OXFORD VILLAGE – Parking along N. Glaspie St. is going to be eliminated so an existing left-turn lane can be extended and traffic flow improved.
Last week, council voted 3-0 to adopt Police Chief Mike Solwold’s recommendation to do this.
“This has been something that’s been talked about for at least four or five years,” said village President Sue Bossardet. “I kind of brought it forward again.’
Currently, there is marked parking lining the west side of N. Glaspie St. between East St. and Lakeville Ct.
This on-street parking contributes to backups and delays for southbound traffic, according to Solwold.
“The traffic situation, especially during the school months, is terrible over there,” Bossardet said.
N. Glaspie St. experiences high levels of traffic during weekday mornings and afternoons as a result of students, parents and school busses traveling to and from Oxford High School.
To help get traffic moving, Solwold recommended removing all of the on-street parking and transforming this space into a southbound lane.
It doesn’t appear this parking will be missed.
“Every time I drive down there, I usually see maybe one car (parked) there,” Solwold told this reporter. “I don’t think it’s used as much as it’s been in the past.”
The current southbound lane would be converted into a left-turn lane that would extend from East St. to the existing left-turn lane that begins just south of Lakeville Ct.
Doing all this will cost $2,724. That includes removing existing road markings, painting new ones and installing four new signs, three of which will read “no parking.”
Solwold noted there was a request to remove the two stop signs located where N. Glaspie St. intersects with the Polly Ann Trail.
The chief recommended against doing this “due to the danger it may pose” to trail users crossing N. Glaspie St.
“The stop sign at least slows traffic down,” Solwold wrote in his July 23 memo to council.
He explained that slowing traffic is important because the speed limit changes very abruptly and drastically for motorists exiting and entering the village in this area.
In the village, the speed limit is 25 miles per hour whereas in the township, it jumps to 50 mph as N. Glaspie St. turns into N. Oxford Rd.
Before the stop signs were erected, Solwold explained northbound motorists often started picking up speed before they left the village and whenever they got pulled over by police, their defense was always, “Well, (the sign) says 50 (mph) there.”
“You’re not supposed to do 50 (mph) until you get to the sign,” he said.
On the southbound side, the stop sign is needed to slow traffic as it enters the village and passes through a residential area.
Solwold fears if the stop signs were replaced with yield signs, motorists “may not stop at all” for trail users.