Police Pursue Heightened

Main Street Traffic Enforcement

By Andrew Gorosko

In response to public calls for better traffic control on Main Street, police will have their traffic enforcement unit increase its efforts on the thoroughfare.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week that police plan to become more visible in enforcing motor vehicle laws along the heavily traveled road whose focal point is the Main Street flagpole intersection where many traffic accidents occur.

Residents concerned about traffic problems along the street met with Police Commission members on June 2 to offer some suggestions on how traffic could be better controlled on the broad straightaway.

Chief Kehoe said police are considering whether additional traffic signs can be added alongside the street to better regulate traffic flow. Such signs might include those with the legend “Speed Limit Strictly Enforced,” he said. Main Street is a state road and traffic control changes there are subject to state approval.

“It’s the center of town,” he said, adding that while police want a smooth flow of traffic to occur through the area, they also want that traffic to flow safely.

In regulating traffic, police always seek to balance travel safety with the efficient flow of traffic, he said.

At the Police Commission session, Borough Warden James Gaston suggested that police place plastic traffic cones along the edge of Main Street’s southbound travel lane at the flagpole intersection to prevent motorists from passing on the right other southbound drivers who are waiting to turn left onto Church Hill Road, according to commission records.

Such “passing on the right” situations occur in traffic in areas all across town, Chief Kehoe said. It remains unclear how police should address that situation at the flagpole intersection, he said.

Mr Gaston and others attending the session suggested that police assign a police officer to the flagpole intersection during peak traffic times to direct traffic flow.

“It’s a very, very tough intersection,” Chief Kehoe said this week. Properly controlling traffic flow there almost would require that two police officers be positioned there, he said, noting that the busy junction is five-legged.

The police department does not have enough staff to post an officer at the flagpole intersection for traffic control at peak traffic periods, he said. Such a traffic assignment would decrease the department’s staff available for patrol work, he said.

A town traffic agent, such as those who work near schools during peak traffic periods, would not be qualified to direct traffic at the hazardous flagpole intersection, Chief Kehoe said.

 Asked if installing traffic signals at the intersection would improve traffic conditions there, Chief Kehoe responded, “I’m in favor of anything that’s going to work.”

Borough officials have long opposed installing traffic signals at the intersection, saying that doing so would degrade the area’s historic aspect.

Installing traffic signals and physically reconfiguring the flagpole intersection would improve traffic conditions in the area, Chief Kehoe said.

“We’re trying all our tools that we have available to us…We’re open to suggestions,” the police chief said.

Chief Kehoe discounted one resident’s suggestion that an elevated circular platform with a railing be installed on the flagpole to provide a police officer with a position from which to direct traffic. Such an arrangement would not be practical, the chief said.

“We’re going to try a variety of different initiatives and see what works,” he said.

 “I think it’s going to turn into an engineering solution…Engineering’s going to be a key here,” he said.

“It’s going to be a multipronged approach,” he said, adding that traffic improvements would come as a result of public education, traffic engineering, and motor vehicle enforcement.