Editor’s note: This is a copy of a letter sent to the Lincoln Board of Selectmen.
To the editor:
I was nearly run into again at the five corners by a driver (obviously from out of town, not bred in the Lincoln way) who thought that she, having stopped at the stop sign on Trapelo Road, could roar through the intersection past the horse trough. I saw recently the Selectmen’s meeting explaining that this arrangement—placing the stop sign on Trapelo Road well before the intersection and not at the horse trough—is to preserve the historical character of the area, or some such argument. Of course, horses always stopped at the trough, and probably did not observe any stop signs that may have been placed elsewhere.
I think that public safety should trump historic concerns and believe that the selectmen have ample authority to place the stop signs for Trapelo Road at the horse trough under MGL Ch. 89 S. 9 (you “may designate intersections or other roadway junctions at which vehicular traffic on one or more roadways shall stop or yield and stop before entering the intersection or junction”). The normal rules about when to enter an intersection do not work when the stop sign is placed so far out of the intersection that drivers stopping there cannot observe other cars and other cars cannot observe them. Please remedy this arrangement before someone is seriously hurt.
Sincerely,
John Kimball
14 Hillside Rd.
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.