Road closed. Detour. Race today. Do Ridgefield drivers see these signs too often? Or unnecessarily?
The Memorial Day parade, road races and fund-raising walks, the commercial district’s street fairs — Ridgefield closes roads, often major roads, with some regularity.
Is it too much?
The selectmen are looking into the question, trying to gauge whether the frequency of road closures for planned events is something the town should have a policy on.
To start, First Selectmen Rudy Marconi plans to research how many times a year the town now closes roads for events. He recently came up with nine, just thinking aloud.
“We have the triathlon that now takes place on two days. The big one is the Memorial Day parade, which closes Main Street,” he said. “We have the ROAR dog walk. We have the Turkey Trot. Run Like A Mother. The Boy Scouts do one on Father’s Day, and several other 5-Ks — I know Southwest Cafe sponsors one for Sunrise Cottage. Wolfpit does the half marathon. The Sale-a-bration, we shut down Main Street — July 20 this year.”
Selectman Andy Bodner recently raised the question after the Ridgefield triathlon — as he had a year ago, prompting some discussion but no real action.
It is the frequency of road closings, and not any particular event, that he questions.
“My concern is simple,” he said in an email. “Everyone knows that traffic congestion on the weekends has become a real problem and that there are times that it becomes almost impossible to get through town. Road closures only exacerbate the challenge.
“In recent years, there seem to be an increasing number of events, mostly races, but also other events, that result in an inconvenience for those not participating in the event.
“My question is, does the town have a policy regarding road closures, and if so, what is it? And if not, shouldn’t there be one?”
There are procedures — applications are made through the police and, if a state road is to be closed, state review is involved. All this takes time, and it isn’t lightly done.
“Usually when people begin planning these type of events, it’s three or four months in advance,” Mr. Marconi said. “No one comes in on Tuesday saying ‘Saturday we want to close roads.’ ”
There’s lots of planning.
“Typically, these bigger events bring a planning group together that involves all the emergency services and all the necessary groups and agencies to make some decisions,” Fire Chief Heather Burford said.
Many events are annual, and some are growing. Run Like A Mother started as a small race, but drew 1,600 to 1,800 runners this year.
The triathlon — now called TriRidgefield — has gone on for seven years. Starting at 7 a.m. on a Sunday, it’s had relatively few problems.
“We’ve sort of got it down to a science now,” Chief Burford said.
But the last couple of years organizers added a children’s event on the Saturday before the Sunday adult race. Saturdays have more traffic. And the kids’ race starts later — at 8, not 7.
“The concern from the public and the concern from Mr. Marconi’s office was the number of participants and the issue of traffic backing up on Route 7,” Chief Burford said.
Changes being considered include starting the children’s race earlier in the morning, and having the children’s and adults’ events on consecutive Sundays, rather than on a Saturday and a Sunday.
“We got the key organizers together to have a discussion about what we could do in future years that would decrease some of the problems,” Chief Burford said
But town officials don’t seem to have a set policy on the issue raised by Mr. Bodner: the frequently of road-closing events.
When the selectmen discussed the issue June 5, they had varied views — often keyed to the TriRidgefield.
“It was a wonderfully successful triathlon,” said Selectwoman Di Masters, “425 participants.”
Selectwoman Maureen Kozalk said, “I thought it brought a lot of people into town.”
Mr. Marconi said he will “put together a list of how often we close local roads, state roads, for special events, and times of the year, so I’m going to be working with the Police Department on that, since they are the formal traffic authority of the town and any road closure has to be submitted to the police — and the State of Connecticut, when any state roads are submitted for closures.
“Historically there’s been more of an issue in and around the downtown area, than there is on the outskirts,” he said. “But the issue/question is: How often?”