A Misguided Study

To the Editor:

The Queen Street Area Traffic Study was misguided from its inception.

How did this study ever get approved by the traffic authority [Police Commission] or the first selectman? According to The Newtown Bee, one of its objectives is the reduction of traffic on Queen Street. According to the request for proposals, “This analysis will focus on limiting traffic volumes along the residential portions of Queen Street...” Why the obsession with Queen Street over other roads and traffic issues in Newtown?

Limiting traffic volumes on Queen Street means diverting traffic to other surrounding streets such as Glover, Main, and Church Hill. A lot more people live on these streets than live on Queen Street. The drivers and passengers of the 5,600 vehicles a day who now travel on Queen may be forced to divert their travel to other roads that statistically are less safe, have more accidents and are more congested. According to the traffic authority, Church Hill is already at 95 percent of capacity.

Why does the traffic authority and selectman feel that the people on Queen Street deserve less traffic on their street? Church Hill and Main have upward of 19,000 vehicles a day, Glover in excess of 11,000, and Queen only 5,600, but apparently that’s too many.

The study started with flawed and unfair objectives and went down hill from there.

1. Comprehensive traffic data was not collected evenly over the study area.

2. Proposed diagrams of changes to Queen Street were made and distributed to town officials before all data was even collected to understand the issues being studied.

3. The Queen Street Oversight Committee was scheduled to only observe traffic on Queen Street until a member of the committee objected to this singular focus.

4. The traffic authority and the selectman supported and participated in trying to force the school administration to divert school buses off Queen Street onto neighboring street in order to “reduce traffic on Queen Street.”

Now they are recommending actions that divert traffic off Queen Street and onto Glover Avenue, Church Hill Road, and Main Street. Efforts to keep you off Queen will include a stop sign leaving downtown entering Queen Street South at Glover, four speed bumps on Queen Street, and a stop light at the intersection of Queen and Mile Hill. All told they want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of precious capital on this objective of “reducing traffic on Queen Street.”

It’s time to question this study and the recommendations that will divert traffic and unfairly inconvenience residents of Newtown. Why is Queen Street more important than Toddy Hill, Currituck, Wendover, or the residents who have complained to the traffic authority about traffic and speeding on their roads.

Please attend the public hearing at the Booth Library: December 19 at 7:30 pm. This may be the only time you get to question this study and its recommendations. These actions will affect you, no matter where you live in town. Come and listen, understand how the recommendations actually impact you and tell them how you feel.

Bruce Walczak

12 Glover Avenue, Newtown                                     December 6, 2006