Safe Streets survey: nearly 2,000 residents respond; safety concerns concentrated among women and parents

An unnamed presenter summarized the town’s Safe Streets survey conducted last June and reported that 1,988 people responded to the 10‑day survey. The presenter said the responses were distributed across Fairfield neighborhoods and will be shared in the First Selectman’s newsletter and used to support grant applications.

Headline findings cited by the presenter included that roughly 45% of respondents rated streets as not safe, and that reported perceptions differed by gender: about half of women surveyed said they considered roads unsafe compared with roughly 30% of men. The presenter also highlighted that 84% of respondents with school‑age children said improvements to street safety would make them more likely to allow their children to walk without an adult.

The group discussed common themes from 1,600 open‑ended responses: speeding, aggressive driving, lack of sidewalks, unsafe crossings and congestion. Members noted that commenters frequently named corridors of concern, including Post Road, Stratfield, Mill Plain, Kings Highway, Reef Road, Villa Avenue and Bronson. The presenter said they extracted law‑enforcement–related comments into a spreadsheet for further review.

Committee members discussed enforcement capacity and tools such as targeted speed cameras in school zones; a participant said Fairfield issues more traffic tickets than some surrounding towns, and others suggested clarifying whether those figures are raw counts or per‑capita rates. Members asked for follow‑up from town enforcement staff to clarify ticketing and enforcement levels.

Next steps include circulating the survey deck and selected slide clips for the First Selectman’s newsletter, preparing a brief follow‑up (post) survey in the spring to measure outreach effects, and using survey excerpts to support grant applications and community outreach.