NORWALK, Conn. — The city’s Traffic Authority voted Monday to ask for the state’s approval to lower the speed limit from 30 to 25 mph in the areas of Woodbury Avenue, Rowayton beaches and Calf Pasture Beach.
The requests, formally made to the Office of the State Traffic Administration, were made primarily in response to requests made by residents following similar requests in other areas, Traffic Analyst Nell Blaszkiewicz told the authority during its monthly meeting.
In July, for example, the city asked the state to lower speed limits on Silvermine Avenue and some surrounding streets from 30 mph — which Blaszkiewicz noted Monday is the “blanket approval” limit from OSTA citywide — to 25.
Woodbury Avenue area
A Sept. 17 letter from Director of Transportation, Mobility, and Parking Jim Travers to OSTA seeking a review of the proposed reduction for the Woodbury Avenue area noted the road “is primarily residential with closely spaced homes and driveways with on-street parking along both sides of the road and serves as a connection to Connecticut Ave (US Rt 1).”
Data indicated an average speed of 16 mph, Travers’ letter said, with an 85th percentile speed of 23 mph.
“Reducing the speed limit from the current 30 MPH to 25 MPH would better reflect the road’s residential characteristic and will align with the 85th percentile speed and average speed,” Travers wrote. “This also will address residents’ concerns related to speeding allowing the city to post more appropriate speed limit signage that fits the character of this street.”
In addition, the city is also seeking a 25 mph designation for Rhodonolia Park, Hyatt Avenue, Elmcrest Terrace, Frost Street, Magnolia Avenue, Truman Street and Truman Court, which Travers’ letter said “are all local roads with relatively low vehicular speeds.”
Average speeds on the roads was under 20 mph for all but Elmcrest Terrace, which runs from Stevens Street to Route 1, which showed an average of 30 mph and an 85th percentile speed of 38.
Several nearby streets have already been approved for 25 mph limits, and lowering the others “would improve safety for residents and all road users while creating consistency with the surrounding neighborhood street network,” Travers’ letter said.
During Monday’s meeting Traffic Authority member Tony Lopez asked if the city considered seeking 20 mph limits given the data for many of the streets.
Blaszkiewicz said the state generally considers speed limits of lower than 25 mph unreasonable unless in an officially designated pedestrian safety zone or due to some other extenuating circumstance.
The vote for the Woodbury Avenue request was unanimous.
Rowayton beach area
The authority also asked to lower the speed limit on 14 streets in the Rowayton Beach area from 30 mph to 25: Cook Street, Craw Avenue, Drum Road, Farm Creek Road, Gull Road, Harstrom Place, Logan Place, Pond Ridge Road, Pond Street, Rocky Point Road, Roton Avenue, St. James Place, Vincent Place, and Well Avenue.
“By lowering the speed limit on these neighborhood streets, this will bring uniformity to the neighborhood and support TMP’s efforts in creating safer roadway networks for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists in the Rowayton Beach neighborhood community,” Travers wrote to OSTA Sept. 15.
Blaszkiewicz said the neighborhood is one “where a lot of people want to walk, want to bike if they live in the surrounding area.”
Data from TMP showed average speeds well below 20 for all of the streets, none of which is more than 0.20 miles, with some average speeds in the single digits.
Mayor Barbara Smyth also noted the city recently completed a “pretty major” sidewalk project in the area and a 25 mph limit would be “more conducive to pedestrian and bike traffic.”
All the authority’s members voted in favor of the request except Fran Collier-Clemmons, who abstained.
Calf Pasture beach area
Similarly, the authority also requested 25 mph speed limits on 25 roads in the area around Calf Pasture Beach: Alden Avenue, Bethel Street, Blackstone Drive, Branford Street, Decker Street, Dorlon Street, Elliott Street, Fenwick Place, Gilbert Street, Gregory Court, Island Drive, Lorena Street, Ludlow Manor, Marion Avenue, Norman Avenue, Pine Hill Avenue Extension, River Drive, Roland Avenue, Shorehaven Road, Spar Road, Staples Court, Sycamore Street, Sylvester Court, Tonetta Circle, and Wallace Avenue.
Blaszkiewicz said the move would create consistency through the area and respond to residents’ requests for controlling speeding.
“We do receive a traffic calming requests for almost every street,” she said.
Data accompanying the request showed average speeds below 25 mph for all of the roads, all of which are a quarter-mile or less.
The request to lower the speed limit would be a first step toward enforcement, Blaszkiewicz said, with OSTA typically taking months to review and approve.
Not all of the roads have speed limit signs, prompting Collier-Clemmons and other commissioners to ask how drivers would know that the speed limit has been lowered.
Traffic Engineer Benjamin Yeung said the city would consider placing signs if warranted by data, and noted the roads all connected to others that were also 25 mph.
Police Chief James Walsh told the authority’s members that “in Connecticut, if a local town or residential road has no posted speed limit sign, the default statutory speed limit is 25 miles per hour.”
Smyth said she’s gotten a lot of input from constituents in the neighborhood in favor of slower limits.
“There’s a lot of young families in that area and they want safe streets and want people to slow down,” the mayor said.
The vote for the Calf Pasture Beach area request was unanimous.
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