In response to Sec. Jennifer Cohan’s letter in the Cape Gazette May 14, I am curious to know if DelDOT’s data-driven traffic studies have taken into account traffic counts and flow on Friday afternoons in the weeks before through the weeks after peak tourist season, as well as on Saturdays during the summer.
As recently as a couple of years ago, the traffic backups that often plagued Route 1 for seasonal visitors and tourists occurred just south of Dover at the Bowers Beach and Magnolia traffic lights. With that intersection now improved to an interchange, the question is how has the traffic crunch changed.
Based on my eye test for the times I have driven north on a Saturday last summer, the backups near Milton at the Route 16 light seem much longer than in past years. And this backup was before the intersection at Bowers was fully improved. I shudder at the thought of how long the backups on Route 1 above the Milton light will be this summer and what impact those backups will have on routes 5 and 30 as residents and tourists alike dodge the likely longer line on Route 1.
For local residents off Cave Neck, Minos Conaway, and other local roads, that traffic light is the last gasp preventing 75 miles of near freeway and freeway traffic from having a free run into Coastal Delaware. For Lewes and Rehoboth residents who support the various local businesses on the northbound side of Route 1 above Nassau, that light helps make it easier for those residents to turn back south without having to travel to Route 16 just to make a u-turn.
I appreciate the critical need for interchanges at Cave Neck Road, Minos Conaway Road, and Route 16, as well as improving the tire fire that is the Five Points intersection. However, putting in an interchange at Route 16 before addressing the other intersections may likely shift traffic congestion downstream in the summer, resulting in lengthy backups closer to home before intersections are turned to interchanges.
Temporary fixes can be put in place to improve the safety at Route 16. Red light cameras, slightly longer delays between when a light turns red and when cross traffic gets the green light, and more consistent traffic patrolling from the Delaware State Police can go a long way to provide some help. These aren’t perfect suggestions but I believe it to be a better solution than to can kick the obvious elephant in the room regarding Route 1: Five Points.
Let’s give the working group and local residents credit for understanding that Route 16’s light is our area’s safety valve. The bottom line is that the Five Points intersection needs to be fixed first and immediately, not talked about getting fixed, nor focus grouped to death.
The time for talk has long, long since passed.
Tom Thunstrom
Lewes
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.
