Emergency Response Meeting Raises Warning of Increased Emergency Response Times

At the Emergency Response Managment Meeting last week, concerns were raised about increased response times for emergency vehicles if sidewalks are installed along the west side of lower Main Street.

• Fire Commission Chairman Jack Horner said that narrowing the lanes as proposed, with the anticipated 5 mph decrease in average speed, can be expected to increase emergency response time by 21 seconds. That’s before we add in the slowdown expected with curbed sidewalks on the west side.
• Public Works Department Senior Engineer Tiger Mann said the planned granite curbs would prevent vehicles from mounting the sidewalks – good for pedestrians, but giving southbound vehicles no place to pull over to allow emergency vehicles to pass.
• Police Commissioner Stuart Sawabini noted that a 40 car backup into town from the Farm Road intersection is not unusual during the morning rush hour. That’s a lot of cars with no place to pull over.

Mr. Mann observed that a number of other roads in town were as narrow or narrower than the 12-foot lanes proposed for Main Street, but Selectman Rob Mallozzi noted that none of those mentioned also had sidewalks. The subject of snow removal was also discussed, with concerns voiced about the capacity of Public Works staff to keep up with both the roads and the sidewalks.

Our readers will also be interested in these developments:

• Mr. Mann proposed “striping” Main Street to allow vehicles to experience the proposed 12-foot lane widths. The Police Commisssion voted to approve striping at last Wednesday’s meeting. The striping will add a double yellow line down the center of the existing road and white lines down either side – NOT where the road is proposed to be shifted to if sidewalks are installed, but giving drivers at least a sense of the “narrowing.”
• Mr. Mann remarked that providing a place for people to walk into town and to the train station was the initial reason for the sidewalks. Walk to school and traffic calming were secondary spinoffs. We would suggest that the Town evaluate and order its priorities, including public safety and cost (see also our posts on rising asphalt costs).
• Mr. Mann also noted that plans had been drawn up for the East side alternative. There are more driveway cuts on the east side since there are more residents there. High resolution pdfs of the east side plans have been posted on a separate page on this website so readers can examine them (plotter prints are also available at Town Hall.)

With 8,000+ vehicles a day traveling Main Street, it would be classified as a MAJOR collector road. Main Street is also a main route to the southeast part of town for our emergency response vehicles.

The next meeting to evaluate the impact of road narrowing and sidewalks on emergency response times will be the Fire Commission meeting. Fire Commission meetings are generally held on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 PM at Fire Headquarters, 60 Main Street – which would be Tuesday, Aug 12 if that schedule is followed.

UPDATE 8/11 – The Fire Commission meeting is scheduled for 7:30 PM on Tuesday, August 12, at the New Canaan Fire Department, 60 Main St. According to the Agenda, “Proposed narrowing of Main Street” will be discussed under New Business.

Tags: emergency response, main street, New Canaan, safety, sidewalks, traffic calming