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RFH 2010, Which Way for the Five-Way?

4 Options for the 5-Way

Thu, Mar 25, 2010

The organization hired to create options for possible changes to the five-way intersection in the heart of downtown presented its ideas Wednesday night.

4 Options for the 5-Way

The firm hired by the Partnership for Community Development (PCD) to suggest possible changes to the five-way intersection in the business district of the village unveiled four options at a meeting in the HCS cafeteria Wednesday night. Created in part from suggestions of village residents who attended a February open house, the plans addressed both vehicular and pedestrian movement through and around the intersection and also changes to the surrounding streetscape.

Three members of a project team formed by Elan Planning & Design of Saratoga Springs explained the overall project and how they arrived at the four possible changes to the spot where Utica, Broad, Lebanon, Madison and Payne streets converge. Lisa Nagle, a principal partner in the firm, said the intersection has been "studied to death" since the early 1970s, but few changes were ever made. She said Elan is about halfway through with the work they had been hired to do.

The four options presented Wednesday included:

1. Re-striping the crosswalks around the intersection and adjusting the timing of the traffic lights to allow traffic flow from only one of the five streets at a time to eliminate the congestion cause by vehicles making left turns.

2. Expanding the sidewalk in from of Alliance Bank and Nichols & Beal by about 40 feet to make Payne and Lebanon streets align. This also reduces the size of the open space in the middle of the intersection, something that PCD and Elan have said is critical to make the junction more pedestrian-friendly. This option would also include the changes of Option 1.

3. In addition to the changes included in option 3, the third possible change includes making Lebanon Street one way going east from Maple to the intersection. It also calls for widening the sidewalks on Lebanon and Broad Streets, eliminating parking at the north end of the village green, increasing the number of parking paces in the municipal lot behind village hall and adding landscaping to the south half of the village green. It also called for narrowing Broad Street near the post office to make that crosswalk safer.

4. The fourth option -- creating a traffic circle -- was presented but dismissed as unfeasible by Élan's traffic engineer Peter Faith. He said to meet specifications, the intersection would actually have to be enlarged so much that it would infringe on the space actually occupied by buildings.

At the beginning of the meeting, PCD Managing Director Roger Bauman reminded the 50 or so people in attendance that "there is no perfect solution."

One element that was discussed and that drew critical observations was the suggestion of creating a crosswalk that went from the corner of Lebanon and Broad, across the widest part of the intersection to about the side door of Nichols & Beal.

There were also suggestions that changes to the streetscape near the intersection would inhibit large truck traffic

Nagle said the next step is to compile and discuss comments from Wednesday night's meeting, and begin to create a proposed solution to present to the village board. Elan will also begin looking at the cost of the project and also identify possible funding sources.

 

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Comments(1):

  1. Stop the Insanity. The 5-way intersection should stay as it is.

    Thursday, March 25, 2010 Ethan

    Let me get right to the point. Investing time and money into worrying about the state of the 5-way intersection is ridiculous. More specifically, none of the ideas proposed make any sense. 1) How can traffic be anything but congested if the timing of the lights is reconfigured to have but one street active at any one time? Is the supposed safety to be gained worth the backed up traffic? I doubt it. 2) How is expanding the sidewalk in front of Nichols and Beal going to accomplish anything? So what if Lebanon and Payne are aligned? This does nothing to address the blind turns and, if anything, clogs the intersection's vehicular traffic even more. As for pedestrians, they can navigate the intersection just fine as it stands now. Push the button. Wait for the signal. Look both ways. Cross. Simple. The stupidity of making a cross walk from Lebanon/Broad to Nichols and Beal isn't even worthy of comment. 3) Why make Lebanon one way? Is having parking facing the same way on both sides of the street going to solve anything? If you're going to eliminate parking on one side or the other, or on the green, by widening the sidewalks, isn't this going to anger local merchants who already complain that there isn't enough downtown parking already? Why bother adding to the municipal lot? It's the same distance to walk if people would just park on Maple or any of the other neighboring side streets as they do now. Widening at Broad Street will also reduce visibility for vehicular traffic from the north and south. The width of the post office cross walk cannot possibly be made that much safer by widening the sidewalk and still allowing traffic to safely pass through. Adding landscaping to the south half of the village green? What the hell does that have to do with anything? 4) Traffic circle? Has anyone seen National Lampoon's European Vacation? "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliment!" I hope the person that proposed that idea was laughed out of the room. People, this sad. We're spending money on this! We're spending money on a firm (Elan Planning and Design) from Saratoga Springs, no less! We're spending money on a completely unnecessary project. Roger Bauman of the PCD even says himself, "There is no perfect solution." No kidding! The intersection isn't perfect and it won't ever be unless you raze the town and start over. Oops, maybe that'll be the PCD's next winning idea The overall stupidity of the idea of the project aside, these people that have been hired to examine "our problem" haven't lived in Hamilton and couldn't care less about its history or understand the workings of our intersection. What's worse, once again, is that there is no need for them to be here in the first place! Lastly, they'll be looking for "possible funding sources." Hmmmm, what do you suppose those might be? Get ready for a tax increase. At the very least, Town Planners will have their hands out to Albany asking for money that the State doesn't have. Turn off the tap and put this idea to bed. If not, send me the money you're spending on this. You will get just as much for your value.