The Risks of Crossing Route 10 on Foot
- Philip Thibodeau
- Jan 13
- 6 min read
Given the traffic one must contend with, crossing Route 10 on foot can often seem like a dicey proposition. There are, to be sure, signals and other apparatus in place along its various segments - Queen Street, North Main Street, Main Street, South Main Street in Plantsville, and Norton Street in Milldale - to make crossing feasible, and some of these offer adequate levels of security.
But not all of them. As many residents have noted, several seem to do little, if anything, to help pedestrians cross the road.
These concerns have been repeatedly brought to the attention of Southington’s Town Hall and Town Council. The Town, in turn, has urged Connecticut’s Department of Transportation to take steps to address the issue. (Route 10 is a State road, and modifying it is the State's responsibility.) So far, these efforts have yielded no tangible results.
The Main Problem
The problem with pedestrian walk signals on Route 10 was most recently aired in public last fall, at the September 9 meeting of Town Council. There, in response to an inquiry from Councilor Chris Palmieri, Chair Paul Chaplinsky described the issue along the following lines.
Suppose a pedestrian presses the button for a walk light and sees it turn green. Normally this means that traffic has come to a halt, with red lights in all directions. This is what happens at the intersection of Route 10 and Berlin Avenue, for example, and allows the pedestrian to cross safely.
However, at certain locations on Route 10, such as the intersection with Loper Street across from Price Chopper, there is no four-way stop. Instead, as Chaplinsky noted, the only thing that happens when the button is pushed is that, eventually, the traffic light goes through its regular cycle, with red turning green and green turning red. As a result, pedestrians must cross while cars entering or leaving Route 10 take advantage of their green light.
This puts vehicles, some traveling fast and others making turns, in close proximity to people traversing the road – often without the benefit of a painted crosswalk. Frequently there is no visual indication, other than the overhead light for car traffic, that pedestrians are allowed to cross.
At the September meeting, members of the Council identified Loper Street, Mill Street, and Clark Street as places where this situation obtains. A recent survey by the Outsider yielded a fuller list of fourteen problematic crossings.
Two of them feature painted crosswalks and a single pedestrian light post on one side of the street:
Aircraft Road
Clark Street
Five have a pedestrian light post but no crosswalks:
Town Line Road
West Queen Street
Shop Rite Plaza, south entrance
Loper Street
Walmart Plaza
Two have a crosswalk across the side street, but no pedestrian light post:
Mill Street
High/Merrell Street
Finally, five crossings – all at very busy locations – have only a button on a post, with no lights or crosswalks:
Spring Street
I-84 W Exit (which traverses seven lanes of traffic)
Lazy Lane
Flanders Street
Curtiss Street
Other crossings in town, including the one in front of JFK Middle School, are marked by painted crosswalks but no mechanical apparatus.
Not all of the crossings on Southington’s stretch of Route 10 are like this. All-way stops with lights and crosswalks can be found at River Street, Shop Rite Plaza north, Goodwill Plaza, Hobart Street, Center Street, Berlin Avenue, Meriden Avenue, Old Turnpike Road, West Main Street, Mulberry Street/I-84, and Route 322. While pedestrians must still watch out for aggressive drivers before stepping into the roadway, they can at least count on clear signaling and red lights in all directions.
A Conversation With The Department Of Transportation
Another, more basic question has also been asked about these crossings: do their pedestrian signal buttons even work? Back in June, in response to resident complaints, Chaplinsky decided to go out and test some of the buttons on Route 10 for himself. The result? Pushing the button seemed to do nothing.
The Outsider confirmed this observation. After timing the lights at High Street, Mill Street, and Lazy Lane multiple times with a stopwatch, we found that pushing the button made no noticeable difference in the length of the cycle - the wait for a green light to cross, as well as the length of the green phase, were unchanged.
In order to better understand what was going on, Chaplinsky forwarded a request through Councilor Mike DelSanto to Town Engineer David Nourse, asking him to look into the matter. Nourse in turn contacted Jason Orr from the State Department of Transportation.
On June 26, Orr wrote back to Nourse to explain how the pedestrian button at Lazy Lane functions:
“As I mentioned earlier, this type of pedestrian button triggers the green light for the side street. In this case, there is no dedicated pedestrian signal at this location, so pressing the button sends a call to the overhead traffic signal to initiate the cycle. Since there is no separate signal head at the intersection, the system uses the main overhead signal to control traffic.”
“When a pedestrian presses the button, the light on the main road (artery) turns red, and the green light for the side street is activated. This means vehicles coming from the side street whether turning left or right must stop and yield to pedestrians crossing either the main road or the side street.”
In other words, a signal cycle eventually follows the pressing of the button - though whether pressing causes this to happen any sooner is unclear. Ultimately the onus is on drivers to stop and yield to pedestrians in the road, as required by Connecticut state law.
On September 12, shortly after the Council Meeting at which members from both parties expressed frustration with the situation, Chaplinsky and Palmieri co-signed a letter to the Connecticut Department of Transportation officially requesting that it “take corrective action to ensure pedestrian safety,” and that, at a minimum, it “remove or redesign the misleading ‘Push for Green Light’ signage where no crosswalks or pedestrian indications are provided.”
A reply came back from Commissioner Garrett T. Eucalitto on October 17, clarifying the State’s stance on the matter and spelling out current plans to address it.
First, according to Eucalitto, the crossings in question, officially referred to as “side street green,” are now considered obsolete. The State aims to replace them with a signal apparatus that includes countdown signals and ADA-compliant curb ramps and push buttons. Although work to replace them has begun, it will take time.
Second, the capital plan for DOT work on Route 10 in Southington includes full upgrades for the intersections at Flanders Street, Curtiss Street, Mill Street, and High/Merrell Street. This project is currently scheduled to go out for bid in July of 2027.
Nourse noted that an updated crossing at Town Line Road is also listed in the DOT’s website.
At the moment, that is where the matter stands. The DOT plans to correct the situation at five "side street green" crossings within a year or two. It has yet to address the situation at the remaining nine, which are, from north to south:
Aircraft Road
Shop Rite Plaza, south entrance
Spring Street
I-84 W Exit
Loper Street
Walmart Plaza
Lazy Lane
West Queen Street
Clark Street
A Recent Pedestrian Tragedy
A recent tragic incident brings home the dangers of crossing Route 10, even at designated crossings.
According to a press release from the Southington Police Department, at around 9:20pm on December 12 of last year, 70-year old Southington resident Ralph Gulla stepped into Queen Street near the exit from Walmart Plaza. There he was hit by a southbound Honda Civic. He sustained serious injuries and passed away at the scene. The driver, who was uninjured, remained to cooperate with investigators.
A final report on the incident has yet to come out. However, the press release states that the pedestrian “may have been attempting to cross the street.”
The Walmart crossing belongs to the second of the three categories of "side street green" crossings listed above: it has a pedestrian light post, but no crosswalk. And there is currently no plan to correct or upgrade it.
The obituary for Ralph Gulla can be read here.
