Launched during the Biden-Harris Administration, Safe Streets for All (SS4A) is a national initiative that promotes pedestrian and traffic safety with the ultimate goal of zero traffic-related deaths.

The SS4A program supports the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways. This comes at a time when traffic fatalities are at the highest level in decades. Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death for Americans under age 54, killing over 100 people every day, according to the SS4A grant program.

The two main phases of the program are planning — which the local SS4A team has done — and implementation, which it is ready to begin. Two members of the Newtown SS4A team recently offered an update on the program, which took a big step with the publication of a Safety Action Plan.

SS4A launched locally in 2023 when Newtown received an 80-20 grant: $80,000 grant from the US Department of Transportation and a $20,000 in-kind match from the Town of Newtown. The local cut was part of more than $1 million allocated across the state, which in turn came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that allocated $5 billion nationally to SS4A. Funding is to be used to identify areas of concern, not for correction of the problems.

The following autumn Newtown residents were invited to participate in a survey that would help formulate a plan of action. The plan is necessary in applying for later grants the Town can use to do the corrective work. The local SS4A team received over 400 online responses and 15 written responses to the 2024 survey.

The next step was to hire a traffic engineer to study the areas residents and the SS4A team saw as needing the most help. The local team hired VN Engineers, Inc, of North Haven.

The engineering company took the data from the survey, used it to study areas in town that need help, and published those results. Funding for the hire came from the initial planning and demonstration grant.

Town Engineer John Curtis said community engagement “was a big part of the action plan.” Curtis and Police Chief David Kullgren sat down with The Newtown Bee on February 12 to discuss aspects of the just-released Newtown SS4A Safety Action Plan.

“We’re excited the publish the plan and distribute it to the public,” Kullgren said. “We want to educate them on the results of all the work.”

The survey and its results, he added, will help SS4A determine “where residents and business owners felt their concerns were mostly observed, whether it’s intersections or stretches of roads.”

Curtis and Kullgren both noted Safe Streets for All is a town-wide program.

“I don’t want people to get this idea this is a Newtown PD program,” Kullgren said. “It’s town engineering, politicians, residents, business owners. It’s a community action.”

The local team is co-chaired by Kullgren and Public Works Director Fred Hurley. The SS4A committee is made up of a police subcommittee, community subcommittee, and a Fairfield Hills/Town-owned buildings subcommittee.

Members of the police committee are Neil Chaudhary, John Curtis, Hurley, Jeff Capeci, Will Chapman, and Voket. The community committee includes Mike Burton, Chris Gardner, Jen Guman, Chris Hottois, Jay Maher, and Rob Manna. The FFH & town building committee members are Matt Ariniello, Capeci, Chaudhary, Donna Culbert, Dave Ober, and Mark Pompano.

The committees began their work 2½ years ago by identifying areas of concern, with the promise to work with residents to identify more and brainstorm solutions for those areas.

Priorities Will Shift

Curtis and Kullgren both emphasized the report is fluid, and that priorities will shift as actions are taken, steps are implemented, or influences like new construction arrive.

“The plan is dynamic. As community and traffic changes, the prioritization list of roadways may morph,” Kullgren said. Using the proposed buildings scheduled for construction at 2-4-6-8 Riverside Road in Sandy Hook Center as an example, Kullgren explained that project will most likely alter the prioritization list.

“Community development and traffic flow changes,” he said.

He later noted planners “don’t want to do too much in an area where you know future development is going in.”

Curtis agreed, saying the Safe Streets for All plan “encompasses not just vehicular traffic and accidents involved in that but also pedestrians and pedestrian safety, so VN Engineers developed a plan for us with the input of town officials and where we felt the highest risk areas were, input from the surveys, and other input provided, and analytical data from vehicle crash sites, and data from crash history.

“They were able to develop what they call a High Injury Network as well as the main areas around town we felt needed updates or should have a further look at for safety reasons,” Curtis added. “As the town changes with either development or traffic patterns change — like Exit 11, a lot of that data was collected from 2020 to 2023, so that was done prior to when the State did the update project there — it’s an ever-evolving plan based on the needs of the town. It doesn’t just sit here. It’s a starting point for us.”

Resolution And Implementation

To move forward for additional grant funding, Newtown needed to develop a Vision Zero Resolution. That was covered this week, when the following resolution was proposed to the Board of Selectmen: “Officially declare that the community views zero traffic fatalities and severe injuries on roadways as the only acceptable goal (rejecting the idea that crashes leading to death or serious harm are inevitable “accidents”).”

Kullgren explained the resolution “represents a commitment that the community is taking. Our goal is Vision Zero: zero fatalities. The community wants to reduce fatalities and physical injury accidents. This is memorializing it within a resolution to the Town.”

The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved the resolution during its February 17 meeting, taking care of one of the community implementation grant requirements.

First Three Potential Projects Identified

Newtown’s SS4A group is also moving forward with some of the improvements and recommendations from VN Engineering, Kullgren said. The first three projects have been identified as follows:

*The crosswalk at Church Hill Road-Exit 10 West ramps, “which is extremely long and almost nonexistent” due to fading.

A work order has been submitted to the CT DOT to repaint the crosswalk.

*Main Street-Flagpole crosswalks. A traffic engineer has recommended moving the crosswalk to the south of the flagpole 60 feet to the south, and the crosswalk north of the flagpole 60 feet north.

“When drivers are navigating turns at the flagpole, that’s two less crosswalks that they’ll have to be aware of,” Kullgren said. “Let’s say you come up Church Hill Road, you make your left turn, or right turn, your crosswalks are going to be 60 feet down the road.”

Main Street sees approximately 16,000 vehicles every 24 hours vs approximately 7,500 vehicles on Church Hill Road, where a crosswalk is also located, the police chief noted.

The Main Street crosswalks, he said, “are the most important” right now.

“We’re dramatically reducing the number of people navigating those turns,” he added. “You make the turn, then there’s a crosswalk.”

The installation of traffic delineators is also part of that second project. The vertical reflective guidance devices, often made of sturdy but flexible plastic, will be installed on “the inbound traffic side” of the shoulders, Kullgren explained.

Delineators will be set up along the western side of Main Street to control those traveling south, and along the eastern side of Main Street for those traveling north. They will go perpendicular from the curb to the fog line, and then along the fog line to each crosswalk, creating a rectangular space over the shoulder where vehicles will not be allowed.

“It will give a visual protection for pedestrians for where they need to cross,” he said.

Curtis said this will build on protections already in place for pedestrians.

“People are not allowed to park within 25 feet of a crosswalk or an intersection, so the intent is to add that extra barrier outside of just painting a zone,” he said. “There’s always the danger of someone parked say ten feet from a crosswalk, so the cars coming can’t see you on the crosswalk, and you have to get almost into the lane before they see you.

“This should also help prevent people from using the shoulder as a travel lane, which is another benefit. There are too many obstacles for a line of sight” the way the road is currently marked, he said, adding, “This will hopefully make it a little safer.”

*The third project is to begin researching the costs and crosswalk locations that would benefit from the installation of push-button Rapid Flashing Beacons (RFBs).

“These are the crosswalk signals that notify drivers when someone is at a crosswalk,” Curtis explained. “It doesn’t prevent people from traveling, but it does give the warning sign that someone is there.”

Because of the cost of these devices, they will come through grant acquisitions, Kullgren said. Church Hill Road at Dayton Street is top of the list when RFBs are approved for Newtown, he said. The State is already planning to install one RFB at Hawley School, he added.

Both men reiterated that while these three projects currently reside at the top of the list of projects, the plan is a starting point.

“By no means are these the final configurations,” Kullgren said.

The full Newtown SS4A Safety Action Plan from VN Engineers has suggestions for moving curbs and shoulders in many areas in town, well beyond the few mentioned as starting points. Concept plans are also presented for Berkshire Road at Jordan Hill Road, Mile Hill Road at Mile Hill Road South, South Main Street at Botsford Hill Road, Sugar Street at Key Rock Road, and Sugar Street at Hattertown Road, among other suggestions.

System-wide suggested improvements include optical speed bars, an AI school bus camera enforcement program, the implementation of a Safe Routes To School (SRTS) Program, and automated traffic enforcement safety devices (ATESDs), among others.

“As needs evolve and further analysis comes in, and further ideas come in, there’s always changing options,” Curtis said. “It just gives us locations and first step things we can do to help make the area safer, but it does not mean this is the final thought for the area.

“If we can do something more, and we can find the funding and work with the state and federal government to do better projects, we’re going to pursue that and do what we can to match our Zero Vision goals and get the town to be as safe as possible,” he added. “The goal is to use this as reason to do even more projects.”

The full report, Newtown SS4A Safety Action Plan, is available at newtownctpolice.org. Click on More, then SS4A Program.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.