Tim O’Brien and I attended Brian Dempsey’s Traffic and Transportation Committee meeting this past Thursday, November 9th to get a status on our request for a four-way stop sign at the intersection of Bradford and Florence in the Bradford Park neighborhood of Rye.
In short, we are still waiting. There have been over 20 requests for new stop signs across Rye in the last two months, and the committee is looking to the City for some guidance.
Dempsey had everyone out for this meeting including Assistant City Manager Scott Pickup, Assistant Engineer Christopher Tallarini (who conducted the Florence Avenue speed study), Fire Chief John Wickham and Police Commissioner William Connors, although some of his committee regulars were absent.
The committee reviewed the Florence Avenue speed study. In short, there is not a speeding problem on Florence (average speed is 23 MPH). This is a bit of a red herring, since people in Bradford Park want stop signs on Bradford—so the problem is on Bradford and has less to do with speed and more to do with the fact motorists are simply not required to stop at the intersection of Bradford and Florence.
The committee spent a good 20-30 minutes discussing the situation, solutions and alternatives including photos of the intersection and maps. Commissioner Connors, in addition to some funny one-liners (who thought our visit to the Traffic committee would be funny?), came up a great interim step of placing a “Reverse 911” call to the Bradford Park neighborhood. The call will mention the neighborhood concern and ask everyone to be aware of traffic rules.
Next up?
• The committee will look to the City (presumably the City Council and the Mayor) for some overall guidance on stop sign requests.
• The Police department will issue a “Reverse 911” to the Bradford Park neighborhood encouraging awareness of neighborhood concerns about traffic rules.
• Assistant Engineer Christopher Tallarini will be checking set back rules on Florence and determine if any action can be taken in regards to bushes and brush blocking the visibility around the intersection.
• Committee Chair Dempsey will walk the neighborhood to see the situation first hand.
• We plan to circulate a neighborhood letter in the next few weeks proving an update and status of our stop sign request.
The next Traffic and Transportation Committee meeting is Thursday, December 14th.
I live on Florence Ave and have 3 children. We are outside almost all of the time and constantly notice how quickly cars speed by. Cars come flying down Bradford and whip around the corner. It is amazing an accident hasn’t already happened — let’s make this a 4-way stop sign before something tragic happens.
I have lived on Bradford for 6 years and travel through that intersection at least twice a day. It is definitely a problem whether approaching that intersection from Bradford OR from Florence. I can say from personal experience that some drivers are coming down Bradford and making the turn onto Florence at very fast speeds. We definitely need a 4 way stop sign for safety before somebody gets hurt.