Headed to City Council to STOP the Madness

Rye is our city, Bradford Park is our neighborhood and we want a 4-way STOP at the intersection of Bradford and Florence. That is what the McLoughlin, Fox, Ward and other families have said in their comments on MyRye.com in support of the 4-way STOP.

We are cautiously optimistic as we head to city council tomorrow evening at 8pm. Councilman Matt Fahey has provided great guidance on getting and keeping our issue on the agenda and providing words of encouragement. Mayor Steve Otis has also indicated—barring the Traffic committee expressing concern the 4-way STOP creates an unsafe situation—he is inclined to be supportive. And finally, Councilman Andy Ball called today to get more color on the situation and generally be supportive.

So will we get our STOP sign tomorrow night? Probably not.

With 14-20 standing requests for stop signs, the City will likely need to formalize a process for a thumbs up or down on a stop sign (there is no current process, which is something of a frustration).

Given the council’s schedule, Mayor Otis feels council, with citizen input, can devise a standard process for STOP sign selection within five weeks (not that I am counting but that’s March 14th). Then add a couple more weeks for the consideration of the standing 14-20 requests including the request on Bradford and Florence (that’s March 28th).

Here is one suggested approach:

• All requests go to Brian Dempsey’s Traffic & Transit Committee.
• Requests must be accompanied by a letter signed by ten or more residents in the immediate surrounding area of the proposed STOP sign.
• If a request clearly meets federal or state standards for traffic safety, the Traffic & Transit Committee will approve the request and send it to City Council.
• If a request does not meet federal or state standards for traffic safety and the Committee also feels the proposed STOP sign creates an unsafe situation, the Traffic & Transit Committee will deny the request. The City Council will be notified but no further action will be taken.
• If a request falls in between these two situations and does not clearly meet federal or state standards but at the same time does not create any unsafe situation, a neighborhood can petition the City Council in support of a STOP sign request. In this situation, a neighborhood submitting a second letter of support signed by 40 or more residents in the immediate area around the proposed STOP sign will have their request put before the City Council for public vote.

This suggested approach gives our Traffic & Transit Committee clear guidance, places a reasonable burden on residents to demonstrate support and puts the ultimate burden of approvals and denials on our elected officials. This seems like a shared approach that fairly weights responsibilities between the various parties.

It has been so cold it is hard to imagine all our children out riding their bikes and playing ball but spring is not that far away. Given our rough schedule of seven more weeks for s decision and some time for public works to handle the installations, we don’t have much time to waste.

See you at the meeting.

To see prior posts on this subject, go here.