Queen Street Area

Traffic Study Underway

By Andrew Gorosko

A transportation planning and engineering firm has started work on the Queen Street Area Traffic Study, a six-month project intended to identify steps that may be taken during the next 20 years to improve traffic flow on Queen Street and other roadways near the town center.

Representatives of Vollmer Associates, LLP, of Hamden, met January 18 with town officials to discuss the study, which will focus on how traffic flow along the full length of Queen Street may be improved.

The north-south, mile-long Queen Street links Church Hill Road to Mile Hill Road. The northern section of Queen Street contains a retail district and Newtown Middle School. The southern section of the road is residential. The road carries approximately 6,000 vehicles daily.

The traffic study will incorporate a 2003 study that addressed pedestrian safety on the 1,300-foot-long section of Queen Street lying between Church Hill Road and Glover Avenue. The new traffic study will address traffic safety, vehicle access, and traffic volume issues.

The $49,000 study is jointly funded by the town and by the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO), which is the regional transportation planning agency.

The planning consultants will be analyzing existing vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle usage along Queen Street and area roads. The planners will identify roadway deficiencies as well as estimate future traffic volumes based on anticipated development in the area.

Also, the consultants plan to estimate the traffic effects of linking Commerce Road to Wasserman Way to create an alternate local north-south traffic route. Such a potential road linkage would emanate from the western side Commerce Road in an area planned for future industrial development. Such road construction is viewed as a possible way to relieve traffic pressure on the north-south Queen Street.

The consultants additionally plan to study whether improving the intersection at the Main Street flagpole would lessen Queen Street traffic flow. Such improvements could include installing traffic signals there, or constructing a traffic “roundabout” or rotary around which vehicles would flow without first stopping, in order to facilitate travel in that area.

The traffic consultants plan to hold a session in late April at Newtown Middle School to field public comments for the traffic study.

In a final report due in late June, the consultants will provide conceptual plans for improving traffic flow on Queen Street and nearby roads, as well as providing cost estimates for such work.

Queen Street carries especially heavy traffic in the mornings and afternoons, when students are arriving at and departing from the middle school. The school is at 11 Queen Street, near the congested and hazardous intersection of Queen Street and Glover.

The turning traffic that enters and exits commercial driveways along Queen Street compounds the traffic congestion there. Currently, traffic signals are located at the intersection of Queen Street and Church Hill Road and also at the intersection of Queen Street and the main entrance to Newtown Shopping Village.

In the 2003 traffic study, a traffic engineering firm provided many detailed recommendations on how to improve pedestrian safety on the congested northern section of Queen Street.

To alleviate traffic congestion on Queen Street, school officials have recommended that more students use school buses to decrease traffic volume. Many parents transport their children to and from school in private autos.

Robert Geckle of 35 Queen Street has been spearheading a drive to make Queen Street a safer place for pedestrians. During the past several years, Queen Street residents have often attended Police Commission sessions in seeking to resolve their concerns about the volume, speed and noise of traffic along the road. The Police Commission is the local traffic authority.