SALAMANCA — Ongoing concerns for safety issues at a busy intersection in the city’s east end have led to officials considering a roundabout as a potential solution.
The Common Council Wednesday authorized a request to the New York State Department of Transportation to do a traffic study for a roundabout at the intersection of Route 219 (Central Avenue) and East State Street.
Paul Myers, who is the councilman for Ward 5 where the intersection is located, said that the intersection is a “hot spot,” a term used by the Salamanca Police Department, where Myers served for over 20 years.
“It was unfortunate to have to cover a death that happened there,” he said. “We’ve had another one, we’ve had many personal injury accidents there along with other minor accidents.”
Myers said it’s difficult for vehicles to pull onto Central Avenue from the east side of East State Street. He said he witnessed a dump truck hit a passenger vehicle at the intersection several weeks ago.
“If any place needs a roundabout to limit the number of accidents we have in the city, it’s that intersection,” he added.
Ward 3 Alderman Barry Smith noted that a roundabout would slow down the traffic traveling on Route 219 in that area. As a main arterial, vehicles often travel above the 30 mph speed limit, and because of the curvature of the road, the view up and down Central from the east side of East State is partially blocked.
“I think we’ve had traffic studies there before, but that was for a light,” said Mayor Sandra Magiera.
“They said we didn’t have enough traffic for a light, but it’s a major thoroughfare in New York state as Route 219,” Myers added. “We think it’s warranted to at least do a study on it.”
Because of Central Avenue’s designation as U.S. Route 219, the fate of the intersection is in the hands of the state. Several decades prior, however, East State had been used as the main arterial and drivers had to stop when traveling north and south on Central.
Stop signs with reflectors and “Cross traffic does not stop” signs are currently located on either side of where East State meets Central, installed in 2011 following a traffic study for a signal light. Although the state determined at the time that the intersection did not warrant a light, the additional signage was recommended by the DOT.
The council had discussed the need for additional safety measures at the intersection in the fall of 2010 following a fatal accident that claimed the life of a 52-year-old Cattaraugus woman.
During a council meeting on Sept. 8 of that year, a longtime employee of Antone’s gas station, located on the northwest corner of the intersection, presented the council with a petition signed by more than 1,300 community members.
“I sit there every day and I can hear people just laying on the horns and people pulling out in front of others,” an Antone’s employee said at the time. “They definitely need to do something at this corner.”
Several traffic studies at the intersection have been done over the past two decades, the first coming in 2003 at the request of New York State Police. A second study in 2008 resulted in the placement of intersection warning signs in early 2009 on both northbound and southbound approaches of Route 219 in advance of the intersection.
In a letter from the DOT in 2011, the state’s defense of its decision not to install a traffic signal included the negative impact it could have on the intersection: the light could cause additional delays and potentially increase the use of side roads for people avoiding it. The signal could also cause an increase in collisions from people running the light or getting rear-ended, the letter stated.
The state also said it will “continue to monitor this intersection to evaluate the effectiveness of these modifications and to determine if further action is needed.”
