A long-shot request from the Weston Board of Police Commissioners to prohibit through trucks on Lyons Plain Road has been declined by the state agency that regulates highways and roads in Connecticut.

A through truck is one with a route that passes through a town that is not its destination, doesn’t start there, and doesn’t have a scheduled stop there.

In November of 2023, a group of residents with homes on Lyons Plain or adjoining roads approached the Police Commission to appeal for relief from what they described as dangerous conditions, citing incidents of cars and large trucks at high speed posing risks to motorists, children boarding and exiting school buses, walkers with strollers, and pedestrians.

One summed it up by declaring that “Lyons Plain Road is no longer safe.”

The idea to request state approval of a through truck ban on Lyons Plain emerged in the meeting, partly on the basis that Route 136 is the state-designated local highway where trucks should pass through. Police commissioners and Chief Ed Henion agreed to consider submitting the request, and did so in March of 2024. But, from the jump, the chief cautioned that the odds of success were poor.

An existing ban

The problem, said Chief Henion, is that since the 1960s Westport, Easton and Fairfield have successfully petitioned the Office of the State Traffic Administration (OSTA) to prohibit through trucks on Route 136. They have also lowered speed limits and installed stop signs.

The chief told the audience that he doubted a truck ban on Lyons Plain would be approved because no major road would be left available to trucks and that there would be “unintended consequences” of congestion on smaller Weston roads.

But the chief and the commission gave it a shot, submitting a request in March of 2024. Over the next few months, OSTA engineers examined the road’s geography, characteristics, traffic volume, speed data, crash history, and other factors.

In the end, Lyons Plain was declared suitable for truck traffic but did not meet criteria for a prohibition. The major factor working against the ban was that, with the existing no-through on Route 136, access by trucks traveling north and south would be too limited and would cause the unintended consequences Chief Henion warned about.

The OSTA noted that Weston and Westport (where Lyons Plain becomes Lyons Plains) could consider enacting ordinances to limit the weight of trucks on the road, but that such measures could not amount to “a de facto through truck prohibition.”

Speed a widespread issue

According to reports submitted to the OSTA by the Weston police, average speeds on Lyons Plain Road do somewhat exceed the posted 35 mph limit. Speeding, as several groups of residents have been told by Chief Henion, is a virtually universal problem, especially during and since the pandemic.

Activity reports indicate that the Weston police have, for some time, significantly increased the number of traffic enforcement posts around town, aided by being eligible for $5,000 per month from the state to pay overtime for targeted enforcement on problem roads.

The Police Commission, May of 2024