BEST REASON TO TAKE A DETOUR

The intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Lawrence Avenue

What do you do with an intersection that is home to more than two dozen accidents in any given year? Nothing, if your name is the City of Springfield. This intersection is notorious, yet the best the city fathers can offer is a blinking yellow light atop a sign reading “Warning: High Accident Intersection” on MacArthur shortly before motorists reach the most dangerous stretch of roadway outside of a demolition-derby figure-eight track. What are folks supposed to do, stop and put on crash helmets? Eventually, of course, this will be fixed. It will be fixed after someone dies. At that point, the weak excuses won’t fly anymore, especially if the dead person is an infant or a promising college student or some other person somehow adjudged more innocent than the rest of us. In the meantime, we’ll keep hearing that it would cost too much to build a turn lane or delay too many motorists if the light on MacArthur were adjusted so that opposing lines of traffic can’t go through the intersection – and all too often into each other – at once. Government exists to address problems like this, so address it. Now.