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NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk residents agree: Connecticut Avenue is the worst, traffic wise.
In a recent poll on The Norwalk Daily Voice asking where the worst traffic is, Connecticut Avenue was the overwhelming winner, with 76 percent of the votes. East Avenue was a distant second with 8 percent.
"Connecticut Avenue is really bad," said RidgeNorwalk, a reader. "What is happening is everybody that needs to get to Walmart or Home Depot or even Shop-Rite, well, they are looking at the back roads through all of our neighborhoods. There is more traffic on Stuart Avenue now than ever before; I have lived there for 30 years so I know."
The road is "awful, after work and on weekends," GardenMom said. Many agreed with RidgeNorwalk, that the traffic on back roads are full of vehicles avoiding the big box-laden route. "People are just so thrilled to find a different route, but forget that there are homes, kids, pets living on those side roads," said NwlkCityZen.
If you weren't doing it before you'll be doing it now, given the recommendation from Paige: You can "get past the worst of it" if you're going south on Connecticut Avenue by turning left on West Cedar Street and then taking the next left, continuing on West Cedar Street behind the Silver Star Diner and coming out on Scribner Avenue.
Indeed, a steady stream of vehicles took that left off Connecticut Avenue on Thursday afternoon, almost a parade at one moment. Later, vehicles lined up on West Cedar Street at Scribner, horns honking as those farther back in line grew impatient.
Others invoked animals as they offered alternative suggestions for the worst traffic spots in town.
"Anywhere Hal put a new traffic light," Michael Ward said. "They were synchronized by a herd of kittens."
"The new traffic lights could have been programmed better by one of the Maritime Center's meerkats," said Barnstorm.
The traffic lights cannot be synchronized until all of the new traffic lights are installed, Department of Public Works Director Hal Alvord said. The old ones are on an analog system, the new ones are digital, and the systems do not mesh.
After mentioning the meerkats, Barnstorm had more somber words. "As bad as Connecticut, East and Main Avenues are, virtually all of SoNo is impassible every afternoon," Barnstorm said. "That includes Washington Street, North Main Street, Martin Luther King Boulevard, West Avenue (up to Interstate 95), as well as the feeder roads Flax Hill Road and Fairfield Avenue.
"In the event of an emergency where an expedient evacuation is necessary, a whole lot of folks are never going to make it out of Norwalk."
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