The Amherst Select Board has voted to install a rotary at the intersection of East Pleasant and Triangle streets, but that plan has not yet been funded, and funding will be brought up at Town Meeting in October.
Funding should be refused. Rotaries are excellent in low traffic, but they are horrible in high-traffic intersections, and the traffic at East Pleasant and Triangle is too high for a rotary to be effective.
There are better ways to improve traffic in that area.
North Pleasant Street formerly carried traffic straight through. Restoring that configuration would be an excellent way to improve traffic and would simply require pulling out the curbs and vegetation and repaving the straightened street.
There would have to be a stop sign installed at the southerly end of East Pleasant Street and another at the westerly end of Triangle Street. The present traffic signal at East Pleasant and Triangle would be adequate.
Another possibility would be to make the traffic around Kendrick Park one way; northbound traffic would take East Pleasant to Triangle Street and then Triangle to North Pleasant.
Southbound traffic on East Pleasant would turn onto Triangle and then turn left onto North Pleasant, and southbound traffic on North Pleasant would just go.
Traffic going from East Pleasant to North Pleasant might have a difficult time. Either configuration would work and would require only restoring North Pleasant and replacing signs.
There probably would be no change in the number of parking spaces; whatever might be lost on North Pleasant could be added on East Pleasant.
During times when traffic is especially high, I believe this configuration would tend to allow traffic to move more freely.
Peter P. Lewicke
Amherst