Officials say they’re asking a legally parked motorist to move his SUV away from a heavily used intersection in town because it blocks the line of sight for cars seeking to make a tough left-hand turn.
The SUV in question—which appears to be parked further up Main in this Google Earth photo—normally is parked roughly where the bicyclist is pictured here, on Main Street just north of the Lakeview Avenue intersection. Google Earth photo
The silver SUV with New York plates is parked nightly on the east side of Main Street just north of the intersection of Lakeview Avenue—in front of the Hanford Square condos, according to residents who attended the most recent meeting of the Police Commission.
Motorists approaching the top of Lakeview at Main cannot see southbound traffic until they’ve pulled past the stop line and into the road, according to town resident Chris Hussey.
“It’s a bad situation, if I may say,” she said at the Jan. 18 meeting, held at the New Canaan Police Department.
“You pull up and you try to go left and somebody is coming down [Main Street], there is a vehicle parked there every blessed day,” Hussey said.
She added: “By the time you go out [into the intersection], you are out there and you can’t go back.”
Commission Chairman Stuart Sawabini asked whether the vehicle is parked legally. Hussey answered that it is.
Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said he believed the SUV’s owner is related to a resident of the condos. Years ago, the vehicle’s owner moved it further north along Main Street following the same complaint, “so it’s better than it was, but still not ideal.”
Hussey said that for a time, the SUV was parked north of the condominiums’ driveway “and it was fine.”
“But something happened and he is back,” she said. “There’s another white car there but it’s much lower, so that if that [white car] parks where [the SUV] does, it’s OK. The problem is the height of it. It’s the line of sight.”
Sawabini asked the police to find out whether they could contact the SUV’s owner and see if he or she is amenable to parking in a way that doesn’t affect traffic coming up Lakeview.
It sounds like it is know historically that this is a poor line of vision location. Why are people allowed to park in this spot next to the corner?
Any contact with the owner , has any one go and knocked on their door and asked if it could be moved or parked differently?
Zachary’s question is great.
This corner also has a fence, shrubs, and incline msking it difficult to see without pulling into the crosswalk, honestly the incline is the worst part of it.
This article reminds me of a super dangerous condition on Elm Street at the cross walk by the clock. By law, there shouldn’t be cars parked so close to a crosswalk. It is impossible to see people crossing until they are in the street.