new traffic light

[KennyK]

Hey it looks like a new trafffic signal going in at Hampton & Elizabeth. Is this good?

[3boys]

No!  They (Waterhouse, et. al.) claim that it is being put there to get traffic in and out of the neighborhood better - because Wilson is so congested now.  However, now that the hotel is almost complete and the last trailer will be moved out soon (I hope) I would think that that will make ingress and egress easier at that intersection.  I think that Charles Drury just really wants it to be just "his" road there!  It was never brought to CHNA before the decision was made to put it there - the only word that we heard was at the October or November meeting when Waterhouse said that the street department was looking into putting in a traffic light at Elizabeth and Hampton.  Traffic on Elizabeth will be worse with people running (or barely slowing down at) the stop sign at Esther already - now I can just see them thinking oh - the light is green - I can make it!  Also, the road is not very wide there - especially with cars parked on the street.  I see this as a BIG negative.

[KennyK]

We will have to see how it works out but it looks like a complicated and expensive way to police an intersection that seems to do OK most of the day. I do, however, use alternate routes to and from the neighborhood depending on the time of day and I think a light at Elizabeth will conflict with the flow mostly at Hampton south at Wilson and Hampton north at Columbia.We'll see?