Yesterday, crude oil traded at $138/barrel and the Dow Jones plunged 400 points. The talking heads were a twitter at the potent of the numbers, coupled with a rise in unemployment. In normal times these news items would be filed under the macro economic news, big picture snapshots that have little impact on day to day living. But these are not normal times. All across America news reports trickle in about the decline in driving and increased use of mass transportation. Here in Norwalk, however, we are focused on yesteryears problem, traffic calming.
From the Hour:
The proposed new Plan of Conservation and Development, which may be adopted next week, includes a new priority: traffic calming.
On Thursday night, the Common Council’s Planning Committee made final adjustments to the draft master plan and inserted language asking to “create and implement a traffic-calming master plan.”
And that’s a first, according to Michael B. Greene, director of Planning and Zoning.
“There is no traffic-calming plan. The master plan is saying there should be. And, obviously, that means there should be funding for it,” Greene said. “If the master plan calls for a traffic-calming master plan, then the city in next year’s capital budget should fund it.”
The addition of language calling for a traffic-calming plan comes following growing pressure from residents and neighborhood leaders to curb speeding and make streets safer for pedestrians and motorists alike. In the last week alone, two such efforts advanced, one under the Coalition of Norwalk Neighborhood Associations and the other under District C Councilwoman Laurel E. Lindstrom.
On Tuesday night, Lindstrom apprised fellow members of the council’s Public Works Committee of traffic-calming efforts in Stamford, where a plan is being assembled with neighborhood input.
Lindstrom, also president of the Eastern Norwalk Neighborhood Association, says a similar plan is needed for Norwalk.
“What’s needed is a much more comprehensive way of traffic calming, and to have an organized citywide plan in place would be very beneficial,” Lindstrom said. “Right now, it’s very piecemeal and it’s very reactive as opposed to proactive. The same complaints come in, as far as speeding, people running stop signs, certain intersections being dangerous. The calls come in. People want something done.”
Lindstrom planned to meet Friday with the director of Walkable Communities, Inc., a Florida-based organization engaged in the Stamford effort. The organization works with town planners, traffic calming engineers, landscape architects and others to make communities more pedestrian friendly.
As long as there is no alternative to hoping into a car to get from point A to point B, people will drive. Solving for tomorrow’s problems might actually involve thinking past whether people will ever actually stop at stop signs (they won’t) and planning for the point in which alternative transportation is speedier and cheaper than hopping into a car.
source: The Hour, Traffic-calming methods to be addressed, by Robert Koch, June 7, 2008
