By Adam Swift
City councillors want to see improvements to the traffic island at Hall’s Corner, but don’t necessarily want to see the traffic island removed.
At Monday night’s council meeting, Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley introduced a motion to reconsider a vote taken last month to ask that the traffic island be removed.
Kelley had initially asked that the city and the traffic commission evaluate the channel/traffic island located at Hall’s Corner due to repeated vehicles striking its curbing and recommend appropriate safety improvements, including but not limited to reflective yellow curb paint, delineator posts, and/or warning signage.
At the time, a successful substitute motion was filed to remove the traffic island altogether.
Monday night, Kelley successfully asked that the council reconsider that motion.
“I know that the amendment asked to remove the island entirely, but after the meeting, I had some reservations about removing it entirely because I really think its presence there is acting as a traffic calming measure,” said Kelley. “So I think, rather than just making a decision one way or another, we could ask the opinion of traffic and some other experts as to what they think might be the most viable option … that would provide the most safety. I don’t want to do anything that would be making anything worse, we want to try to improve this.”
Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky said he drives in that area a lot and supported the motion.
“I know it has been a bad intersection; that’s why we put extra stop signs there and I think that island is a calming measure,” Novoselsky said.
Ward 6 Councillor Chris Giannino said the traffic island is sticking out too far into the roadway, but thought that it could be reshaped or improved.
Council President Anthony Zambuto said he also believed the traffic island should be modified rather than eliminated and moved the motion to the council’s public safety subcommittee, giving engineers and other experts an opportunity to weigh in on the issue.