Government

‘I Fear for My Life’: Silvermine Residents Seek More Substantial Changes To Slow Motor Vehicle Traffic in Neighborhood

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Though officials two months ago lowered the speed limit on Silvermine Road from 30 to 25 mph, motor vehicle traffic still whizzes through the neighborhood and its increasingly popular, pedestrian-oriented commercial area, residents said last week. Describing Silvermine as unique in that it has its own market, arts center and soon-to-reopen inn and restaurant, residents told members of the Police Commission at their regular meeting that more must be done in order to reduce the speed of cars and trucks to safe levels. Mark Thorsheim said that reducing the speed limit hasn’t changed the behavior of drivers. “There need to be physical infrastructure changes beyond the 25 mph,” he told members of the Police Commission at their June 14 meeting, held in the New Canaan Police Department’s training room. “Silvermine, the road, the neighborhood is different than other roads.

Government

‘We Are Angry, Sick of It’: Silvermine Road Residents Seek 25 MPH Speed Limit, Single Yellow Line

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The speed limit along the mile-long stretch of Silvermine Road that runs down from Route 106 to the market and arts center should be reduced by 5 mph and it should have a single yellow centerline, rather than a double, homeowners told town officials last week. The existing 30 mph speed limit is out-of-step with other, similar roads in town that have 25 mph limits, and Silvermine Road has become “is a speedway for contractors racing back and forth between Norwalk and New Canaan,” Mark Thorsheim told members of the Police Commission at their regular meeting on Wednesday. Silvermine is very much a “walking community” and “pedestrian neighborhood” with “pedestrian activities” at the Silvermine Arts Center and with the market and eventual tavern re-opening, Thorsheim said at the meeting, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. “We are angry, sick of it,” he said of the 30 mph speed limit. With that request, Thorsheim and other residents of Silvermine Road asked whether the newly repaved street surface could go back to a single yellow centerline.