PennDOT shrugs at Branchton Road issue
Well, the state Department of Transportation has decided we can all relax and stop worrying about the deadly intersection at Branchton Road and Route 8. There apparently have not been enough accidents or deaths at that scene, so just keep holding your breath and praying as you pass through the corridor of death.
Yes, PennDOT did another study, most likely a repeat of the same ones they claim to conduct each time another life is lost there, and that study said everything is okey-dokey.
There seems to be a part of the scenario that just can’t be grasped if you work at PennDOT. They say that the speed limits are exactly what they should be, and so, there is no real problem.
Well, someone needs to be slapped in the face hard enough —either to be woken up or at least brought into reality that just posting a speed limit sign doesn’t make people drive that speed. If it did, we wouldn’t have the roadside memorials stacked up there for rubber-neckers to see as they maneuver the PennDOT death traps.
This situation obviously needs another physical factor to slow people down and to get them to keep their attention focused on the road.
Why not do it all? Start with a nuisance speed trap like the one that catches so many people connecting from I-79 to I-44 in Virginia. That little town must build their annual budget on catching Yankees headed south; that will slow some people down.
Step two? Rumble strips in every direction would be another partial solution.
Brighter, more intrusive flashing lights might catch a few more inattentive drivers.
We are tired of PennDOT running a traffic study, shrugging and saying, “shucks, there is no problem.”
It is time to make that section of road a high priority. Let’s name the intersection for a high-ranking government official so that every time there is an accident there it is announced there was another death on Mr. Bigshot’s Memorial Highway. If nothing else works, maybe embarrassing them will?
— RV
