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ROUNDABOUT: Consider other measures of safety first

There will be a public meeting today from 4-7 p.m. on a proposed roundabout at the intersection of Routes 20 and 60 in Fredonia at the Village Hall. The formal presentation is scheduled for 6 p.m. The main purpose of the proposal is to prevent accidents.

The roundabout is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Two years ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo designated $720,000 for the intersection for improvement of safety and traffic flow.

It’s going to take a while before anything happens. Here is something that could make the intersection much safer immediately.

Lower the speed limit.

Route 60’s speed limit is 45 miles an hour. Route 20’s speed limit is 40 miles an hour (excluding school hours). Lower the speed limit to 30 miles an hour a mile out of every direction from that intersection. There’s too many crashes there because vehicles are traveling too fast.

There’s no reason for vehicles to travel 45 miles an hour from Vineyard Drive to Main Street, especially with a light at Walmart. If drivers were traveling 30 miles an hour and approached a changing light, they would be more inclined to stop simply because they wouldn’t have the momentum to get through in time. And even if they did run a red light, a 30 mph crash is going to cause less damage than a 45 mph crash.

We’re not saying we’re opposed to the roundabout. We’re saying there’s an obvious way to make the intersection safer and that change can be done immediately and without government funding.

CLARIFICATION:

In Saturday’s “Worst of the week,” we were critical of the New York State Department of Transportation for leaving lanes blocked overnight while doing road construction on Route 60 on the three-lane hill in the town of Pomfret, when there was snow falling in the south end of the county. A Pomfret resident called us to say the lanes are being blocked because of a cell tower construction. We still believe the DOT should not have allowed the lanes to be blocked overnight, although it appears they were not doing roadwork. We also believe with the impending snowstorm, the cell tower construction needs to wait.

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