This web site section will provide a comprehensive
assessment of the Town of Newtown’s traffic
capacity and safety needs as of 2002. The goal of
HVCEO in preparing this specialized report is to
concentrate and organize key information on traffic
issues for ease of use by all concerned. The recommendations
of all known traffic studies have been brought together
into one document.
This specialized research may also be referenced
as permit applications are reviewed by the Newtown
Planning and Zoning Commission, as an input to enforcement
priorities by the Newtown Police Department, for
municipal traffic related
grant applications, and by citizens advising on
government decisions.
Importantly, the intent
is also to reduce the cost of preparing the transportation
chapter for the coming update of the Newtown Plan
of Conservation and Development.
This inventory has much
information on state roadway traffic safety, making
use of Conn DOT accident rate data. This valuable
data is contained in the Conn DOT Traffic Accident
Surveillance Report, or TASR. In that report, each
state roadway in Newtown is evaluated for indications
of higher than statistically expected accident rates.
HVCEO selects TASR ratings approaching 90% or over
as indicators of possible priority for remedial
action.
Conn DOT itself prioritizes
the TASR by designating its highest risk locations
for inclusion on the more important “Suggested
List of Surveillance Study Sites” or SLOSSS.
When there is a documented SLOSSS problem, public
funds can more easily be attracted to resolve it.
Conn DOT’s TASR traffic
hazard rating procedure first determines an actual
accident rate for a location. A “critical rate”
is then computed and compared to the actual rate.
Think of this as comparable to actuarial tables
maintained by an insurance company.
If the resulting ratio
of actual to critical (or expected) rates is 1.00
or above (written as 100% or above herein), and
as a further screening process the location has
had a minimum of 15 accidents in the three year
period evaluated, then the location is put in the
priority subsection of the TASR known as the SLOSSS.
Generally referred to
as the ‘high hazard list” Conn DOT cautions
that SLOSSS statistics do not necessarily prove
by themselves that a location is high hazard. Rather,
the TASR and SLOSSS statistical systems are tools
to focus traffic investigations and investments,
as is the intent of the detailed Newtown data that
will be presented here.
Occasionally a high rate
may be isolated in time, with the TASR showing low
rates for time periods immediately before and after.
This may be an anomaly, a temporarily high rate,
not necessarily caused by inadequate roadway characteristics.
Also, Conn DOT has cautioned that some municipalities
submit less complete accident data than others,
lowering their state roadway TASR ratings and clouding
their validity.
A ten year average of
the highest TASR rates on Newtown’s state roadways
yields these prioritized rankings over or near the
TASR threshold of concern of 90%:
Route 6 from Commerce Road
.08 miles to I-84 Exit 10..............576%
Route 6 from The Boulevard .27 miles to Connors
Road..............241%
Route 6 at the Flagpole Intersection*........................................187%
Route 6 .09 miles from East Street to West Street
#2.................106%
Route 25 at Botsford Hill Road..................................................185%
Route 25 at Currituck Road (north intersection)..........................114%
Route 25 at the Flagpole intersection*.......................................100%
Route 34 at Pole
Bridge Road....................................................134%
Route 302 at Elm Drive.............................................................134%
Route 302 at Hattertown Road...................................................133%
Route 302 at Scudder Road.........................................................89%
Route 816-Church Hill Road .12 miles
from Dayton Street
to Washington Street..............................123%
