Responding to concerns from a resident who lives near the intersection, traffic officials have installed a ‘Stop Ahead’ sign for motorists traveling north on Weed Street as they approach Frogtown Road.
The new ‘Stop Ahead’ sign on Weed Street before Frogtown Road is designed to get the attention of northbound motorists who do not anticipate the midblock 3-way intersection, with stop signs, just ahead. Credit: Michael Dinan
Members of the Police Commission at a recent meeting also voted 3-0 to place reflectors on the sign itself, part of a 3-way stop that often takes drivers by surprise.
“People coming up from the Merritt Parkway up to visit people here, they don’t realize that there’s a stop sign in the middle of that road,” commissioner Paul Foley said at the group’s Nov. 16 meeting, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department.
According to Police Chief Leon Krolikowski, there’s no significant accident history at the intersection.
Tiger Mann, the assistant director of the Department of Public Works and a guest at the meeting, said drivers’ natural feel for a road such as Weed Street is such that they “do not anticipate” a midblock stop sign
Police Capt. John DiFederico asked whether it would be prudent to also paint ‘Stop Ahead’ in the road itself. Mann said it was possible, though New Canaan has stayed away from doing that anywhere in town to this point.