I’m responding to “State to remove Highway 500 signals” (Aug. 14, The Columbian) about planned traffic revisions at Northeast 42nd Avenue/Falk Road and Northeast 54th Avenue/Stapleton Road.
Do the Department of Transportation engineers know our traffic patterns? Do they live in this area and know how we drive? Have they taken a count of the school buses (with their garages on Stapleton Road) that use state Highway 500 in the mornings and afternoons? These buses go up Stapleton and straight across, or turn left onto state Highway 500 to go west in the mornings. The buses apparently will now have to go right, driving east to Northeast Andresen Road, go under state Highway 500, and back west. Now, how many cars and buses can exit at Andresen and then go back on without backing up on state Highway 500? It would be the same way at Northeast St. Johns Road.
Don’t tell me that the traffic won’t back up on state Highway 500 because of the U-turns. And, if drivers can’t see a red traffic light, will they be paying attention to backed-up traffic and brake lights? Or, maybe the school buses will be pushed over to Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard and make that road worse, just when the city is trying to improve it.
