Upper Joins ‘No Rumble Strip’ Bandwagon

PETERSBURG – At its Oct. 10 meeting, Upper Township Committee unanimously approved a resolution urging the County to exclude the installation of rumble strips along roads in Upper Township with a speed limit of 50 mph or lower.
During recent committee meetings, members expressed a range of opinions on the desirability as well as the effectiveness of those ridged strips.
“There is research from transportation authorities that rumble strips are a good means to keep drivers alert if they drift over the center line of a road through the noise the car makes as it traverses the rumble strips,” said Township Engineer Paul Dietrich.
According to statistics shared by County Engineer Dale Foster, over the summer, four people were killed in traffic accidents on county roads which lack the in-surface rumble strips, and involved vehicles that crossed the center lines.
To address this, in June, Foster informed the 16 municipalities of an application for $2 million in federal funding to install rumble strips on 142 miles of county roads that meet the criteria of the funding and asked for input about where to place the strips.
Upper Township Committee member Hobart Young expressed his opposition to the rumble strips on several occasions during recent meetings. “I live on Stagecoach Road which is one of the streets the county has designated for installation of these rumble strips. If they are installed on roads that don’t need them, such as Stagecoach, where the speed limit is 35 mph, and is primarily residential, the quality of life throughout these neighborhoods is going to be negatively affected. Besides, much of Stagecoach is a no-passing zone so there is no purpose for rumble strips in this area,” he said.
Young’s observations were in line with those expressed at other municipal government meetings and during related public comments at these gatherings as reported by the Herald in recent months.
Dennis Township
In Dennis Township, that municipality’s governing body discussed the value of rumble strips June 27 with Mayor Zeth Matalucci noting, “The amount of opposition to this program is huge.”
“They can still do larger county roads, but we don’t need rumble strips on the smaller roads in residential areas.”
Several residents at the meeting stated objections to the county plan with Temerity Berry summing up, “This plan is absolutely detrimental to our quality of life. We will never be able to sell our house once we retire if they put these rumble strips in.”
Woodbine
In Woodbine, Mayor William Pikolycky informed Borough Council Aug. 17 that he had followed up regarding concerns of residents and its own on the subject of the county’s proposal to install center-line rumble strips on several major municipal roads.
Pikolycky said he had sent a letter to Foster expressing those concerns with the letter reading in part, “… regarding the installation of center-line rumble strips in the borough to be installed as part of a countywide highway safety program, I have reviewed…and have some concerns about the potential noise and quality-of-life issues that these rumble strips may create in the more heavily-developed residential and commercial areas of the town.”
County residents have raised their opposition to rumble strips directly to county-level elected officials, the freeholders. Daniel Lee, a resident of Strathmere, stated his opposition to the measure at the Sept. 11 municipal Committee meeting of Upper.
He reiterated his opposition to freeholders Sept. 12, stating “I think that you could not conjure a worse location to situate rumble strips than Commonwealth Avenue.”
At the Upper Committee meeting Oct. 10, it was announced that the county had decided not to install rumble strips along Commonwealth Avenue in Strathmere as had been proposed.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.