A Better Intersection at East Orange, North, and Mill Streets
Before we make permanent the three-way stop at this intersection we should decide how to improve it for all users.
I have a love/hate relationship with this intersection. I love it because I use it all the time to get to the library, or the River Walk Trail. Hate it because it’s a poster child for lousy street design. The streets come together at odd angles, the lines of sight are poor, and the intersection itself is unnecessarily large. It’s a massive amount of asphalt, and there’s only one place for a person to cross.
Back in June of 2023 I did a deep dive, recorded a bunch of videos of drivers ignoring the stop sign, and put together some ideas about how it could be made safer. In October of that year I followed up with some additional thoughts after a two-vehicle collision.
Last summer the village installed stop signs at all three streets. This was done on a temporary basis in anticipation of increased traffic flow during the first full closure of the North Main Street bridge.
Now it’s being proposed to make the three-way stop permanent.
I’m not opposed to the idea, but before that happens I’d like the village to have a plan to make it safer and work better for everyone. I think this can be accomplished by removing excessive pavement so each street is one lane in each direction, bringing the streets together at 90º angles, and creating crosswalks from the northwest corner.
Mill Street is in poor condition and will need to be repaved within the next couple of years, so now is the time to plan for changes. We’ll be discussing this topic at the Safety Committee meeting on Monday.
