Report outlines Westport plan to address traffic, pedestrian safety
WESTPORT — Following multiple traffic and pedestrian safety meetings in 2022, Westport is in the process of tackling some of the issues raised by residents and discussed by a town task force.
The town’s process for addressing the concerns is outlined in the recently released Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Meetings report.
The report comes after First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker commissioned the series of nine meetings, one for each Representative Town Meeting district, and assembled the task force that included the police, fire department, public works and planning and zoning.
“As I acknowledged during the course of the meetings, the issues and concerns will not go away overnight,” Tooker said in an announcement. “But, these meetings and the recognition from all the residents who participated, are an important first step.”
The report states the task force will meet twice per year to receive resident feedback, and the report will be updated as projects are completed or more information is received.
The concerns have been categorized into a “three bucket” system — green, yellow and red. Green projects are ongoing; yellow projects will require more effort and could be longterm; and red projects are out of the town’s jurisdiction or cannot be implemented due to cost prohibitions or other difficulties.
The most frequently raised complaint in the document, or 21 percent of those collected, was about various intersections. Sidewalks followed, then heavy traffic and speeding, among others.
The Westport Police Department received 54 requests involving traffic enforcement-related issues, with many being for a particular road or intersection, the report states.
In early October, the police department created the Traffic Safety Unit whose duties involved traffic enforcement and implementing traffic safety initiatives.
The town also applied for a grant on Sept. 15, which would be used to “create a comprehensive and strategic action plan to make our streets and roadways safer for all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and transit users,” the report stated.
Areas within the buckets range from Interstate 95 to Post Road, Cross Highway, King’s Highway, residential roads and beyond.
In the green bucket, there are 18 complaints, with the most being in District Four, which includes the area around and just north of Compo Beach. Some of the complaints include inept signal timing at an intersection traffic light, a need for sidewalks or renovations to the ones already in place and traffic mitigation.
In the yellow bucket, there were 30 complaints throughout all the districts, with the most in District Four.
The complaints in this section are similar to the ones in the green bucket, though there are reasons the projects haven’t started yet, such as the town waiting for grants, having to reach out to the Connecticut Department of Transportation and needing investigations regarding cost and feasibility, among others.
The red bucket has the most concerns, with over 70 listed. According to the report, more than three-quarters of the issues involved sidewalks, intersections, speeding, heavy traffic and crosswalks.
The reasons vary for why these projects cannot be completed by the town. With sidewalks, according to the report, DOT controls some of the roads, which would involve their cooperation and approval.
The report states, “This adds a significant level of complexity to the design, permitting, and construction phase of any potential construction project.”
“Given these constraints,” it adds, “the Town generally looks to take care of its own sidewalks first.”
Other projects in the buckets included sidewalk repairs, looking into the use of enforcement cameras at intersections and the use of traffic studies to figure out the best way to handle the problems in certain areas.