Concerning the sidewalk repairs on Arroyo west of Needham Elementary School, I think the city should seriously consider making the Delwood-Arroyo intersection a four-way stop in the near future. Currently, only traffic on Arroyo has a stop sign.
Living in the area, I have to believe that it is one of the most densely packed neighborhoods in the city with the Arroyo apartments and trailer park, the Forest Avenue townhouses and a lot of traffic-flow from Rockridge, Borrego, North Glenisle and the Delwood corridor all funneling into this one intersection.
Needham school drop-off and pick-up and pedestrian traffic in the morning and afternoon is also extremely heavy, with parents’ vehicles and school children walking and skateboarding to and from both Needham and Durango High School.
The children crossing the Delwood crosswalk are often heedless of the cross traffic and visibility of the through-traffic on Delwood is obscured by parked cars close to the intersection, a tall fence and the bus shelter on the southwest corner. Arroyo, approaching the Delwood stop sign from the west, is on a downslope that is often a shaded sheet of ice in the winter and many times I have seen cars sliding through the stop sign and across Delwood.
The problem is exacerbated by dare-devils on Arroyo who run the stop signs and yahoos on Delwood who blow through the intersection at a high rate of speed. The driver of one large Dodge Ram truck, in particular, seems to take a lot of pleasure in catching some air every morning when he hits the drainage swales that channel water from Arroyo across the intersection. On Arroyo, at any time of the day or night, it’s crotch-rockets doing wheelies up the street and skate-boarders coming down.
So far, I’m not aware of any major accidents that have occurred there, but I do frequently see broken tail-light and fender-bender debris at the intersection. It only seems like it’s a matter of time until someone gets hurt.
Bob Kimmick
Durango
