Issue Position: Traffic Calming

Issue Position

Traffic calming measures are changes to roadway configuration designed to deter unsafe driving behaviors, specifically speeding, while improving safety for bicyclists, pedestrians, and other non-motorized users of our streets. Throughout Hamden, residents have voiced concerns about local traffic speeds that endanger the pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly culture that we have worked to establish with assets like the Farmington Canal Greenway. As State Representative, I will make support for the effective implementation of traffic calming solutions one of my top priorities.

In many ways, Connecticut lags behind other progressive areas of the country in selecting and using traffic calming devices to protect our residential neighborhoods. The days of using stop signs and traffic signals exclusively to control speed are behind us; we have better information today on the psychology of drivers, and this information can help us deploy better solutions, such as including installing pedestrian crossing signs and traffic dividers in the street.

But we can do more. The State should support and encourage other cooperative community measures, such as roadway narrowing or the use of elongated speed humps that force motor vehicle traffic to slow down without negatively impacting snow plowing or emergency response. Driver education, through signage, sharrows and other means, and enforcement of posted speed limits are also important to improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods. I look forward to working with Hamden's civic associations and individual residents to achieve effective results for the district.

Source