CONNEAUT — Motorists soon may find traveling a lengthy stretch of Route 20 in Conneaut a more fuel-efficient experience.
Traffic signals at Main Street (Route 20) and Grandview Avenue could be put in a more relaxed mode in coming days, helping to move vehicles through an intersection with very little congestion.
The pending change would continue an overhaul of the city’s traffic signals, a move prompted in part by the high price of fuel. Vehicles waste gasoline when idling, and motorists are particularly upset when a red light forces a stop at an intersection with little or no cross traffic.
For that reason, more of Conneaut’s traffic signals are being converted to caution mode during nonpeak driving times, Police Chief Jon Arcaro said during a Tuesday night meeting of City Council’s public safety committee. Many lights along Route 20 automatically convert to caution in the evening and early morning, he said.
The Main-Grandview light could be next on the list. For decades, that signal controlled traffic in front of West Main Elementary School. The school closed in 2004, but the signals remain. Arcaro put the lights on blinking-caution mode months ago but restored them to full service at the request of neighbors. The light does transform to caution later in the evening.
Now cost-conscientious motorists are questioning the value of the light, said Councilman-at-Large Jacob Chicatelli.
“It has outlived its usefulness,” he said.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Arcaro proposed a compromise that appealed to the committee. The light will function fully during “rush hour” and times when school buses are on the road, but then revert to caution mode the balance of the day and night. According to Arcaro’s plan, the light would blink on caution mode between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. in addition to the 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. hours in effect the past two years. The light would be fully operational between 6 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 9 p.m.
Committee members liked the idea.
“I think it’s a tremendous compromise,” Chicatelli said.
The proposal also pleased two councilmen in favor of retaining the light for its traffic-control ability. Ward 2 Councilman Charles Lewis and Ward 1 Councilman Dave Campbell said the gaps in traffic the red light creates allow vehicles a chance to enter Route 20 from nearby businesses and houses. The light also helped traffic enter the highway from nearby Center Street, home to Conneaut’s Little League ball fields.
“If you don’t have a break in the action, people will start taking chances,” leading to accidents, Campbell said.
The full council will learn of the committee’s recommendation at next week’s work session.
Other traffic snarls could stand to be untangled, Arcaro said. Multiple entrances to the Conneaut Plaza shopping center on Route 20 make the signal there rather redundant, committee members learned. One solution would be to close the various entrances, obliging shoppers to use the signal entrance as originally intended, Arcaro said.
Also, an exit-only driveway at the Gateway Plaza shopping center, which funnels traffic directly into the intersection of Gateway Avenue and Route 7, can cause quite a bottleneck, Arcaro said.
Problems at both plazas occur on private property, meaning landowners would have to make the corrections. Owners will be contacted and asked to help, officials said.
Signal upgrades at Gateway and Route 7, funded primarily with government grants, will begin next week, council learned.
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