Springfield man wants traffic lights to work

Robert Snide has lived in the Whitcomb Building for 11 years, and he said he's seen a lot of close calls.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100416/NEWS02/4160359/1003/NEWS02       # # # # Springfield man wants traffic lights to work  •  Rutland Herald  •  By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: April 16, 2010  •  SPRINGFIELD – Robert Snide has lived in the Whitcomb Building for 11 years, and he said he's seen a lot of close calls.  •  Snide earlier this week asked the Springfield Select Board to consider reactivating the traffic lights at the head of Clinton Street, where Main Street starts and crosses the recently rebuilt Community Center Bridge.  •  Snide, 73, a lifelong Springfield resident, said when Clinton Street was first built, there were regular ''stop-and-go'' traffic lights installed, but for the last 15 years or so, the lights were on a blink or flash mode, and since last year's construction project have been turned off entirely.  •  "I want them to activate the lights that were here," Snide said.  •  Traffic has increased greatly in the past five years, he said, noting the state office building on Mineral Street, and Springfield High School, at the top of South Street Hill, contribute a great deal of the traffic.  •  The traffic is dangerous, Snide said. He said one Whitcomb Building resident was hit and knocked down in January 2006 by a car. "He survived it, but I've got my concerns about others," he said.  •  Snide addressed the Select Board Monday, and Town Manager Robert Forguites said the town would ask the Agency of Transportation to study the intersection and evaluate the need for a light.  •  That section of Clinton Street/Main Street is a portion of Routes 11 and 106.  •  Many people in the Whitcomb Building, at One Mineral St., cross Clinton Street on their way to the Citgo Mart, Snide said. Some people stop and let elderly people cross the street; others make them wait and wait, he said.  •  Forguites said there had been a traffic light there when the machine tool shops employed thousands of workers, but he said it had been years since the lights worked on a stop-and-go system.  •  Snide said four or five years ago he had written to the Springfield board, asking for action on the traffic light, and had many fellow Whitcomb Building residents "past and present" signed with him. But he said it didn't produce an active traffic light.  •  Snide said he was satisfied for the time being with the response he got. "I suppose they have to do a traffic study to get some funding from the state," said Snide, noting that he and Forguites have discussed the issue for years.  •  "I will not let up. I've been talking to the town manager every time I see him," Snide said.  •  Forguites said there are crosswalks in the area. The lights near the Community Center have been hit and knocked down several times. But the pattern in recent years has been a flashing yellow on Clinton Street and Main Street, and flashing red for traffic coming down South Street.  •