Safe Routes to School

The New Canaan Schools Transportation Department reports that for the 2007-08 school year there were about 100 middle and high school students who lived on or between the east side of Main Street and the south side of East Avenue.  These students were eligible to ride the school bus.

Students who live between the west side of Main Street and South Avenue can already walk up their local side street and down the South Avenue sidewalks.  Some have even discovered convenient shortcuts along neighborhood side roads and through backyards.

If we want to provide additional, walkable, “safe routes to school” for students, why is the Town planning to put a sidewalk on the west side of Main Street? Wouldn’t it make more sense to put it on the east side? Or will we watch in horror as students who live on the east side dash across Main Street to get to the sidewalk on the other side?

East Side West Side

Improved safety is probably the most compelling reason for locating any Main Street sidewalk on the east side of the street, but there are others. (The roadway is too narrow along several sections to accommodate the addition of sidewalks on both sides.)

A web search turned up the Town Transportation Plan, which discusses the location of proposed sidewalks (page 4), along with priorities for developing and maintaining them (page 8). The search also found a map of New Canaan showing the proposed Pedestrian/ Bicycle/ Transit Plan.

Siting a sidewalk on the east side of Main Street would create a safe pedestrian path for the large, densely populated area between Main Street and East Avenue, and provide a “Walk to School” opportunity for middle and high school students living in that area. We are concerned about the alternative prospect: students dashing across Main Street to get to a sidewalk on the west side.

Residents of the area between Main Street and South Avenue already have easy access to the South Avenue sidewalks. With the simple addition of a crosswalk at Farm Road, a sidewalk on the east side of Main Street would still create a “loop” bordered by Main, Farm, South and the Center of Town

A sidewalk along the east side of Main Street would also provide walking access to the cemetery.

And then there are the basic construction efficiencies: among these, that the east side is flatter. There are 4 times as many banks along the west side that would need to be excavated as there are on the east side.

The east side is mostly free of utility poles; a primary electric power/ telephone/ cable route into downtown is strung on poles located along the west side of Main Street. A sidewalk on the east side wouldn’t have poles dotting the middle of it, impeding pedestrian passageway.

Safe Sidewalks vs. the Dangerous Outside Curve

Last week’s Indianpolis 500 race reminded us of the “outside curve” rule – when drivers go too fast around a curve it’s the outside wall they crash into.

There’s an “outside curve” on the west side of Main Street between Down River Road and Woodland Road that is tricky to navigate, and it often catches drivers by surprise. Coming off a slight downhill stretch, they approach the curve too quickly. Most drivers just swing wide, but we have seen vehicles hit the telephone pole or crash into the bank there. A child on a sidewalk would be at risk.

Engineers who have seen aerial shots of this curve advise that, for reasons of safety, the sidewalk belongs on the other (east) side of Main Street.