Rogersville resident Richard Burdette presented the Rogersville Board of Mayor and Aldermen Tuesday with a list of safety suggestions for the intersection of Highway 11-W and Park Boulevard.
Burdette, who doesn’t claim to be a traffic engineer, but “just a guy who drives around and tries to stay out of accidents,” expressed concern over the number of horrific accidents at the intersection and pointed out this would get only worse when the *Blue Light Special (Justice Center) opens.
Burdette recommended to the board:
- red light photo traffic enforcement at the intersection and photo speed enforcement somewhere both east and west of the intersection;
- changing the traffic light so that vehicles can only turn left on an arrow, and not when oncoming traffic has a green light;
- changing the flashing “Signal Ahead” sign for approaching 11-W traffic to a “Prepare to Stop” sign that begins flashing just before the light turns red; and
- adding a strobe to the red light on 11-W that will flash when the red light is illuminated.
Of course, the suggestions most likely to generate dialogue in and around Rogersville are for photo enforcement.
Rogersville Mayor Jim Sells said of the traffic cameras, “If you save one life it’s well worth it.”
Mayor Jim Sells did not say, “And if you can shorten the amber cycle and pretend the high margin of error doesn’t exist, thereby allowing a municipality to overcharge unsuspecting motorists outrageous fees for what amounts to a glorified Orwellian parking ticket, all the better.”
But the thought may have occurred to him.
According to the Times-News, some board members speaking informally prior to the meeting said they believe some of the suggestions presented by Burdette are good ideas (which implies the rest of them thought the ideas sucked.)
But then Burdette mentioned, “Mount Carmel apparently has had a lot of success with their camera enforcement as far as reducing accidents along their stretch of 11-W, and perhaps we could have the same success.”
Although Mount Carmel’s cameras have been in use for less than six weeks, most Rogersville officials firmly believe their town is way better than Mount Carmel, (after all, they are the county seat) So, they think: “if Mount Carmel is doing it, why shouldn’t we?”
Pending state approval, I expect to see cameras at the intersection.
In unrelated BMA agenda item Tuesday, Burdette was also approved for appointment to the Library Board.
Click here for a legitimate, less snarky version of the report.
* The Justice Center is slated to open in January 2009.
Although Architect Tony Moore would like to continue running the project overbudget and generally screwing-up things, which he will then be paid to fix, a few county officials are starting to question if Moore knows what the hell he’s doing. Many now allege his groundbreaking Pal’s resturant design may not qualify him to be lead architect on multi-million dollar government buildings – even if the giant burger and fries on top of the Pal’s building are super cool. The increasing level of suspicion means Moore has a harder time trying to bamboozle county commissioners and office holders by using big words, which he invented. As a result, the Center may actually open within the 2009 calendar year.
