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Making Landis St. one-way has merit
A proposal to make Landis Street one-way in front of the Sylva Post Office as offered by Postmaster Steve Allen sounds like a good idea to us.
The plan, currently under consideration by Sylva's elected officials, would return traffic flow to the way it was when the post office opened almost 40 years ago. At that time, traffic on what was then known as Walnut Street was one-way downhill, all the way from Jackson to Mill. A few years after the facility opened, the current two-way traffic pattern went into effect.
The reason for the change was that the only traffic light on Main Street at that time was at Spring Street. By changing to two-way traffic on Walnut (now Landis), traffic could follow Walnut Street up to the post office and then left on Jackson and arrive at Main Street at a traffic light. That problem was solved years ago with the addition of a traffic signal at the intersection of Main and Walnut (Landis) streets.
Today's pattern creates hazards when cars traveling from Main toward Jackson turn left into the diagonal parking in front of the post office, which was designed for cars coming from the opposite direction. The same is true for cars traveling from Jackson towards Main that use the parallel parking on the opposite side of the street.
While Allen's request covers only the section of Landis from Jackson to Main, we don't think one-way traffic should stop there – if one portion of the street is changed to one-way, then we think traffic on the entire street should be one-way.
Our biggest concern is what the traffic pattern on Landis will be between Main and Mill streets. If it remains as is, it would create confusion for drivers traveling from Mill to Main who will no longer be able to continue straight across Main to the upper section of Landis.
Although creating one-way traffic on Landis from Main to Mill would eliminate one entrance to Main Street, we think the improved safety would outweigh the negatives.
After all, for some 20 years vehicle traffic on Mill Street had to travel all the way to what we now call Grindstaff Cove Road (it used to be Maple Street) before it could turn left to reach Main Street. The addition of two-way traffic on Spring Street between Main and Mill a few years back gave a third entrance point, so it seems to us that losing Landis now would not significantly impact Main Street businesses.
Of course, this entire discussion will be moot if a new post office is to be built at Jackson Plaza. But since traffic on Landis has become an issue, we suppose there won't be a new post office anytime soon.
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