NEW ROUNDABOUT PROPOSED
Third Traffic Circle
could adjust Collegeview parking
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
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| Lee Ferris/Poughkeepsie Journal Traffic travels through the intersection of Fulton Avenue, Raymond Avenue and Collegeview Avenue in Poughkeepsie Tuesday. A roundabout is being considered for the intersection |
Anyone who has parked along Collegeview Avenue next to Vassar College in Arlington knows the feeling.
And it's not a good one.
Your car is parked into the fence, facing Vassar's campus. To get out, you must inch backward slowly. More often than not, you are unable to see oncoming cars on Collegeview.
But you pull out anyway, hoping for the best.
"Backing out is a nightmare,'' said Town of Poughkeepsie resident Kim Monforti, who works at The Dreaming Goddess gift shop on Collegeview. "You can't see. And I don't think there's a lot of consideration from the people driving up and down the street.''
The parking nightmare might end next year, when the state could add a third traffic roundabout at Collegeview and Raymond avenues. It would join two other Raymond roundabouts that opened last fall after years of controversy over whether they would help or hurt the area.
With the state Department of Transportation considering adding a Collegeview roundabout, town leaders want the agency to address the dangerous parking situation if the DOT does add the third roundabout.
In a letter to the DOT last month, Supervisor Patricia Myers said the town board would like to see Collegeview redesigned to allow parallel parking, which would replace the current alignment.
"This option moves the utility poles and creates parallel parking on the south side of Collegeview and parallel parking on the north side in front of the businesses,'' Myers wrote.
Town officials also would like to see new sidewalks installed on the north side of Collegeview.
The DOT appears ready to embrace the new parking plan, although it is not definite a third roundabout will be added next year.
But local DOT spokesman Josh Ribakove said the agency would reconfigure Collegeview to allow parallel parking if a third roundabout is added.
"We feel it would be a dangerous situation otherwise,'' Ribakove said.
How many spaces would exist in a new configuration and other specifics would have to be worked out.
While the proposed parking change might make Collegeview safer, Monforti said she would still be concerned about parallel parking's impact on the number of spaces available for shoppers and whether there would be room for delivery trucks to double park, as they do now.
"They would have to make some kind of compensation for that,'' Monforti said of DOT engineers.
Another town resident who works in Arlington said the state should simply leave Collegeview's parking alone.
"To have parallel parking would be just as bad,'' said Marguerite Reilly, who said she backs into the spots so she is facing out when it's time to leave.
The two new Raymond roundabouts, at a cost of about $3 million, opened at College Avenue and the Vassar main gate last fall. About 17,000 vehicles use Raymond each weekday, according to the most recent DOT estimates made prior to the roundabouts' debut last year.
State officials have plans to construct a third roundabout at Raymond and Collegeview, where the Juliet Cafe is located, but have not formally committed to the project.
The DOT has said it first plans to conduct fresh traffic studies to see how the two new roundabouts are working before approving plans for another one. Funding for the project would also have to be available.
Ribakove said the traffic studies could begin in May.
Myers said Monday the town's request for the Collegeview parking realignment does not mean it supports adding a third roundabout.
The town and neighboring City of Poughkeepsie formally opposed the roundabout plan, but the DOT had the final say because Raymond is a state road.
Whatever happens with the third roundabout, Myers said Collegeview's parking needs to be changed.
"You take your life in your hands every time you pull out of there,'' Myers said. "It definitely needs improvement.''
Reach Michael Valkys at mvalkys@poughkeepsiejournal.com or 845-437-4816.