Thanks for raising this concern Amanda.

We put one of those moveable speed monitors out there last year, and you are right - we saw that speeds along that stretch were well in excess of posted limits. We've got some good ideas for how to tackle the intersection with Edwards/Livingston, but the stretch from Orange to State is still undetermined on how best to approach. I love the idea of bike lanes along Edwards which would hopefully shrink the traversable travel lane, slowing cars down. Additional tree plantings on the street would have a similar impact. Crosswalks at Foster and Nicoll intersections, with those in-road pedestrian signs could provide further visual clues that drivers should slow down. Do you live on edwards? What types of traffic calming ideas do you think might work best?

Good point on tree planting Roland.
Amanda, would you want to start a URI group on Edwards?

Thanks, Amanda, for bringing up this important issue.

When we lived on that stretch of Edwards (2007-09), our street-parked car was hit three times by speeders losing control +/- alcohol.

We think physical barriers like those suggested by Roland would be beneficial to calming traffic. Unfortunately, bike lanes may not help, as many Daytime drivers (possibly returning from State St. bars) already have trouble "staying within the lines." As a biker, I'd love to see more lanes in the neighborhood, but other measures are needed to protect bikers / pedestrians / innocent parked cars...

Another thing that helped reduce "blind spot" accidents (car-car or car-bike) when the police ticketed cars illegally parked on the ends of side streets. But I know NHPD is stretched thin & don't know how often that happens now.

I agree that speeding on Edwards is definitely a problem, not just between Orange and State, but also between Orange and Whitney. As one of the non-speeding drivers on the street, there are a number of things I'd like to see improved:

1. I'd like to see parking only on the side that doesn't have the side streets. I know parking is a problem, but as I often drive down Nash Street, it's impossible to see the oncoming traffic on Edwards without sitting in the crosswalk (I always slow and stop before the crosswalk before pulling up to check the traffic in the road). On Edwards further up, it's impossible to see the drivers pulling out of the cross streets until you are right on them because the parked cars entirely block them from view.

2. I would like to see a bike lane on this street but not because I'd like to make it narrower (narrow Orange Ave is a nitemare to navigate in a car with the cyclist lane on the outside of the parking - it feels like there might be a million reasons that the cyclists will swerve into my path - sand, potholes, or an open car door), I'd like to see a safe area for the cyclists to ride in without competition from pedestrians, cars, potholes, etc. It would be great if there was a median that separated the cyclist lane from the sidewalk and parking row, for instance.

3. The state of potholes on this street are amazingly bad... I've seen motorists and cyclists swerve out of their lane into traffic without looking to avoid them.

4. The timing of the light at Edwards and Orange should be coordinated with the timing of the light at Edwards and Whitney... that would make driver's less anxious to speed. It takes me almost 15 minutes to get from the I-91 exit ramp (exit 5) to Science Park. It's 3 miles - most of the time is waiting at the 7 lights in between.

Thanks for your comments, everybody. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one concerned about this. Does anyone know if the city has any interest in this issue or how to bring it to anyone's attention?

Hi Amanda,

The City does have a great interest in the issue - but budgetary issues, of coarse, limit some of what they are able to consider. Right now though, the Department of Engineering is currently surveying the Edwards/Livingston intersection in preparation of doing a dramatic traffic calming improvement along the Whitney to Orange stretch of Edwards. Similarly, they put the speed monitors out last year to capture the back-up data/raise awareness of the issue amongst neighbors and passersby. I think if we can think of some good ideas of what we'd want to see, it would be great to have a group of neighbors invite me as Alderman, and some City officials out to the street to discuss options/planning. I think the first step would be to try and have neighbors start a URI tree planting group on Edwards - I know there is interest on upper Edwards, likely lower Edwards as well - I can help with that if your interested in taking the lead... I can also coordinate the meeting with neighbors/City Hall to discuss traffic calming issues. Feel free to contact me at rjlemar@yahoo.com or 203-903-5003 to start setting somehting up. Thanks Amanda

"Crosswalks at Foster and Nicoll intersections, with those in-road pedestrian signs could provide further visual clues that drivers should slow down."

I like this idea from Roland Lemar. It's a cheap solution. It solves at least two of the problems cited on Edwards and costs next to nothing.

We also agree that crosswalks at the Foster and Nicoll intersections would be a great idea to help stop speeding on Edwards Street! We lived on Edwards at the intersection of Foster from 2004-2007, and witnessed so many drivers going carelessly down Edwards, treating it as a racetrack from Orange to State. We did contact the Alderperson at the time, Elizabeth Addonitzio (? spelling) to advocate for a crosswalk; she let us know she had contacted the Department of Traffic and Parking to raise the issue, but we didn't hear anything further. We've since moved out of that area but are still in East Rock and wanted to lend our support for traffic calming along Edwards Street.

On-street parking is also an issue in that it can be difficult to see when coming up from Foster when cars are parked on Edwards. Unfortunately though most homes on Edwards don't have garages or parking lots to park their cars in, so the street is lined with cars on both sides. Certainly as someone else has suggested, enforcing ticketing when cars are parked beyond "No Standing" signs would help.

Agree. See possible solutions at http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/60039

New stuff on Edwards between Orange and Whitney should slow things down

New stuff on Edwards between Orange and Whitney should slow things down

New construction on Edwards between Orange and Whitney should slow things down