News

Hazardous enough to warrant a $93,000 stoplight?

A car makes a left turn from northbound Main Street onto West Allen Street.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 15, 2014

The Hendersonville City Council decided that a Main Street intersection that can cause confusion is not hazardous enough to justify a $93,000 stoplight.

Councilman Jerry Smith raised the question based on constituents who said the northbound lanes of Main Street at Allen Street could cause an accident.
"They said three times a week they see someone go the wrong way up Main Street at the stop sign," he said. "I guess someone going the wrong way on a street has been a topic that's been discussed a lot at least at my house" because of a double-fatality head-on collision caused by a wrong-way driver on I-26. "If you're not from around here and you drive there it looks like that lane is right in front of you."
Council members couldn't get over the pricetag for a fix that they said might not fix anything. The left lane of Main Street does have an overhead sign and road marker designating a left-turn only movement. City public works director Tom Wooten said he would look into better signage.
"I think it's odd that we have a corner on Main Street — probably the most confusing one on Main Street — that doesn't have a stoplight," Smith said.
The Allen crossing is the only one of nine Main Street intersections from Sixth Avenue to Caswell Street that has no stoplight. Police Chief Hubert Blake said there had been four accidents at Main and Allen since 2011.
"Four accidents. That's $23,000 an accident," Councilman Jeff Miller said. "My brain won't work that way."
Mayor Barbara Volk recounted some of the bad driving maneuvers that seem to be common: motorists going straight onto Main from the right lane of King Street or continuing straight on King Street from the left-turn at Seventh Avenue.
"I think we're trying to kill a flea with a sledge hammer," Councilman Steve Caraker said before the council decided not to green-light the traffic signal.