The Martha's Vineyard Times

Roundabout should not proceed

August 24, 2011

To the Editor:

In response to your excellent editorial of August 11 concerning the roundabout, I have a few comments that I believe are relevant.

The backup at the blinker, as you noted, occurs a few times a day for a few weeks a year. Moreover, the time spent waiting to get through the intersection amounts to a few minutes, hardly an inconvenience for people who are on this Island for its unhurried atmosphere.

To spend a million dollars and perhaps three years to solve such an insignificant problem would hardly seem worth the effort. A far simpler solution would be to convert the blinker to a full red/green stoplight for a few hours during the "rush' period. The light is already in place and the cost would be minimal.

Alternatively, a traffic director could be hired to be at the intersection for the period in question. Even if this person was paid the unlikely sum of $100,000 a year, the million dollars would last for 10 years — the same amount of time before the roundabout would have to be redone. For these reasons, and the ones noted in your editorial, the project should not proceed.

Theodore Jochsberger

West Tisbury