Speeders Targeted on One-Way Stretch of Millport

Motorists traveling along the one-way stretch of Millport Avenue are speeding at a clip of up to 50 mph during the 1 p.m. hour, prompting New Canaan police to do targeted enforcement on the road.

The short piece of Millport Avenue that runs between Lakeview Avenue and Main Street (see map at right) saw several hundred vehicles pass on a recent day, officials say—and during the 1 p.m. hour, 56 motorists were clocked at 41 to 50 mph in the 25 mph zone.

“I don’t know where they’re going in the middle of the day unless they’re late for lunch,” Capt. David Bender said at the most recent meeting of the Traffic Calming Work Group.

Though no one exceeded 50 mph during at any time during that period, Bender said, “It’s still too fast.”

“We can do targeted enforcement to slow them down,” he said.

One resident of Millport Avenue, Marty Skrelunas, said he was amazed that so many vehicles traveled that stretch of road. According to the work group, more than 900 vehicles traverse the road on weekends, and more than 1,200 on weekdays.

“I think an ongoing problem is that certain people driving are not at all friendly toward people working in their yards at the edges of streets or people walking on the street,” he said. “When we were doing snow cleanup [after the February winter storm], there were many people giving evil looks because we were standing in the street trying to dig out the curb.”

The average speed on the road was clocked at 24.4 mph and the 85th percentile—a metric that traffic enforcers use—traveled at 29 mph.

Residents seeking traffic-calming in their neighborhood may fill out a request—attached as a PDF—available in the Police Commission section of the town website. Police Commission Chairman Jim Cole, a member of the work group, told Skrelunas that as per a town policy, if he gets 60 percent of his neighbors to support a measure such as changing the speed limit on Millport to 15 mph, then the town would be able to act on that request.