Belfast officials are considering adding additional stop signs at the intersection of High and Miller streets after a downtown business owner raised concerns about the unsafe driving she sees there.
The proposal, which will receive a public hearing at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, would add stop signs for drivers heading in both directions on High Street, in addition to one that’s already in place for drivers heading south on Miller Street. That would convert the intersection to a three-way stop. The city would also re-stripe a pair of crosswalks at the intersection under the proposal.
Sierra Dietz, who owns the Grasshopper Shop which is just across High Street from the Belfast Free Library, brought her concerns to the city earlier this summer. In an interview, she said that some drivers are reckless when they go through the intersection.
“They’re like, ‘OK, I’m out of the downtown, I can speed up now,’” Dietz said.
“My impetus for bringing this to council, really, is a safety issue,” she said. “I’ve been watching it and seeing near-accidents pretty frequently. I don’t want to see something bad happen.”
In a memo outlining the proposal, City Planner Alexandra Sykes noted that the city has been trying to make it easier for pedestrians to get around downtown and that it’s one of the last intersections in the downtown commercial zoning district that hasn’t had substantial changes.
Sykes also mentioned a few changes that could be made to improve pedestrian safety at the intersection in the future, including additional striping for crosswalks and narrowing of the roads.
When the proposal for the additional stop signs was first raised at a July 2 meeting, a few members of the City Council agreed with the idea.
Councilor Mary Mortier recalled her own experience coming up Miller Street from the waterfront and finding it to be “a nightmare” of an intersection. She noted that previous efforts to address driving and pedestrian safety around town have been successful.
“When we made the change to do the four-way stop at the block higher up on Miller, at Miller and Church, it made a huge difference,” Mortier said. “This is a block away, but it’s part of the same issue. It also goes up to Miller Street where it crosses on Congress; we got that kind of fixed and under control.”
Mayor Eric Sanders was in agreement.
“It’s amazing to me that we haven’t had any accidents there since I’ve been here,” Sanders said.
