Honesdale petition signers want return of two-way streets

Drivers take right-hand turns on Main Street because their GPS system instructs them to do so.

Drivers turn left onto Main Street while looking to the right to avoid oncoming traffic, but are blindly turning into pedestrian crosswalks.

During rush hour, cars speed down Church Street past Central Park while children are playing.

These are some of the safety concerns impacting the borough as residents and visitors still adjust to the one-way traffic pattern.

Safety Committee Chairman Bob Jennings said he has been bombarded with complaints from people on both sides of the fence.

“I’m trying to keep an open mind myself,” Jennings said. “It’s the safety issue I’m concerned about.”

In the time span of one hour during the Wayne County Fair, Jennings witnessed 11 cars attempt to turn onto Main Street from 4th Street.

Jennings said most of the drivers were from out of town and were not familiar with the area. Others, he said, told him their GPS had instructed them to turn right onto Main Street.

“GPS systems are a nightmare” for this situation, Jennings said.

Jennings said he called GPS service providers to discuss the problem. The companies told him it is the responsibility of each state’s Department of Transportation to update GPS companies of new traffic patterns.

PennDOT spokeswoman Karen Dussinger said the communication between the state and GPS service providers has been difficult.

“It’s a tough connection,” she said, adding that PennDOT has been making inroads with the companies.

Rich Kirkpatrick, a PennDOT spokesman in the Harrisburg office, said there is no formal process for notifying GPS service providers about changes in traffic patterns, but he said companies can find out about traffic pattern changes through PennDOT news releases.

“Bigger companies will check in once a year,” Kirkpatrick said.

There has been chatter from local residents about changing Main and Church Streets back to two-way roads, but borough council members said after factoring in the high costs, it is unlikely.

“PennDOT says it would cost about $1 million to change the streets back,” former Council President Ed Langendoerfer said at the August borough council meeting.

Some Honesdale residents are trying to drum up support to change Church and Main Streets back to two-way roads.

William McAllister is running a petition to show borough council that a good number of residents are concerned.

But Langendoerfer said in August that the borough has no authority over Church or Main because both roads are owned by PennDOT.

However, although Main and Church Streets are state roads, that does not mean the borough has no authority, Dussinger said.

“Like any other project, they would have to petition the Rural Planning Organization,” she said. The RPO, which consists of local “stakeholders,” decides whether a project is good for a certain area. The commission is made up of local residents, business owners and government officials.

After approval from the RPO, the project is then put on the Transportation Improvement Program waiting list, which could be as long as 20 years, Dussinger said.

The RPO, Dussinger said, is where the borough council can affect the process.

“The borough council can go to the Rural Planning Organization and influence its legislators,” she said.

Petition
“The bottom line is safety,” McAllister said. “There has been an awful lot of people going the wrong way, and the traffic speeds a lot more than it used to.”

McAllister said he is hoping to get a thousand signatures and already a couple hundred residents have signed on.

Kay Heberling has been collecting signatures from residents during the day on Main Street, and she said several local merchants have petitions at their business and have been encouraging people to sign.

“Some people are iffy about the petition, but when I explain safety concerns, they sign,” Heberling said. “The priority should be safety,” she said.

“What’s going on now is not safe.” McAllister added.

“People crossing the street are at risk,” Heberling said. “Cars pass each other when one vehicle stops for pedestrians.”
Some of the safety issues could be solved by installing two traffic lights, one on each street, Jennings said.

Jennings suggested putting a traffic light on the intersection of 9th and Church Streets, because of the high volume of traffic leaving the courthouse during rush hour. He also said a traffic light on 8th and Main Streets would slow down vehicles.

PennDOT has taken some pro-active steps with regards to safety, Dussinger said.

Updated street signs on the 4th Street bridge and a Pedestrian Safety Program were implemented, though the Safety Program had little support, she said.

With regards to speeding, Dussinger said PennDOT is not an enforcement agency.

“It’s not that we do something and walk away from it,” she said. “There is an adjustment period.”