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Citizens petition for traffic light
Published April 9, 2009
RAINSVILLE—An apparently dangerous intersection in Rainsville may be getting a traffic light, if citizens and city council members have their way. On Tuesday, the Rainsville City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution in support of a citizen petition requesting a traffic light from the state at the intersection of Marshall Road and Highway 75.
The two roads intersect in an area known as the “Hilltop” community. Across Highway 75, the intersection meets both Church Avenue and the outlet of Carlyle Road. Linda Samples, whose business sits at the corner of Marshall and 75, presented the petition to the council members.
“As a business owner and a concerned citizen, we feel that a red light, or a traffic light, is needed at 75 North and Marshall and Carlyle,” Samples explained. “We have a petition up, and we have 1,460 signatures on it.”
Samples said that people were excited to sign the petition, stating that many made comments regarding the danger of the intersection. She also cited near-misses which would not be a part of official traffic reports.
“One of my employees was hit last week by someone who pulled out of Carlyle and hit him in the side as he was going to lunch,” said Samples. “So even though the accident account may be low according to their numbers, there are times it’s not even recorded, because they just run off the road and hit my fence; they don’t call the law, because there’s not another car involved.”
Councilman Bejan Taheri stated that he was in possession of traffic counts for the state road, but that the county was supposed to provide traffic counts for the side roads. “That particular section that she’s talking about, the traffic count on Highway 75 North of 35, is 8,770 a day. Highway 35 itself got 15,950.” Samples cited county commissioner Dewitt Jackson as having told her that traffic on Marshall Road was either 2,600 or 2,800 vehicles per day.
The intersection in question not only receives a high volume of traffic, it also sits at the top of the hill from which the Hilltop community gets its name. This factor reduces visibility in both directions. In addition, a high volume of morning and afternoon traffic goes to and from Cornerstone Christian Academy, a private school just south of the intersection. Slightly further south is the city’s “Field of Dreams” ball parks. All of the above factors contribute to the high volume of traffic in the area. However, Councilman David Shirey pointed out one future factor that may make the problem significantly worse.
“For my part, I think that once we get this Agri-Center built, you’re going to see those numbers be a lot more than that,” said Shirey. “I’m going to be badly fooled if it doesn’t really, really increase the traffic up and down 75.”
Rainsville Mayor Donnie Chandler stated that the resolution would be forwarded to the Alabama state department of transportation. “The resolution will be sent to the highway department, showing them that there is an interest, not only from the mayor and council but from the public...there have been so many accidents up there,” said Chanlder. “All of us are aware of how hard it is to get in and out from those side roads, and we just think that would be a lot safer for everybody if there was a traffic light there. We’re willing to help bear the cost to get it in there. That’s what people pay taxes for, and that’s what people put us in there for.”
A similar petition in February 2006 resulted in a traffic light being installed on the opposite end of Marshall Road at the intersection of Highway 35; the project was approved in August of 2006.
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