An excellent Letter to the Editor was titled "Insufferable amount of time to replace Route 35 bridge"
And this is the outfit we want to "improve" our little Main Street?
What for?
If you are one who is annoyed with the inconvenience of waiting a few minutes on Main Street while on your way to the Post Office, I say "beware".
All you will get is less sidewalk and more traffic. And if you are one who is worried about lack of parking space, you will have less.
If you are one who wants to straighten the intersection from Prospect Street to the CVS parking lot, I ask why? You will lose even more parking space and will end up with a traffic lane adjacent to a Ballard Park entrance instead of having a buffer.
And will all this speed Route 35 traffic along Main Street? Maybe. By 10 seconds? 20 seconds? 30 seconds? An entire minute? And the trade-off is?
Well, if the bridge on 35 is any guide, downtown interruption will last for who-knows-how-many-months, there will be less sidewalk, fewer parking spaces, replacement trees, more traffic traveling faster.
While further down 35 how many vehicles do you see just missing each other at the intersection with 116 or darting out of South Street or across double yellows coming out of Starbucks or Adam Broderick or pedestrians dodging traffic crossing 35? How about all the cars with children and seniors gauging their chances driving into and out of the Recreation Center & Founder's Hall?
What we really need are improved pedestrian crosswalks from Main Street to Farmingville, re-marking 35 so there are turning lanes to the strip mall businesses and a traffic light on 35 at the Recreation Center intersection.
I'm all for change but it should make common sense.
And this is the outfit we want to "improve" our little Main Street?
What for?
If you are one who is annoyed with the inconvenience of waiting a few minutes on Main Street while on your way to the Post Office, I say "beware".
All you will get is less sidewalk and more traffic. And if you are one who is worried about lack of parking space, you will have less.
If you are one who wants to straighten the intersection from Prospect Street to the CVS parking lot, I ask why? You will lose even more parking space and will end up with a traffic lane adjacent to a Ballard Park entrance instead of having a buffer.
And will all this speed Route 35 traffic along Main Street? Maybe. By 10 seconds? 20 seconds? 30 seconds? An entire minute? And the trade-off is?
Well, if the bridge on 35 is any guide, downtown interruption will last for who-knows-how-many-months, there will be less sidewalk, fewer parking spaces, replacement trees, more traffic traveling faster.
While further down 35 how many vehicles do you see just missing each other at the intersection with 116 or darting out of South Street or across double yellows coming out of Starbucks or Adam Broderick or pedestrians dodging traffic crossing 35? How about all the cars with children and seniors gauging their chances driving into and out of the Recreation Center & Founder's Hall?
What we really need are improved pedestrian crosswalks from Main Street to Farmingville, re-marking 35 so there are turning lanes to the strip mall businesses and a traffic light on 35 at the Recreation Center intersection.
I'm all for change but it should make common sense.
Published in The Ridgefield Press, April 27, 2017
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