UCONN Traffic Study: Goshen Has a Serious Safety Issue

A week-long study of vehicle speeds on two Goshen streets has proven what many local residents have known for a long time: Vehicles being driven at speeds up to nearly 3 times the legal speed limit pose a serious threat to public safety.

Commissioned by the 1^st Selectman to determine whether installation of proposed traffic-calming speed humps on the two streets is justified, the UCONN study counted every car and measured their speed over the course of a week in late October. Though the speed limit on both streets, Shelbourne Drive and East Hyerdale Drive, is 25 mph, scores of vehicles were clocked at more than 45 mph and a few even exceeded 70 mph.

The data is far from a worst-case depiction of the problem, however. October is the off-season on the two Woodridge Lake streets studied and volume was a fraction of in-season traffic. Had the study been done in July the numbers of speeders would almost certainly have been far higher. Dangerous speeding was also found to occur at times throughout the day, including during peak daylight hours when neighborhood residents frequently use the streets to walk, run or ride bicycles.

The problem of vehicles traveling at dangerously high speed is not unique to these two streets in Woodridge Lake, however. Other locations in Goshen have been the targets of similar complaints, notably including Beach Street, where state police reportedly clocked a vehicle at 70 mph earlier this year. Lyman Lane residents have continually complained about speeders since the Town paved the street, which had previously been a dirt road.

Road safety was the #1 priority cited by Woodridge Lake residents in a recent survey. In February, the Woodridge Lake Safety Committee, in cooperation with the 1st Selectman, undertook evaluation of potential solutions to the speeding problems on Goshen streets. Committee members reached out to manufacturers of various speed-reducing devices while the 1^st Selectman approached public works officials in other towns to inquire about their experiences.

The conclusion was that wide, low profile speed humps, such as those being used in Farmington and West Hartford, were the most viable option. Their total installed cost of roughly $4500 to $5000 each, including the mandatory warning signage, was also well within reason. Goshen has repeatedly rejected the more expensive alternative, the State Police Resident Trooper program, which has an annual cost of more than $1 million for round-the-clock police coverage. Speed humps have a service life of at least 10 years, require little or no maintenance, and are effective 24/7.

Last Spring, the Woodridge Lake Property Owners’ Association (WLPOA), acting on behalf of its 785 owners, requested that 3 of the West Hartford-style speed humps be installed, including one on Shelbourne Drive and two on East Hyerdale Drive. Locations were pinpointed that comply with state regulations for line-of-sight and minimum distance from cross street intersections. The 3 selected locations were also intended to serve as a valuable test for potential future use of the humps in other problem locations around town.

According to the 1^st Selectman, the humps were originally included in the current year’s town budget, but cuts to the Public Works paving budget prevented the Town from going forward with installation. Discussions are continuing aimed at salvaging the initiative.

Ironically, the UCONN study that provided justification for the speed hump installation may now put the Town in a more precarious position regarding liability. Prior to the study, the Town had plausible deniability of having known about the problem, a potential defense should a calamitous accident occur, leading to litigation. Now, unless the necessary resources are committed to address the problem, the study and its warnings are potential evidence that the Town was well aware of the problem and were negligent in their failure to act.