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The Springfield Township Board of Commissioners March 10 said it will not create a four-way stop in an Erdenheim neighborhood, but residents said the intersection in question is unsafe.
The proposal to place a four-way stop sign where Chesney Lane crosses Glendalough Road and becomes Longfield Road was defeated in a 4-3 vote.
Commissioners Jim Dailey, Doug Heller and Alison Peirce voted in favor of the change.
Peirce, who represents the neighborhood, said after the meeting that residents asked about this intersection while she was campaigning in the fall.
In November, the commissioners approved a four-way stop sign at Terminal Avenue and Glendalough Road in that same neighborhood, and “most residents felt it was a marvelous addition,” she said. “It’s disappointing not to see the benefits replicated in this other location.”
Currently, the stop signs are on Chesney Road and not on Glendalough or Longfield roads.
Township solicitor Sean Kilkenny recommended the commissioners not create a four-way stop because it is not warranted by PennDOT, he said.
However, a representative from the township’s insurance agency said it probably wouldn’t be a liability, Kilkenny said.
In a discussion of the issue in January, commissioners said the township safety officer did not recommend a four-way stop, and no crash data available show a need for it. The board tabled the issue at the time so that more commissioners could inspect the intersection on their own.
The board did not hire an engineer to look at the intersection because it felt sure of the PennDOT criteria, Township Manager Don Berger said after the meeting.
But residents said the intersection is unsafe. At the meeting they cited views obstructed by yard plants, dangerous speeding and the incline of the intersection, which, they said, makes it confusing for drivers.
“There is a very poor line of sight and it’s dangerous,” resident Joe Pientka said. “They’re right on top of you before they even see you.”
The school bus picks up and drops off neighborhood children at that intersection every day, and cars travel through very quickly, resident Michael Smith told commissioners.
It “just seems like it’s a matter of time before something bad would happen,” he said.
Later, outside the meeting room, the handful of residents who had come said they would look to appeal the township’s decision, and they were interested in the safety report.
They also questioned why the residential intersection is subject to PennDOT guidelines if it is not on a state-owned road.
Some drivers swing around that intersection so quickly that Susan Fedele, who lives closer to Bethlehem Pike, said she can hear them all the way down the street.
An additional stop sign the other way would force them to stop and make a turn, she added.
Road conditions must meet certain PennDOT standards before stop signs or traffic signals can be installed, Berger said after the meeting.
There is also no way to appeal the board’s decision, he said.
During the meeting, individual commissioners said the vote against the intersection should not be taken as a litmus test of an official’s commitment to public safety, or interpreted as undermining the Springfield Township Police Department, which often surveys intersections under discussion and provide recommendations.
“No matter how an individual commissioner votes on a stop sign, whether they vote to put one in, place them in or not to place them in, there’s no difference on whether or not one commissioner cares about safety,” Dailey said before the vote. “Everyone has safety in mind.”
Peirce said her personal opinion is PennDOT is not as far along as it should be on certain issues.
There is a lot of contradicted evidence that a four-way intersection is actually safer, Commissioner Bob Gillies said. A four-way intersection could create more confusion about who has the right of way at a certain time, he said.
Board President Jeff Harbison said he preferred to defer to the township traffic safety officer.
In November, the board voted unanimously to approve multi-way stop intersections at Bruce and Garth roads in Oreland and Erdenheim Road and Yeakel Avenue in Erdenheim. They did not meet PennDOT warrants, but a traffic engineering study showed reasons for installing them, Commissioner Glenn Schaum said in January.
