Letter to the editor
To the editor:
The article on bumpouts suggests that “drivers” are unhappy but “pedestrians,” according to town officials, are happy. As one who sometimes drives a truck, sometimes walks and sometimes rides a bicycle, I’m not sure which category you would put me in. But I am decidedly unhappy with Marblehead’s bumpouts. They are poorly thought out and improperly implemented.
Consider the bumpouts on West Shore Drive at the Tower School and Bike Path. The posted speed limit is 20 miles an hour. The Bike Path sees large volumes of scooter, bicycle and foot traffic at that spot. A raised crosswalk (known as a table crossing) should therefore have been installed along with the bumpouts at that location. Engineers should also have eliminated the two parking lot entrances/exits that abut either side of the path at the school. The same conditions exist at Smith Street, a 20 mph road with a post office parking lot exit that jogs right to converge with the Bike Path. Worse still, Smith Street is a school crossing, heavily traveled by students going to Marblehead High School, Marblehead Veterans Middle School and Marblehead Village Elementary School.
Dan Albert, Leicester Road