GUEST COMMENTARY [Name withheld by request out of fear of retaliation] For two decades, Leo Lutz has occupied the mayor's office in Columbia, and his supporters are quick to credit him with every positive development in our borough, but leadership is a two-way street. If Mayor Lutz is going to accept praise for Columbia's successes, many of which, frankly, he had little direct involvement in, then he must also be held accountable for our failures. The facts paint a troubling picture. Despite the mayor's repeated assurances that our streets are safe, we've witnessed a disturbing rise in assaults, shootings, and vandalism. His promises have fallen by the wayside: the foot patrol we were promised never materialized, nor did the bike patrol that was supposed to increase our sense of security. Fiscally, the situation is equally dire. Taxes have increased at least twice during Mayor Lutz's tenure, yet the borough now finds itself millions of dollars in debt. This isn...
Comments
There should be a speed limit in place at an area like this that will be heavily travelled by pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.
What needs to be fixed is the horrible traffic light plan at the intersection. As I see it, there are two traffic signal heads facing traffic coming out of the park. One 3 signal head (red, yellow, and green) before the tracks and another five signal head, (red, yellow, yellow left turn, green, and green left turn.)on the other side of the tracks It should be set up that when the first signal coming out of the park starts to turn red, the second signal should go to green with green left turn (all other lights red) to allow traffic to clear the tracks. I have never seen it do this. Also, why must all traffic stop when a train is traveling past the crossing. Would seem to me that traffic on Route 441, traveling through, could keep moving. Similar intersection in Leola at Horseshoe Road and Newport Road. Traffic on Horseshoe Road, which runs parallel to the tracks, gets a green signal but they also have signs which are illuminated when a train is passing preventing a left or right turn toward the tracks, depending on your direction of travel, to keep people from sitting on Horseshoe Road waiting until the train has passed.
Someone needs look at the signal and get it right.
So unless you KNOW the speed limits on a section of track, it is very ignorant to claim a train is speeding in the legal sense. And if you think that Walnut St. is heavily traveled by people, you need to travel outside of the borough more often.
OMG It's the poor planning of signs and signals.
As far as being unsafe: says who? Are you an FRA inspector? Do you have the timetables for that line? (PS there are line segments around here where 50 and 60 are allowed). Are you familiar with train operations to determine what is safe or not? Didn't think so.
Don't make accusations that are blatantly false.
I agree the traffic signal could be better.