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Editorials
A Transit Road access management law is coming to Lancaster, one that has been defined as: The process of locating and designing vehicular access connections to preserve the flow of traffic in terms of safety, capacity and flow.
Perhaps if such law were already in place, the recent Transit Road Aldi project would not have been approved, nor the present reconfiguration of the Transit Road/ Michael Anthony Lane Tim Hortons access driveway
I received e-mail from a Michael Anthony Lane resident yesterday complaining of the Tim Hortons driveway reconfiguration. The correspondence read:
I called the Building Inspector’s office today to see what was going on with the roadwork at Tim Hortons at my intersection. I was told that the DOT approved them to remove the present curb cut pulling into their business for traffic coming north up Transit past Kohl’s and for people traveling down Transit past Target who will now be allowed to make a left into Tim Hortons.
I guess Hortons had some engineer look at it. Because many of their customers ran into the curb, the DOT is letting them remove it. My opinion is if they weren't making an illegal left hand turn they would not have an issue.
I'm very disappointed with the whole thing because it was repeatedly stated by the Planning and Town Boards that the Transit Road access could not be used to make left turns into or out of the Tim Hortons.
There is now nowhere to go because the town does not care about its people. We pay taxes not the people who stop in from other towns. How sad is that. And the town approved Tim Hortons to make the drive thru wider. Why, to help Tim Horton’s business?
The traffic situation and potential for even more accidents will only get worse with the planned businesses coming on Transit Road.
Planning and Town Boars on Tim Hortons approval
It is bewildering why the town would allow this to happen if it really was concerned about traffic safety issues, but understandable if you review the site plan approval process.
At a July 2007 Planning Board meeting, Tim Horton’s representatives came in with a modified sketch plan they believed would resolve the traffic and safety concerns voiced by several board members at the previous month’s board meeting.
The location of the building would be moved closer to Transit Road allowing for additional entry/exit onto Michael Anthony Lane to allow for two accesses.
The entry to the Hortons from Transit Road and the exit onto Transit Road from the Horton’s would be “right turn only”. Left turning traffic (from the Tim Horton’s onto Transit Road) would have to make a left onto Michael Anthony and then left onto Transit Road. Signage indicating “right turn only” and “no left turn” will be placed at the Transit Road exit.
As with a previous meeting motion made to recommend approval of the site plan to the Town Board, the motion failed to pass as four approval votes were not had. Therefore, the Planning Board made no recommendation for approval to the Town Board.
Several Planning Board members still expressed serious concerns about the traffic and traffic safety issues with the project despite the modified site plan that was presented.
From that day on, the Town Board led residents to believe that with the no left turn signage in place and with future Kohl’s signalization in place (allowing a break in traffic) traffic and traffic safety concerns were mitigated to the extent practicable.
After the Tim Hortons was constructed, two signs were erected clearly denoting that left turns were not allowed by vehicles traveling south on Transit Road into the Horton’s property and that vehicles could only exit onto Transit Road making a right turn – no left turn allowed.
Since Tim Hortons went into operation, vehicles traveling south on Transit Road have been making illegal left turns to enter the Horton’s property. Having personally witnessed numerous vehicles breaking the law (if indeed the signage was deemed legal and enforceable) – including two smaller school buses – I never saw any police intervention.
The Tim Hortons owner contacted the town saying that customers were hitting the island that had been so constructed to impede Transit Road traffic from making a left turn onto their property (instead of Michael Anthony Lane). As it turns out, the complaining customers were the ones who were making the illegal left turns.
So, with the approval of the town, the NYS Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a permit to allow for the reconfiguration of the island that will in turn now allow drivers to make Transit Road left turns legally and with ease – the no left turn sign has already been removed.
So much for the traffic and traffic safety concerns expressed by both boards that led to the Planning Board not issuing a recommendation for site plan approval and the initial denial for site plan approval from the Town Board.
But how can the Town Board allow such transgression when the aforementioned traffic mitigation plans were conditioned before Board site plan approval was given in late 2007?
Well guess what, none of the traffic mitigation plans were instated in writing (conditioned). The only condition stated in the approved site plan regarded landscaping.
So kids, its game, set, match.
Just talk, no walk
Before the proposed Access Management law goes into being, that grandfathers established businesses, developers are rushing to get project site plans approved. Even then, the way the access management language is written leaves the door wide open for developer challenges.
As others, I have to ask what purpose will be served doing a town wide traffic study and in passing an Access Management law when the town sets conditions and makes promises that they do no keep or enforce?
How ludicrous is it that the town and DOT can work together to permit reconfiguration of a driveway to make it possible, easier and safer for vehicles making illegal left turns? It was clearly implied by the town that no left turns could be made into the Tim Hortons because of safety issues.
It’s all a matter of non-enforcement and that’s why many Lancaster residents have lost faith in the town to secure their safety and quality of life. Is it any wonder that so many of us question the effectiveness of the proposed access management law when there are so many escape clauses for developers to pervert the law?
Lastly, what were the town and county thinking when allowing the Transit Road Aldi’s use of the Rite-Aid driveway as an access driveway from William Street? There is no signalization in place, a driveway across the street and 60’ to the west, and with a supercenter Wal-Mart just approved with a signalized driveway less than 100’ to the east of the Rite-Aid driveway?
“Hang in there,” we are being told, “relief is on the way. They also told us the Aldi’s would be interconnected with the relocated Flix driveway and that the driveway servicing the Sunoco gas station and other front parcels would be removed. Well, neither event took place!
We are also being told that if the town wide traffic study indicates William Street needs widening, the town will apply for a federal grant to pay for the work – as the county has no money to do so. How long will that take?
In the meantime William Street travelers will continue to be frustrated, and even more so, because a town developed, and continues to develop without plans in place to accommodate for commercial and residential growth and the resulting traffic and traffic safety impacts associated with said growth.
How many “small-to-moderate” SEQRA impact statements does it take to make a “significant” impact? Lancaster’s Municipal Review Committee seems to have no idea!
Perhaps it’s time and best to follow the advice of a town official who told me when I complained of traffic safety issues at one location, “Don’t go there”!
William Street traffic concerns
At Monday evenings Lancaster Town meeting, the writer inquired on the status of the townwide traffic study and the joint Lancaster / Cheektowaga access management ordinance.
When asked whether the traffic study for the south end of Lancaster had been completed and when the findings would be published, Council member Dan Amatura looked to Council member Donna Stempniak and said, “Yes, Donna, we have to adopt that. We also have to find out what the model we are going to use is going to cost us.”
When asked whether working together on this project has led to signalization timing changes being already made to improve traffic movement, it was answered that such changes were already made.
When the board was asked if the writer was correct in assuming that approval of the proposed Access Management law would take place in August, the response made was that the law was scheduled for approval in August.
The writer went on to read a letter written by a Lake Avenue resident commenting on her frustration of commuting west on William Street and Losson Road while traveling to work everyday to get to Union Road and then on to the Thruway.
Resident correspondence
This frustration exacerbated a couple of years ago when an additional signal was added on Losson Road less than a tenth mile west of Transit Road at the entrances to Wegmans and Target, with apparently no consideration given to synchronizing the signals. As a result, traffic that gets stopped at one signal often gets stopped at the next one as well. This lengthens the time of the commute and wastes precious fuel.
Around the same time as the traffic light was installed, the William/Transit intersection was broadened, but not to accommodate through traffic, as would have been most helpful. Instead, two left turn lanes were created from William onto Transit and the timing on the left turn signal was shortened significantly.
The end result was that a car waiting at the end of the line to turn left onto Transit has less of a chance of making the light than before the “improvement” was made, again wasting time and fuel. I did speak by phone with a representative of the State Department of Transportation regarding this situation, but as it was after the fact he was not at all that interested.
I admit that I dread the coming of the Wal-Mar, which was in the planning stages before I moved to Lancaster six years ago. I knew that it would increase the traffic at the intersection. I have kept my counsel on the subject until now.
I write today to implore you to do what is necessary to see to it that any traffic signal added at that area is synchronized with the lights on either side of it, at Aurora and at Transit Road. If time permits, I would suggest driving the route that I must take every day. Not only will you feel that pain, but also that of many taxpayers who share that commute.
I should also add that recent changes to the timing of the signals at Lake and William and at Aurora and William have this trip even longer.
Added comments
Council member Amatura differed with the Lake Avenue writer and said that the signal timing change at William and Aurora has helped move traffic better.
If any traffic relief has been had on William Street, it is because motorists are traveling less because of the cost of gas!
A Windsor Ridge resident who travels the same route declared that Tim Horton customers attempting to access the driveway near Aurora Street exacerbate the William Street vehicular back up. “There is a backup of cars trying to access the Tim Hortons, but in front of that backup the road is clear.”
No traffic study was required or performed when the Tim Horton’s moved into the Aurora Markets complex.
© Copyright 2008 by Speakupwny.com
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