilities is working with State Representative Mitch Bolinsky and State Senator Tony Hwang to craft legislation requiring navigational apps to only reroute traffic on state roads, not local roads. This would keep traffic on Routes 25, 34, and other major arteries and not divert over roads like Hall Lane and Blakeslee Drive.

Some residents suggested making the road one-way only at certain times, but Police Commissioners were concerned it would be confusing for motorists and could cause accidents if one driver was expecting the road to be one-way and another driver was expecting it to not be one-way.

Commission Chairman Brian Budd stated he thought “the most prudent” course was to take things “one step at a time” and start with signage, particularly signs prohibiting trucks and warning that Hall Lane is a narrow road.

Commissioner Scott Cicciari said the process was “a journey” and that the signs were step one.

“We’ll see if it moves the needle,” said Cicciari. “If not, we’ll go back to the drawing board.”

Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.