Dear Editor:

Much of the disagreement over the proposed roundabout has been labeled either pro-change or anti-change. That’s simplistic and a way of dismissing the opposition, whichever and whoever that may be.

Looking at the proposal itself, it’s clear the plan is, so far, a troublesome response to what some think of as a problem because of the Corey Lane/Route 27 junction, but which will certainly remain a problem as reconfigured.

The plan substitutes a more dangerous intersection than the one the million-dollar proposal claims to solve. The proposed exit from Back River Road to Route 27 is an accident bound to happen; it allows for turns in both directions.  Anyone thinking of leaving town or going anywhere on Route 27N faces exactly the blind spot any car currently faces at the Corey Lane stop sign.  But it will be worse because, in a design all too familiar to those who currently have to use the northernmost exit from the Clipper Mart, the incoming traffic from the left will be behind a curve.

And the problem currently for vehicles turning left onto 27 is that turn signals to the right are rarely in evidence on those cars wanting to turn into Corey Lane. If a right turn signal were used by that incoming traffic — and not just at the last minute — the outbound vehicles could safely move more quickly, lessening their wait, their exaggerated sense of time lost and fear of the (hitherto undocumented) accidents of the past.

This letter is focused, obviously, on just one point of the proposed roundabout. But … We are entrusting the plan and its execution to the Dept of Transportation? The same department which has left so many bridges unsafe, so many roads uninspected? No one remembers, even two weeks later, the near tragedy on the Bath viaduct? 

Surely we can do better — pro or against change is not the issue. Safety and thought should be.