Brushy Plains Rd or Cedar St (same thing) in Branford, there is a school on that street to.....oh........and if you DO go there try not to put the "gun" on a black Impala......;)

Jodi, it just seems like drivers are getting worse these days. Everyone is racing to and fro and are STILL not using hands free cell phone devices while driving. People treat the highways (and side roads) in CT like their own personal NASCAR track and drive at speeds well over 70 in areas where the posted limit is only 55.

As bad as the excessive speeders are, it seems like people have gotten worse on their driving skills as well. I find that people seem to treat things stop signs as optional now. It is a weekly (some times daily) fact that I have to wait at a four way stop to make sure that others actually stop at a stop sign and don’t t-bone me as I go through. As bad as stop signs are, stoplights seem worse. When I’m at a stoplight and it turns green, I am always amazed as two or three cars race though the red light on their side.

More often than not the bad drivers also have a cell phone to their ear (no hands free in site) as they drive poorly. The funny thing is I see police ignore the drivers with cell phones stuck to their ears here in New Haven all the time. It also amazes me that when you beep your horn at the drivers as they run the stop signs and lights, perform lane changes that force you off the road, and tailgate you on the roads; that they give you the one fingered salute or a nasty glare as they go by. Like how dare you get in MY way!

Try coming up to Route 68 in Durham/Wallingford area.

Especially during the Durham Fair on Route 17 where people ignore to stop for pedestrians in the cross walks!

Speeding is definately a big problem on our state highways.

So many bad drivers out there

let's take one topic for now

the RIGHT ON RED LAW

YOU HAVE TO COME TO A COMPLETE STOP

THEN CHECK FOR EVERYTHING INCLUDNG PEDESTRIANS

THEN YOU CAN PROCEED WITH CAUTION

what it has become is

STAY AT 40MPH

COME TO THE TURN

GLANCE TO YOUR RIGHT AND LOOK FOR ONLY A CAR

AND LOCK UP THE BRAKES IF THERE IS NO WAY YOU'LL MAKE IT

so sad, it is a good law to keep traffic moving, but corrupted

and what Jodi is saying about school zones

ya know who the biggest perp is at these areas??

the freakin parents

Branford high is the worst

ever try and drive by there in the A.M.?? man every freakin parent in branford is dropping their kid off causing mayhem while the buses are half full

it's a psycho fest

Hi Jodi -- I live in Seymour which used to be a "rural community" but farmlands and forests are gone and mega-mansions are all over the place.

Along with the mega mansions came people who drive fancy cars and ignore stop signs, speed limits and traffic lights. Their attitude seems to be "I'm rich and I can do anything I want to".

I've come down Great Hill Road doing the speed limit and had drivers literally up my tailpipe ! When I finally turn onto my street I inevitibly get honked at, screamed at or given the finger if I'm foolish enough to look back .

If you want a "speedway" just come to Great Hill Road in Seymour -- it's a winding country road with speed limits of 35 down to 20 mph - it's a very curvy road and many people coming down Great Hill Road from Oxford doing 65 mph have gone off the road and landed in the tree tops but no one seems to care about that - early morning and 5 PM are the most dangerous times to be on that road as people are going to work early and racing to get there. Then going home, the race begins again.

As bennor said so well, many drivers have forgotten how to drive - period. It's like many of them are on "speed" and it's scary. I don't have an answer for a cure ( I do, but it's illegal to put strips of nails across roads where speeding is a problem :-) )

Elle

Seems stop signs and stop lights are a decoration to most folks these days, even in rural neighborhoods.

Some stop signs I see the good old, 2 for one special. One person goes, and the person behind follows right on their tail, leaving the person who WAS suppose to go, still waiting. There are some signs I get nervous stopping for, as I wonder if the person behind me is going to stop or rear end me, cause I did stop. It also seems like people don't know their cars are equipped with signal lights either.

Like others have posted, even when the light turns green, I wait a second or 3 to see if all the Nascar people are done blowing the light. Many folks I see either cruise right through, or speed up if the light turns orange. Guess eveyone had to be wherever yesterday. Don't know what the answer is, as it sure is getting mighty scary out there, even in school zones.

I like Elle's idea, even if it is illegal. :-)

I noticed on RT 80 there is a speed limit sign of 40mph and then right as you get to the school crosswalk there is a sign saying school zone 25mph. No warning. By the time you notice the sign you are past the school. There is another school alittle ways up that doesn't even have a sign posted that there is a school.

Since your article I've been making an effort to make sure to go slower in the school zones, if it's marked that I'm coming up onto one. This just happened to be a new street I happened upon. Maybe it should be suggested that a "reduce speed to 25mph" is needed about 100 feet before the school zone.

Route 188 in the town of Oxford is especially bad. The rural stretch of road through Quaker Farms seems to be the town autobahn where people travel as much as 65 mph in a posted 40 or 45. Near the brand new Oxford High I've noticed increased police presence. Today I saw 4 cars pulled over in a matter of about 60 minutes.

If you want to be surprised at how fast people actually drive, bring your radar to any part of Route 188. People drive with little regards to anyone else.

What the state needs to do is "Advertise" people are now conditioned to race down the roads. I think its mostly a CT thing and Lower NY. I travel to many areas of the country and people are more polite,And they even drive normal. Im waiting for the starbucks lawsuit for too much caffine made me do it.Funny thing I was just wonderinhg who drives faster the Rich person in the BMW or the unknown with the tinted windows in the acura, 91 North of Hartford is a deathtrap! I see excess of 90 mph with the weaving in and out. And we wonder why that car is flipped over every other day on our roads.

Now if you do the speed limit people get mad at you! Just try it and look at them in the rearview! Drive Safe..

By the way The State Gets an F for controling dangerous 18 wheel truckers on 84 west of waterbury! There is no excuse for letting them drive like nuts!

Hi Jodi, I live in East Hartford, off Brewer street, behind Pratt and Whitney, and every day, at 3:30pm we get a "parade" from their employees, they cut through our streets because they don't like to sit in traffic on Main Street, problem is, there's several stop signs and my child's bus stop on my street, and very few of these cars slow down, or actually stop. I thought about standing outside with a camcorder in my hand just to see what would happen. The police has been called about this problem, but they don't come around too often, and when they do, they sit in plain view with a fully dressed police cruiser, not a smart thing to do if you want to catch law-breakers in the act.

I think there is a relationship between the amount of time that we spend sitting in traffic on I-95 and I-91 and the speeding that occurs on local roads. When I drive to work in the morning I take 91 through Hartford where traffic can be backed up and people sometimes spend an extra 10 minutes there. When they finally get off of 91 and on to local roads, they try to make up the time, so they speed.

Who ever told people that you don't have to
use your right and left turn signal lights
anymore?? If I was a cop, there wouldn't
be enough time in a day to ticket people
for traffic violations!! And yes, I would
ticket people for NOT using their signals
when turning!!

The driving habits are an enlightening window
into just how selfish this society has indeed
become...me! me! me!...It is the product of
many years of "taking care of "ME" first".
Modest politeness has been totally replaced
by displaying ones riches unashamedly. The
advertising doens't help much either...look
how many of the auto adds emphasize speed,
zooming, and beating the next person every
which a way. I give this society another 20
years at best to fall in on itself. Selfish,
gluttonous, and totally ignorant of how
fortunate it is in SO many ways....I used
to get upset when being tailed etc.. now
I just pull over, let them go by, and
like one time, watch them crash in
front of me ....

One thing you have to understand is that drivers are human. Humans have never been known to be real smart. If human drivers were smart there would be no accidents at all. Why go slow when yu can get somewhere three seconds faster?. To make the roads safer, as is the thought on Avon Mt., take the drivers off. Only then will drivers realize how good they have it, not having to ride a bicycle or walk in the weather.

Morning Ann: Hi. Here in New Canaan there has actually been a step on on the speed thing here. Where I like on South
Avenue people go fast all the time. It is a straight away and appears to look ok to go fast. Yet, town comes up fast and with schools there people need to slow it.

As for what can be done?? People just need to realize that they need to stay within the speed limit. I do not drive unless Ihave to go somewhere it is hard to take the train with. But, mostly I take train.

I agree with the I84 person. It is very
dangerous to drive that road with the trucks barrelling down it.

On the plus side. Ann, do You know that bridge on the Merritt Pkwy that use to have the grids. Oh my gosh. I am so glad they paved that over. I dreaded like the plague if I ever use to have to drive on it when they had those grides.

GLEN

Drivers have become increasing rude over the past few years. Actually people in general have become very rude. Maybe not, but it seems that way to me.

When High School lets out,I turn up the Music and pretend I am at Watkins Glen all over again,South, Long Hill Road,Guilford.They go by so fast,I even feel like I am in their cars.I used to have the mail box across the street,how frightning that was.Then my Brother moved it to this side,and it is still one of those Tell the family I Love them moments.~Peace Glenna~

In Manchester, there are too many to name, but a few streets to mention: Tolland Turnpike (end to end), Middle Turnpike (near the High School), North Main Street, and Buckland Street. Traffic laws just seem to go right out the window.

There have been times where I've driven the speed limit, or even 5 or 10 miles over it and have been run off the roads into the grass or into the breakdown lane by people swerving in and out of traffic on 95 and the Wilbur Cross/ Merritt Parkway. I wasn’t a defensive driver in past years but in the last three years I’ve become an extremely defensive driver. I am constantly amazed at the poor driving abilities that many other drivers display. Like people who pull out from a side street or a parking lot on Whalley Ave and block a lane or two of traffic just so they can get across. Or people who drive in parking lots and get tunnel vision on their parking spots and ignore people waking though the lots. Then there are the people who intentionally race through a cross walk and don’t stop for pedestrians walking through it.

If you want to see crazy driving drive Walley Ave from the split by the Athenian dinner down through Westville into New Haven. The one side of the road between the Athenian Dinner and American Diamond Exchange going towards down town New Haven is a wide road that is not marked for two lanes but everyone including the police and fire trucks drive on it like it is two lanes. A police officer told me, after I got into an accident (I hit a car pulling out of a side street) on this stretch of road, that it is actually a one-lane road until officially marked as two lanes that starts just past the corner of Blake and Whalley (south bound) in Westville. Then there are the people who drive down the hill from Woodbridge on Amity road well in excess of 55 mph. And don’t even get me started on the gridlock (and accidents that result from it) that happens every day during rush hour at the on ramps for the Wilbur Cross Parkway (both directions) on Litchfield Turnpike on the New Haven/Woodbridge town lines. Oh an another fun place where people run lights and speed is on Fountain Street in Westville. People especially love to run the red lights at the (crazy) intersection of Dayton, Forrest and Fountain streets.

Sorry for the long rant, but I used to love driving, now I absolutely hate it.

I make the drive from North Branford to Bloomfield every day and ever since I purchased a Garmin Street pilot I have really learned a lot about driving. I don't use it for the direction, at least not in Connecticut, but I do use it for the estimated arrival time. When I leave home it tells me that it will take 41 minutes to make the trip and I will arrive at 6:45. I have found that if I do the speed limit, it is correct, I arrive at 6:45. If I increase my speed by 10 mph on the highway, I arrive 2 to 3 minutes earlier. Big Deal. I drive the speed limit now. It's not worth the three minute gain to risk a speeding ticket. I also feel a lot safer driving a little slower and the gas mileage is better.

I live at the base of a good size hill in Bristol. I've noticed that when people see a hill coming up, they have to climb it as fast as possible. If your going 30 mph and see a hill, why can't you continue that speed up the hill? Instead people rev their engines like they're in NASCAR or something, and go as fast as they possibly can. I've even seen cops do it. Going downhill is even worse. I get angry because I have small kids and so do many of my neighbors. Sometimes I think we need speed bumps right in the middle of the road.

Quinnipiac Ave. and Rt.80 intersection, not for speeding but for going through the red light form all directions at rush hour. It is a mess. Even the police go thru the lights........5:00P.M.

I'm sure no matter where you go, you're going to find the same issue. Whether it be New Haven or the nice, posh Guilford area. Bad drivers are everywhere - especially in CT.

We live in a relatively quiet area in Wallingford. Our cross street connects two main roads. It seems that people have "found" the shortcut from one street to another...my kids wait for the elementary school bus on the corner and we've seen drivers flying by easily doing 45-50mph.

If that's not bad enough, this is a hill with several bus stops and coming up to the crest of the hill you cannot see anything on the downward part. God forbid a child ever runs into the street....

Rte 32 which runs from New London to Norwich is our speedway. Three or four fatalities in the four years that I've lived in the area and numerous accidents with injuries. In our own neighborhood, speeders go 20 miles per hour above the 25 posted limit through winding wooded roads that are home to schools and parks and golf courses. What to do? Get Action 8 out again on this road and put the offenders on the nightly news. They want to be noticed, then let them be noticed.

Nice, posh on the outside,HEATHER Purley insane on the inside.Every last livin one of them,but me.~Peace Glenna~

Here are a few for you, in Wolcott. Not necessarily school zones, but where there are kids that walk to and from the bus and wait for the bus. Rt 69 on the really big hill. Going down, average speed is about 60-70, going up, average speed is about 60. The speed limit is 45 (that is fast enough). My husband and I joke about it being a drag strip, and it has only gotten worse since they just paved it and it is nice and smooth. Another good road is Boundline Road. There is a plumbing company at the end and the trucks from there fly up and down the road, and when the plumbers go in or get out of work, they fly also. I put my son on the bus at the bottom of my driveway and cannot get over the speed on this road. I make sure that my kids stay well back from the road to be sure that they don't get hit. There is no need for the speed that goes on on back streets, or even main roads or highways. And to Charlie who commented on why people speed on backroads after sitting in traffic on 91 or 95 to make up the time for sitting in traffic, there is traffic every day on these highways. You want to make up time from your commute, leave your house 10 minutes earlier. Is is worth it to kill someone instead of getting out of bed a few minutes earlier?

Its wrong to speed but the only thing I am going to say is that when were these drivers seen speeding? Was it at night when school was not in session?

I agree that speeding is wrong, HOWEVER, when there is no one on the road and its 10 pm or later, its ridiculous to expect someone to drive 25 mph on a straight road. No kids then, no buses.

How many people have actually driven 25 miles an hour? Do you have any idea of how SLOW that is? Its fine during school hours but away from those times, forget it. Especially if its a straight road.

My main problem is with the idiots that tailgate on the highway. Those folks are truly awful. I am sure that if I was a cop I would enjoy dragging their sorry rear ends off the side of the road as often as possible.

Yes, speeding is wrong, but on the other hand I think that 25mph 24/7 is just silly.

And for the comment about making up time due to traffic.

I leave at least half an hour extra for traffic and most of the time that isn't even enough. I don't speed in school zones to "make up time" its mostly that I just cannot go 25 mph for long. Its just too slow. (Yeah I know I am making enemies here. Save your hate mail for others, such as politicians).

I think that a partial solution would be for MORE companies to let their employees telecommute. That would alleviate a lot of the traffic.

(not to mention pollution, wear and tear on the autos, etc).

Also, I have been stuck behind school buses even though I try my best to avoid them. Maybe the moms of those slow kids could shove them onto the bus a little quicker. I think the worst are the middle school kids. Baggin' and saggin' their way onto the bus while people that hold real jobs have to sit behind waiting FOREVER for them to get their butts in a seat..

I have two kids, so I am not a kid-hater, I just think that some one somewhere needs to take some action and fix this problem.

I always wanted my own business, and if/when I do that, I plan on setting it up to have remote staff, so nobody has to drive into an office. My decision is based on my own (horrible) experiences at my (horrible) day job.

I think that if more companies had any sense, they would also do something like that.

suzanne you have some good points

alot of our traffic problems come from over development

Killingworth and Haddam/Higganum are prime examples of what happens when developers and real estae agents corrupt local govt

those 2 towns must 200-400 homes built a year

I remember when you could drive down Rt 81 tp Clinton and cruise 45-50, the limit is 45, adn it is all down hill

now, maybe you have been unfortunate enough to be behind this individual

this person in a green ford expedition goes like 30-40,30-40 and even at 30 cannot stay in their lane, at every corner they go over the line

they should take green hill to cow hill and go 30 there

what happens when these freaks go way under the posted limit is that others freak out and then try to pass and cause a severe accident

going too slow for traffic is just as much a crime as too fast

when you are in the left lane on 95 and it is going 50, rest assured somewhere up there at the front is an idiot going 50 in the left lane

if you are the person directly behind them, PLEASE FOR GODS SAKE FLASH YOUR FREAKIN HI BEAMS AND GET THEM TO MOVE OVER

RIGHT LANE TRAVEL LANE
LEFT LANE PASSING LANE

I HATE FRIDAYS WHEN ALL THE SUCKS DRIVE TO THE CAPE

WHAT THE FRIG? MOVA U ASSA

I am currently living on Chapel Hill Rd. in Oakdale and there are children going and coming home from school on this street. Drivers fly down this road day and night. It doesn't help that there is a drinking establishment on this street either.

Jodi
Great job on the speeding story. I live on a recently paved rural road in Andover. It is truly a speedway as it has been discovered as a cut through to Hebron and Columbia. If you want to see cars that average 50 to 60 mph in a 25 mph zone, get a speed gun on Jurovaty Road in Andover.
Despite our pleas to the local politicos and resident state trooper, the problem persists.
Thanks for your concern!
Best Regards,
Neal

Jodi,come to schoolhouse road old saybrook!!!!

RT153!!,schoolhouse road now there is speed!

Take your life in your hands Jodi and come to Colchester. Despite having a state police troop and town police wehave virtually NO traffic enforcement and every one knows it. I have actually seen five cars and SUV's pack together and run the red light at the Rte 85 Rte 16 intersection. They wouldn't let the cars with the green light go and guess who the sixth car was? A state trooper. So much for law enforcement. Any main road in town could be used for your story but the intersection in front of Noels Supermarket, also a Rte 85 and Rte 16 intersection is an excellent example of how danderous it is to drive in this town. Between everyone running the lights, speeding, and drivers with the right of way being run off the road you should get enough tape for many shows.

JODI THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS IN CT TO DEAL THEN CHASING SPEEDER'S AND YOU SHOULD HELP THE STATE ECOMONY HELP THE WORK FORCE AND HELP THE POOR WORKERS IN THIS STATE FIND JOBS THAT'S A GOOD IDEA GO TO PLACES AND HELP PEOPLE FIND JOBS LET THE COPS DO THER JOB

hi guys!! i was just watching the news and saw the speeding thing... i noticed that you said if our road had a problem to write to you... PLEASE HELP US!! we live on Academy Hill Rd in Derby. the speed limit here is posted at 25, not to mention that there is a school about 5 minutes up the street... at ANYTIME on ANYDAY - i guarentee you can clock people coming up or down the hill at atleast 50-60 mph. my husband has had this house in his family for about 20 years and he can tell you about atleast 15 accidents.. ive only been living here a year an a half, and we have ALREADY lost 1 dog, 1 cat, another cat has been hit but THANK GOD survived. 2 deadly accidents, and weve also lost 1 mailbox. i can no longer let my animals go outside because i am too afraid. i cannot let my daughter play without being scared out of my wits someone else will drive up onto our front lawn, and hit her.. i am DEATHLY AFRAID to get my mail out of my mailbox!! when i bring my daughter to school in the morning, i drive the limit to slow people down, and that has gotten me into atleast 30 fights because people are so agressive driving here... the police NEVER patrol here, altho i bet they can make millions stopping people. anyways, i see alot of people on here that live on busy streets that probobly need help too, but our street is NOT a route!! its just a regular street that people use as a shortcut when they dont want to take 5 minutes to go the right way. PLEASE HELP US!! i would apreciate it sooooooo much. i can even tell the police a PERFECT place to sit to get people... i just want the fear i live in to stop.

I know you did a story on rte 80. but that was in North Branford. Come park down at Foxon Diner on rte 80. in Foxon. I have worked at the diner for 10 years and I am just waiting for the day when one of those trucks come barreling down and plow right into the resteraunt. There is no way any of the cars or trucks are obeying the speed limit and guess what....there hasnt been much police presence to curb the speeders. Coffee is on me if you decide you want to come and watch just how fast they are going.

Tue, 11/6 I heard the too familiar sound of an accident near my home. Ran outside with telephone in hand to discover a car on it's roof at Rte. 6 and Town Line Road in Woodbury. This is the fourth roll over I have seen since I moved here 5 years ago. I am sure there are plenty I have missed.

The stretch of road on rte 6 from Town Line Road to the Watertown Line (about 1/2 mi.) is very dangerous. I see so many accidents here. The roll overs are just the most dramatic. The speed limit is 35 mph. in that spot and the average driver easily passes by in excess of 50.

Please slow down. It is devestating to hear the thud and see yet another car crumpled up.

From what I have heard, this has been a problem for at least a decade and it is not even a busy stretch of 6.

The police do take radar on 6 but that hasn't corrected the problem.

I have reported it to the DOT workers, but do not know of any studies being done. Yesterday I left a message for the local State Representative to see if he knows what to do. I am waiting on that.

The first ten years of my working life were spent in the Traffic Engineering Department of a very large midwestern city as I also worked in the Universuty co-op program before I moved back to Connecticut. What I am totally disgusted here is seeing traffic engineering dictated by politicians rather than by those who use a mix of common sense and good, sound engineering knowledge. Just look at the Farmington "stack" which was built to serve a ring road but there was enough outcry to protect the birdies so now we have cars and trucks belching pollution to kill in downtown Hartford all day long instead of traffic moving AROUND the city.
Likewise, the old 55mph speed limit during the first gas "crisis" was supposed to be 45mph to save fuel. But the trucking lobby stopped it because they couldn't move freight quickly enough. In addition, that Minneapolis bridge collapse may have also been due to the fact that ALL highways were originally designed for commercial vehicles nowhere NEAR as large as they are today. Who in the world ever conceived of a semi-trailer FAR larger than a 40 foot railroad boxcar which was the standard when the "1975 Plan of Highways" was set down in the late 1950s?
And when someone complained about trucks breaking up the roadways, a representative of the trucking industry said it was related to the weather. The following month a rebuttal came in noting that it seemed strange that the weather was so much worse in the right lane.
I guess that's why I've seen so many trucks in the middle lanes of 3 lane interstates recently.

There is a fundamental flaw in our thinking which suggests that if we live a faster life and compress more activities into it (cellphone while driving, as an example), we will be one step up on the opposition and therefore, more successful. Even our meals are hurried. The results are inevitable. We are heading into a life of stress, ill health, and the unexpected opposition that could dramatically change everything. Don't wait for the holiday to slow down; it can be done moment by moment every day, and can contribute to success and an enriched life more than you think.