Stop signs and sightlines

To the Editor,

I attended a lively and informative meeting of Swarthmore Borough’s Safety Committee last night (see our story). The principal agenda item was about potential four-way stop signage at the intersection of Cornell and Yale avenues, to reduce collisions. The borough’s engineering consultant presented results of a traffic study, and gave a description of the application of the state and federal guidelines to potential signage on Yale Avenue, which is a designated main thoroughfare. There was no disagreement that the sightlines westward for drivers northbound on Cornell are the main problem.  

At the same time, the presence of stop signs on Yale at Kenyon Avenue was noted. It’s apparent that those serve only as a traffic-calming measure, principally for eastbound traffic on Yale Avenue. The Yale/Kenyon intersection in every way clearly falls well short of the state/federal criteria for the installation of such signage. For instance, the sightlines are very good, with traffic visible westward all the way to Chester Road.

Tony Addison
Swarthmore