Letter to the Editor: An Argument for Stoplights

An article in the June 30 Peninsula Pulse [“Money Secured for Roundabout at Culver’s Intersection”] states that “about 15,000 vehicles on average travel Highway 42/57 daily, with 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles on average traveling Gordon Road/County BB daily.” A Wisconsin traffic-safety engineer is quoted as saying that a traffic signal at that intersection “would be stopping 15 cars [on Highway 42/57] to let two or three through.”

This is political talk, not factual talk.

The drivers entering Highway 42/57 from Gordon Road must turn right or left; there is no straight-through road. The drivers turning right benefit from the law stating that right turns are permitted on red after stopping. Thus, only those drivers wishing to turn left upon entering Highway 42/57 from Gordon Road would be inconvenienced by a stop light.

Second, the Department of Transportation sets the time that the light is red for each road. There are stop lights where the light is red for the major road for only a short period of time, and red for the intersecting, lightly traveled road for a much longer period of time.

The bottom line is that traffic on Highway 42/57 could be inconvenienced very little by a stop light, as it would be green most of the time. Left-turning traffic exiting Gordon Road is the only traffic that would be inconvenienced, and they would likely be inconvenienced less by a red light than by a roundabout, which they may find impossible to use during heavy traffic.

I have no preference personally, but I think half-truths need to be corrected. We all have the right to be informed correctly before any public hearings are held.

Jim Riead
Egg Harbor, Wisconsin