Looking at traffic crash data from the last three years at the intersection of Warren Sharon Road, Yankee Run Road and Brookfield Avenue in Masury, one thing stood out for Trumbull County Deputy Engineer Gary Shaffer – there were no reported traffic accidents. That makes it hard to argue that removing the traffic lights at the intersection and replacing them with stop signs would make the intersection safer.
A study commissioned by the engineer’s office had proposed removing the county-owned traffic lights, because keeping them was not warranted under state and federal standards. However, that proposal brought a hue and cry, and 115 people filed written comments opposing the proposal. The engineer’s office announced April 28 that it will not remove the traffic lights. Instead, the lights will be replaced.
“If 115 people are telling me that’s the safest thing for them, then why am I gonna argue?” Shaffer said.
“We won,” Trustee Dan Suttles told the other trustees and department heads at a meeting April 28. Suttles led the charge to oppose the proposal. He encouraged people to write in opposition and provided comment forms, which also were available at the library and a few local businesses. All three trustees, the police and fire chiefs and the township road superintendent submitted letters of opposition.
Shaffer said he had never seen such a response to a proposal. “They know how to run a campaign out there.”
Those opposed referenced that the roads in the intersection do not line up at right angles, it is difficult to see traffic on the other roads and Warren Sharon Road has a very steep grade, he said. They also mentioned that the intersection was less safe prior to the installation of the traffic signals.
Shaffer reached out to the Ohio Department of Transportation and clued in state officials that there was a lot of opposition to the proposal. Shaffer said. Trumbull officials asked ODOT officials if there was a way to save and upgrade the light, he said. ODOT responded that a traffic signal that is not warranted because of the standard criteria, such as crashes and traffic volume, can remain if it helps correct a deficiency in the intersection, such as, in this case, the intersection alignment and sight distance. “Because of the deficiencies within that intersection, we’re able to keep that light and expend federal funds to upgrade that light,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer said he and others from his office want to arrange a meeting with the trustees to “go over everything with them, what to expect from here on out.”
The signals to be put in next year will have LED lights, new mast arms, poles and back plates, and radar devices to detect the presence of vehicles, Shaffer said. The light at Warren Sharon and Bedford Road also will be upgraded.
