FAIRFIELD — Residents on two busy streets in town want officials to do something to slow down drivers and are becoming frustrated with the slow process.

Amy Barrett, a resident of Villa Avenue, said neighbors got together to do something about the safety of their street earlier this year when a driver sped down the road at approximately 80 miles per hour, hit a tree and landed in her front yard. 

"It was crazy," she said. "It was 7:30 on a Saturday morning, and I think that was the last straw for people."

While residents of Villa Avenue know they live on a well-travelled throughway, Barrett said, they have become tired of how dangerously and fast people drive on the 25 mile per hour road. She said they decided to get together and do something about it. 

About 10 minutes away, on Mill Plain Road, Sarah Mason had similar concerns after moving to the road in 2020. She said her family spent a lot of time walking and biking around the area, but they never really felt safe doing it because of speeds on the 30 mile per hour road.

"It got exacerbated when my daughter started kindergarten," she said, noting they live close enough to Riverfield Elementary School that she is not on a bus route. "We started walking to and from school with her. Cars are driving what seems like fast to us. There are parts of Mill Plain where you're on the sidewalk and there's not much of a curb. Then, there's no barrier to the road."

Mason said cars are always getting close to them at high speed, and she fears if someone falls they could get hit. This past spring, she said, she was connected with one of the town engineers, who did a walk audit of the road with her and some neighbors. 

Neighbors there were looking for some stop signs and additional crosswalks, Mason said, and the engineer told them they had a pretty good case for one. So, she said, she got a petition together and submitted it to the town. 

"In August, or early September, we got a note that they were going to deny the things we were asking for," she said. "Which was really frustrating because I thought I was following the right steps."

Jeanine Pocoski, a resident on Lewis Drive off of Villa Avenue, said pulling onto that main road felt dangerous, so she decided to get involved as well. She said they started out by contacting the police department to find out the proper steps to take in order to pursue new safety measures on a street.

"That was to create a petition, get as many signatures as you can and create a proposed solution to your traffic issue," she said. "That has been the core of the issue throughout this entire process. The fact that we, as non-traffic experts, were the ones that come to the town with what we think would help solve our problem on Villa Avenue."

Pocoski said the residents quickly got the signatures needed and submitted the petition to the town, with the goal of getting stop signs put on the road. But, she said, they quickly received word that the town would install new road signs indicating a curve near an intersection — something they do not find adequate. 

"It's just as ineffective as the sign that was there before," she said. 

Barrett said Pocoski posted a photo of the new sign on the "Moms of Fairfield, Connecticut" Facebook page and asked people what they thought it meant. Out of 700 responses, she said, only 19 people commented that they knew what it was telling them to do.

Town Engineer Bill Hurley said there are proposed changes coming for both roads, noting the engineering department is continuing to study the streets.

"We are proposing that Villa Avenue receive additional warning signs and pavement markings based on our engineering study," he said. "This will be heard on (the) Oct. 12 Police Commission Meeting."

Hurley said the department interviewed crossing guards near Riverfield School for Mill Plain Road, and performed site investigations the past two weeks. He said Police Chief Robert Kalamaras is considering adjusting the traffic request procedures based on feedback from officials and the public.

Ron Pine, the chair of the Police Commission, which is the local traffic authority, said many residents do not understand the limitations on officials when it comes to addressing traffic safety concerns.

"We have to prove any traffic control devices," he said. "What we rely on is the police department and town engineering department to advise us."

More so, Pine said, the commission and town has to abide by the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which is the national standard of all traffic control devices on all public roads. He said not following the manual can result in loss of federal funding and increased liability for the town.

"I don't think the general public understand that," he said. "We just can't put stop signs, traffic lights and all kinds of things out based on citizens who are not engineers."

Pocoski said they presented their issue to the Police Commission in May, and were told that additional study on the road needed to be completed to see if more could be done. Two weeks after that meeting, she said, there was another serious accident on the road. 

According to the University of Connecticut's Connecticut Crash Data Repository, there were 73 accidents on all of Villa Avenue from Jan. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2020. On Mill Plain Road, the repository reports 45 crashes in that same time period. For that timeframe in all of Fairfield, it reports 4,489 total crashes.

The local accidents have only resulted in property damage so far, but it is only a matter of time until someone gets hurt, Barrett said.

In the summer, Barrett said she went to another commission meeting and as a result the town conducted an engineering study on the road and the police department put equipment on the road that would monitor traffic there and collect data on speeds and volume.

Barrett said the residents are not allowed access to the specific data that it collected.

"We have been trying to go through the process very patiently and work with the right people and offer solutions," she said. "Every time it seems like we're being asked to go through another hoop."

The Villa Avenue residents said they feel like they are being met with resistance from the town, while it's easier to make changes on other streets.

"We've gone before the commission twice and we still have nothing to show for it five months later," Pocoski said. "It's evidence that the process needs to be changed."

Barrett said proposals like stop signs, speed bumps or equipment that would effectively make the road more narrow have all been shot down.

Pocoski said officials, including town engineers, police officers and Representative Town Meeting members, have come and walked the street with residents to evaluate the situation. She said some recommendations were thrown around, but there has not been any follow up from town officials. 

She said the residents want specifics about what to expect, and what steps need to be taken to create actionable change.

People are less likely to try to create this type of change in their neighborhood because of how daunting the process is, Barrett said.

Pocoski said it feels like the issue would have fizzled out if residents were not so intent on getting it done. She said she hopes that the town can learn from this experience and retool the process to make it more accessible to residents.

"We're going to do it. We're going to see it through and we're not giving up on it," she said. "I hope that there is a good outcome for traffic safety in Fairfield because of it."

Mason said she did not expect the town to give the residents everything they were asking for, but she was surprised to find they were given nothing. She said a hearing last month did not bear out any results, and she left not knowing what the next steps were. 

"It was very ambiguous," she said. "Every suggestion was shot down with some excuse or something. Some of them may have been reasonable. I'm not an expert on this stuff. But some of them also didn't feel right. They didn't seem to pass a common sense test."

Mason said she followed up with her RTM members and the town engineers to make sure the ball was rolling, noting she still has not heard back from the latter. She said it feels like she has hit a brick wall.

"We're still just kind of in this holding pattern without any tangible steps coming from the meeting," she said. "It's frustrating because everybody believes there's a problem. There are processes in the town, and I don't believe they are working. They are not serving my interests."

In the meantime, Mason said she worries that the road is only one distracted driver away from something terrible happening. 

Speaking of Villa Avenue, Pine, of the police commission, said there are 10,000 cars a day that travel on that road, noting people use it as a cut-through to avoid Interstate 95. He said it is like many roads in Fairfield that have more traffic than they ideally should. 

"The infrastructure of Fairfield — there are 472 miles of road in Fairfield — was really put together in the 1950s and 60s," he said. "The population at the time was around 45,000 people. The population of Fairfield now is approaching 62,000 people. We have more people, more cars, and the roads are the same."

Pine said traffic issue will get worse as the town and region grows. He said suggestions like stop signs cannot be implemented as measures to control speeding according to the national standard. 

"We have to go by what they recommend or the town will be liable for anything that happens," he said. 

The top speeds on Villa Avenue are restricted by the traffic on that road, he said, meaning most people cannot drive too fast there. He said the accident that occurred on the road in February was a reckless driver, who was arrested and charged.

"That's an anomaly," he said. "That has nothing to do with the normal course of traffic."

Pine said the town could have all the street signs and traffic safety measures in place on the road and it would not stop someone from recklessly driving. He said roads like Lewis or Nichols streets have terrible lines of sight, and would not be solved by stop signs.

"There's not much we can do about it," he said. "There's a hill and a curve, which many places in Fairfield have." 

Pine said there a number of factors to take into account when it comes to designing roadways or adding traffic safety measures, and as he sees it, it comes down to trying to increase enforcement by the police department. Even that, he said, is limited by resources.

"Every area in town has issues with people speeding," he said, adding more people are also driving distracted. "There's only so many cops out there and they have other issues besides just traffic."

Pine said decisions are made based on a combination of input from the police department, the engineering department and state and federal guidelines. It is not off the cuff, he said, but he does think the process could be made better.

Pine noted town officials met to talk about the process, and it looks like the form residents fill out to get road safety changes will get redone, as well as adding a frequently asked questions section. He said he thinks that will help residents tailor their requests for better effect.

"It's going to be redone," he said, adding police and town officials could do a better job at explaining the guidelines and possibilities to residents. "What's happening is they are getting this idea that they can change these things without knowing the logistics of it, and they are putting the effort to get petitions and all this stuff. Then, they come to the commission and get shot down, and they get upset."

Hurley said road safety measurers typically involve the four E’s — education, enforcement, engineering and evaluation.

"We then refer to a 'tool box' of potential ideas and concepts and proven counter safety measures," he said. "Solutions could range from enforcement or installing a legal sign to complete road reconstruction, obviously depending on costs and right of way."

Officials have to balance a number of variables when considering the right approach, Hurley said, including the neighborhood, traveling public, volumes of traffic, functional classification of streets and all road and right of way users. He said they also have to consider costs, right of way, following the national manual, predicting cause and effect scenarios and neighborhood support.

Hurley said almost every traffic request and sidewalk affects people in different ways.  

"We try to balance the request from the public use, adjacent property owners standpoint and the facts," he said. "'Cause and Effect' is another issue.  Unwarranted stop signs could result in an increase in rear end accidents and an increase in violations which could have more serious impacts."

Those stop signs, Hurley said, could also result in detouring traffic onto another street.

"Each situation is unique and has to be analyzed separately and these changes or studies can take time," he said. "There can be ramifications of quick actions without thoroughly investigating."