|
by Carey King
Sylva leaders have decided to delay action on the Main Street
barricade plan for 30 to 60 days.
At tonight's (Thursday) town board meeting, the matter will be
discussed and public input will be welcomed, but board members
have "basically decided to not take action to allow more
time for discussion," said Maurice Moody, Sylva's public
safety committee chairman.
The plan under consideration, presented to the committee Oct.
27 by N.C. Department of Transportation traffic engineer Reuben
Moore, is to change Main Street's left lane into a turn-only lane.
To ensure drivers use the lane as directed, a barricade of posts
would be erected in the left lane just past the intersections
at Grindstaff Cove Road and Landis and Spring streets.
Since road work necessary to erect the barricades can only be
done at temperatures above 50 degrees, the delay will push the
work from the original November dates proposed by the DOT into
February or March of next year.
Board members Anne Cabe, Moody and Eldridge Painter said during
a public safety committee meeting Oct. 30 they had received several
calls from concerned citizens about the matter.
Board members had been working on Main Street speeding and pedestrian
issues for several months before DOT presented them with the barricade
plan, Moody said.
The committee initially approached DOT with the idea of painting
additional turn arrows in Main Street's left lane, Moody said,
noting that since Main Street is "a public road, (the town)
had to have DOT's approval."
However, DOT officials said left-turn arrows would confuse drivers,
so "they wanted to put break-away barricades into the left
lane. That was not a Sylva plan, but a DOT plan," Moody said.
The barricade plan would not eliminate any Main Street parking
spaces, as was reported in last week's Herald
"(Moore's) thoughts when they were drawing it up were that
it might eliminate one or two spaces. But as it was finalized,
he said this will not be necessary," said town Manager Richard
McHargue.
"I personally appreciate (DOT's) efforts," Moody said,
adding that the committee still had time "to second-guess
ourselves" before a final decision on the barricades is made.
Police Chief Jeff Jamison questioned whether the barricades would
address the causes of most Main Street accidents.
"We have few accidents on Main Street, most a result of backing
out. I can't say speeding has caused a lot of accidents. It's
primarily blocked vision or inattention (that causes accidents),"
he said.
Jamison added that the barricades would not "discourage the
main part where speeding takes place, from Spring Street on."
Board member Eldridge Painter expressed concerns about the potential
effectiveness of the barricades, as they could "send a false
sense of security" to pedestrians crossing the street.
One option the committee discussed was trying the barricades on
an experimental basis.
"If the worst nightmares turn out to be true, we could take
them out," Moody said.
McHargue proposed making Main Street crosswalks into "streetprints,"
areas where the road is imprinted with a texture that makes a
noise when cars drive over.
"The tendency of a motorist is to slow down when you hit
a different surface," said McHargue, adding that the streetprints
"could be relatively inexpensive to do."
Jamison addressed the option of issuing more tickets on Main Street.
"It's hard to run radar down there because you have to be
facing traffic," he said, adding that the police department
is currently stretched too thin for officers to patrol the street.
"(Highway 107) is the road we have the most accidents on.
You have to work the road with the most speeders," Jamison
said.
"Some people think the answer is issuing tickets," said
Moody. "We don't want Sylva to be a speed trap. Once you
have the reputation of a speed trap, business suffers and the
town suffers."
Moody said part of the problem is that pedestrians often cross
Main Street without utilizing provided crosswalks.
"We've got to try to educate the public on this," he
said. "Pedestrians have a responsibility, too. If a pedestrian
crosses at a crosswalk, they're more visible."
|
