Study Suggests Traffic Calming Measures on Proposed Lenox-Haynes Connecting Road

Last week, a town-hired traffic engineer presented the results of a review of the traffic study Sunlight Construction submitted as part of its Lenox Road single-family housing cluster development application.

John Meyer Consulting, PC, the same group that did the traffic study for The Fresh Market and a new senior living facility under construction in Avon, was tasked with commenting on Fuss & O'Neill traffic engineer Mark Vertucci's traffic study for the Sunlight Construction project. 

The town's consultant agreed with Vertucci that a proposed connector road between Haynes Road and Lenox Road in the plans would not see significant increase in traffic or likely become a cut-thru, which is a concern for many residents.

Town plans to eventually connect the two roads are referenced in the Plan of Conservation and Development's traffic circulation plan in 1968, 1979, 1989 and 2006, the consultants said.

"Based on our own simulations along the area roadways with proposed conditions, we do not feel that there will be a significant volume of vehicles diverting from either Hollister Drive or West Avon Road to and using Lenox Road, the proposed streets and Hanes [sic] Road since we do not believe there is a significant reduction in travel times," John Meyer Consulting said in its review."

But the engineers did suggest adding traffic calming measures, regardless, such as "speed humps" or speed tables." The consultants also recommended that the commission consider requiring the Lenox Road extension, which would contain four lots in the plans, to be "one-way northbound" if the commission remains concerned. 

The possibility of a future connection to Hollister Drive by adding a road stub with access to the Thompson family property along the road "would further reduce traffic volumes along Lenox Road," the consultants said. 

The consultant did question Fuss & O'Neill's data from a "trip generation study" that is based on local data instead of "Institute of Transportation Engineers" data, recommending that the ITE data be used for more accurate traffic projection numbers.

Fuss & O'Neill's study also predicted that 50 percent of "site generated [sic] traffic" would use Hollister Drive to Lovely Street, 25 percent would use Hollister to get to West Avon Road and 25 would travel on Haynes Road to get to West Avon Road.

Avon's traffic predicted that a higher proportion would use Haynes road and that a smaller amount would go to and from Lovely Street because about "17 percent of the cumulative traffic" in its study utilized the Lenox Road entrance.

To read the full study, scroll down on the attached Scribd PDF.