Stop Sign Saga

Simon says STOP. Don’t stop. Stop!

Take your life into your own hands. Simon says good luck.

If you’ve been driving down Glenside Avenue in Wyncote this summer, you will have noticed changes in the octagonal red signage. The 4-way stop that had been on Glenside Avenue at Waverly Road has been removed. Only traffic on Waverly has to stop. At the same time, a 3-way stop has sprung up at North Avenue.

The changes came in response to some vocal residents, upset by the use of Waverly Road as a vehicular cut-through. They attribute excessive traffic on the narrow residential street to the 4-way stop. Presumably the 4-way stop signs made it easier for drivers to turn onto Waverly and use it as a short cut.

Instead, traffic should be encouraged to stay on the main roads and turn only at streets with traffic lights, noted one of the organizers to remove the 4-way stop. He believes the 4-way stop feature actually facilitated excess cut-throughs. He and his allies want to fund an outside study of the situation by a traffic engineer.

Installed in 2004, the 4-way stop was meant to improve safety compromised by the speed, volume and visibility of traffic at that intersection, according to Cheltenham Township records.

What is crystal unclear to many Wyncote residents is how those problems of traffic speed, volume and visibility have been improved by the removal of the 4-way stop. Safety appears to again be in great peril.

Observe pedestrians trying to cross Glenside Avenue at Waverly, Hewett or Glenview. It’s downright scary. Mad dashes, false starts, fits and spurts. And traffic is lightest in July and August. Autumn's back to school crunch and masses of umbrella-toting SEPTA commuters will exacerbate such problems.

So other residents are mobilizing a counter petition to restore the 4-way stop.

They don’t want an accident toll to mount in order to provide evidence for their position. Count this writer in that camp.

And almost like the placement of warriors’ flags during a battle skirmish, the comings and goings of these stop signs are being watched by the dawn’s early light.

Actually, nobody’s especially fond of excess traffic speeding by. On that point all sides are in concert. It’s on how best to reduce it that’s in dispute. And on what tradeoffs and sacrifices residents are willing to make.

And on alternatives. Some residents are even receptive to the idea of speed bumps. What’s your experience with those, Jenkintown?

Meanwhile, drivers, please be on the lookout for changing signage on our streets. Drive mindfully, not out of habit. And watch out for other drivers and pedestrians who are caught off guard. We may be in for several months of temporary experiments and signs that creep from one intersection to the next. Stay alert, and slow down.