A concern about speeding at Mead Park has prompted town officials to weigh the efficacy of installing a sidewalk that would run down from Park Street toward the pond.
The width of the road at that part of Mead Park complicates the prospect of sidewalk installation, officials say.
A resident's complaint about speeding motorists here, pulling into Mead Park, has opened up a discussion about a possible sidewalk installation. Credit: Michael Dinan
According to Tiger Mann, assistant director in the New Canaan Department of Public Works and the town’s senior engineer, the 60-foot-wide roadway was designed to accommodate parking spaces on both sides, by the baseball field and pond.
A sidewalk would need to run outside the archway on the pond side (on the right if you’re coming into the park) and then follow a stone wall toward the pond, Mann said.
“Then it gets a little dicey near the end,” Mann told NewCanaanite.com. “There’s a whole slew of trees planted, and then if we wanted to put that walkway in, we’d have to cut down all the trees, which we don’t want to do, or stay away from them because they’re quite low.”
Installing a sidewalk down from Park Street into Mead Park is tricky because of the roadway's width, officials say. Credit: Michael Dinan
The first step likely is to quantify the speeding problem there by setting up machines that capture how fast motorists are traveling into Mead, Mann said. With that data in hand, officials could determine next steps, he said.
A group of officials that includes Mann fields requests for traffic-calming. Residents who have a problem with speeding motorists and other difficulties are instructed to submit a request via this form to the Police Commission.
Here’s the area we’re talking about: