Police Commission Reviews

Queen Street Traffic Issues

By Andrew Gorosko

To improve pedestrian safety and traffic flow along the congested Queen Street in the town center, Police Commission members this week had talks with a representative of Newtown Shopping Village to discuss what measures would improve the situation.

The Police Commission, serving as the town’s traffic authority, met October 4 with Joseph Kasper, a spokesman for the owners of that shopping center at 6 Queen Street, which contains the Big Y supermarket as its prime tenant.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said the commission is reviewing how pedestrian and traffic conditions could be improved along the mile-long Queen Street traffic corridor. “Traffic-calming” measures are being reviewed to learn what might make for a better situation, he said.

Queen Street extends from Church Hill Road on the north to Mile Hill Road on the south. The northern end of Queen Street contains many businesses, Newtown Middle School, and some homes. The southern section of Queen Street is residential.

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 Avenue.

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.

Mr Kasper told Police Commission members that the owners of Newtown Shopping Village are concerned about pedestrian safety. “We feel that’s an extremely important issue,” he said.

The shopping center received approval from the state in 1997 to install a four-way traffic signal at the main entrance to the facility, which it has installed. Stops signs formerly stood at that intersection.

Police Commission members recommended that the “No Turn on Red” sign at the traffic signal for southbound motorists on Queen Street be posted in a more obvious location to make the intersection safer. 

To improve pedestrian safety at the two intersections that have traffic signals, officials have proposed installing pedestrian-controlled switches, which when activated, would stop all traffic flow through the intersections to allow pedestrians to safely cross the street.

Mr Kasper pointed out that setting up such pedestrian-controlled switches is a complex task because the vehicle stoppages that the switches create can cause traffic problems. Traffic engineers must apply their skills in such situations to both protect pedestrians and to keep traffic moving through an area, Mr Kasper said.

Chief Kehoe told Mr Kasper that the traffic signal equipment at the intersection of Queen Street and Church Hill Road is substandard and needs to be upgraded.

Mr Kasper pointed out that the equipment there, which was paid for by Newtown Shopping Village, is only about seven years old and cost almost $70,000 to install, in asking why the equipment is inadequate.

When activated, the pedestrian control buttons at that intersection do not stop all traffic flow through the intersection, posing safety risks to pedestrians when attempting to cross the street. 

Chief Kehoe said the town will send to Mr Kasper the results of an upcoming traffic study to be performed on improving traffic flow along the full length of Queen Street.

David Hannon, deputy director of the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO), said October 5 that HVCEO is organizing the Queen Street Traffic Study, which is expected to begin in December and take seven months or longer to complete. The $49,000 project’s cost is being jointly funded by the town and HVCEO, he said.

The upcoming study will incorporate the contents of 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, he said. The new traffic study will address traffic safety, vehicle access, and traffic volume issues, Mr Hannon said.

During the upcoming traffic study, public meetings will be held to solicit residents’ views about traffic and pedestrian issues.

 In the 2003 study, a traffic engineering firm provided detailed recommendations on how to improve pedestrian safety on the congested northern section of Queen Street. That study, conducted by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc, of Middletown, focused on creating a “pedestrian-safe corridor” along the section of the road lying between Church Hill Road and Glover Avenue.

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.