Main and Coolidge traffic light: Do we need it, or not?

The traffic light at the intersection of Main Street and Coolidge Avenue is working again after being temporarily repurposed as a four-way stop during the summer, when the Oklahoma Department of Transportation began an extensive Main Street repaving project.

But some people aren’t exactly thrilled about the stop light being brought back.

A Blackwell Journal-Tribune Facebook post on the topic, published Oct. 14, amassed more than 30 comments. Almost all of them were from residents who preferred the four-way stop.

“I’m disappointed that it is back to normal,” Will Larse said. “So many times in Blackwell it seems like we sit at traffic lights hoping for a vehicle to come from another direction to justify why we are sitting here wasting fuel.”

Larse said idling vehicles at the traffic light pollute the environment, and that he wishes to see Blackwell become more environmentally conscious.

Callie Mae Cook defended the return to a traffic light, saying drivers don’t seem to possess the proper etiquette and right-of-way knowledge for a four-way stop. She said a working traffic light is much better at protecting children who cross the street not on the way to and from school, but also on the way to the municipal pool and Memorial Park.

Cook added that “people were getting used to the stop, obviously, [judging] by how many cars I’ve seen run the lights.”

Leslie Young said she preferred the four-way stop because it kept the flow of traffic going on Main Street. Richard Allen agreed, saying the stop was “much better” because traffic “actually moved.”

Megan Childers said she was unhappy with the traffic light returning, citing the long amount of time a driver must wait before turning left.

A light-hearted comment from resident Joyce Riley said she stopped for a green light out of habit before she realized it was no longer a four-way stop.

Several more people said they liked the four-way stop much better.

Chief of Police Dewayne Wood told The Journal-Tribune that the traffic light, which has been in place since he attended Blackwell High School, is a much safer tool than the four-way stop.

“In a high-traffic area like Main and Coolidge, you have kids walking to and from school, to and from lunch,” he said. “You have constant foot traffic to the Memorial Park, to the pool in the summer. It’s an area that benefits from a traffic light simply because a four-way stop won’t cut it.”

Wood said human error is a key factor in the danger of a four-way stop, especially in an area with so many children.

“We had several calls come in when it was a four-way stop from parents – or even other motorists – who were concerned at how many people disobeyed the rules of that stop and almost hit kids trying to cross,” Wood said. “There were a number of incidents where a driver in one lane would wave a kid across, and the driver in the other might not see that, and they’d go on ahead. You’re dealing with four avenues of traffic in one of our busiest intersections with pedestrians crossing.

“We also had a fair amount of traffic stops over the summer from people who would just blow through it completely.”

Wood said similar safety issues caused the city to make the area in front of the Church of Christ on Main Street near the Blackwell Middle School into a school zone.

“You had people going 35 miles an hour through there, and you would have maybe one car stop to wave a kid across, and the driver in the lane next to him would be cruising along and not even see or look,” he said. “That led to a lot of dangerous incidents until that school zone was put into place.

“I would say, in all honesty, that the safety of our kids in Blackwell far outweighs the ‘inconvenience’ of a 20- to 30-second stop at a light.”