The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to [email protected].

Question:

Hi, first I want to say thank you for taking the time to read and respond to every email and for really trying to address everyone’s concerns.

It’s my understanding that the Pine Street project has been delayed. Do you have a new timeline for the project?

I also had a few suggestions for Cedar Bridge from MLK to the 88. I understand this is a county road and you would have to speak to them about this, and that the county is looking at a long-term project, but just for the near term I think these are small fixes that can go a long way. A lot has changed along this corridor since the changes going south on Clifton approaching the 88 were implemented. It has had a very positive impact for Clifton and Cedar Bridge going south, but some negative impacts for Cedar Bridge going west and then north approaching the 88.

It used to be that making a left turn going west on Cedar Bridge onto Hurley was an easy one and not a long wait at all, but now, with the new traffic pattern from Clifton, there is a constant stream of cars going south and east down Cedar Bridge, thereby making it hard to make a left onto Hurley. As a result, Cedar Bridge backs up all the way to MLK and maybe even further, and now when MLK gets a green light there is no room to make a left onto Cedar Bridge, and then MLK gets backed up as a result. So I think adding time to the left-turn arrow onto Hurley would help Cedar Bridge and MLK as well.

Also, because the left lane on Cedar Bridge going straight turns into left-only at Hurley, that causes a bottleneck with cars trying to switch over to the right. Then, approaching the 88, the right lane switches to Right Turn Only, and cars have to switch back to the left lane to go straight onto Clifton. This switching back and forth causes a lot of traffic, so if we can eliminate parking in front of the former DB store, especially after the new parking was added, and add a second lane merging into one on Clifton allowing people to go straight from the right lane, I think that would help the bottleneck situation on this corridor.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long email.

Response from Mayor Coles:

Thank you for taking the time to write this long email! Much appreciated. There is a lot to unpack here. Almost everything you touched on is in various stages of planning. We are actually meeting with the state DOT this afternoon to discuss RT 9 from 88 to Pine and also the 88 & Clifton intersection.

I am forwarding your email to our engineer and asked him to go over it & make sure all the points you brought up are being looked at and also to see if we can work with the county to make any interim improvements.

Thanks again for reaching out.

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