Milton officials are looking to convert the town’s busiest intersection into an all-way stop.

As Milton continues to grow, officials have safety concerns about the intersection of Federal, Union and Front streets in the heart of the town’s commercial district. 

“Milton has 19th century street design and 21st century traffic,” said Mayor John Collier. “There are no easy solutions. We need to explore sound options that may be outside the box.” 

To make any changes to the intersection, the town will have to get approval from the Delaware Department of Transportation. Town council presented a resolution to ask DelDOT to change existing yield signs to stop signs at its Sept. 12 meeting. The resolution says it’s a “confusing traffic pattern at a non-standard intersection, posing hazardous conditions for all users.” 

However, council was not satisfied with the wording of the resolution and sent it to the streets and sidewalks committee for further review at the committee’s Oct. 11 meeting. 

The committee recommended the creation of an all-way stop at the intersection, as well as painted stop bars on the asphalt at each stop sign, crosswalks on all four approaches with Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant pedestrian ramps, advance notice signage indicating a new stop sign on Federal Street, and a sidewalk bump out at the corner in front of the police station for better visibility of the new stop sign. Additionally, the committee recommended the slip lane turning right from Union Street onto Federal Street is to include a yield sign and a yield-to-pedestrians sign along with a painted approach to the slip lane crosswalk.

Councilwoman Randi Meredith, chair of the committee, said, “That intersection has many safety issues – for people in cars, people on bikes, people on foot, and people using assistive mobility devices – that our past leadership flat-out refused to address. Additionally, if we want our business district to flourish, we’ve got to address the problems that hinder that. This intersection in Milton’s town center has for too long been treated as a place that’s just not for people outside of cars.”

Collier added, “In my opinion, changing the yield sign is not the complete solution for the problems in that location. The town's intent with regard to traffic calming and improvements is to make sound, data-driven decisions. In order to do this, the town will engage qualified entities to study and suggest compliant, engineered solutions.”

The town has been considering entering into an agreement with DelDOT to form a Milton Transportation Improvement District that would tie land-use decisions to transportation improvements. Meredith, who recently took up bicycling, said it should be a goal of the town to find safer options for traveling through Milton than just an automobile. 

“Traveling through Milton by motor vehicle is often not the most practical way for residents to do tasks in town,” she said. “We need to give our residents safe options for how they choose to move through Milton. Our current traffic pattern limits our ability to provide ample parking and encourages greater speeds than are appropriate for a residential town with a high density of blind driveways and intersections with obstructed views. Creating safe, accessible transit options will open up space for those who do in fact require a motor vehicle to complete their tasks. If every resident who was able to move through town without a car/truck/SUV did so, there would be more of that very limited parking available to our neighbors who actually need it.”