ODOT: Traffic light not warranted

Signal at Route 20 and Dock Road does not meet criteria

Although many residents have expressed concerns about vehicle safety at Route 20 and Dock Road in Madison Township, a traffic light won’t be installed at the intersection because it doesn’t meet ODOT criteria for such a signal.

The Ohio Department of Transportation’s decision was discussed by Madison Township trustees, at the panel’s recent meeting.

Trustee Kenneth Gauntner Jr. said a lot of people have talked over the years about the need for a traffic light at Route 20 and Dock Road. Questions about why the traffic control device has never been installed were asked again late last year, after a serious crash took place at the intersection on Dec. 15.

Gauntner, at the Jan. 25 meeting, said he wanted to confirm that trustees had requested ODOT to do perform a traffic-signal need study for the intersection. He noted trustees formally asked ODOT to do the study about 1 1/2 years earlier.

“We actually requested a traffic study in May of 2022,” Gauntner said. “ODOT did look at it. They just forgot to get back to us, is basically what they did.”

Gauntner cited information from a Jan. 11 email about the study that township Administrator Tim Brown received from Brian Blaney, ODOT District 12 long-range planning engineer.

Brown emailed Blaney on Dec. 16 to inquire about results of the Route 20 and Dock Road traffic-signal need study. Blaney apologized to Brown, saying he forgot to send a follow-up response about the study’s findings.

“We did study it (in the summer of 2022) and found that a traffic light wasn’t warranted,” he wrote.

Vehicles from Dock Road enter Route 20 from the north. On

the south side of Route 20, just west Dock, vehicle traffic enters Route 20 from Arcola Road.

Currently, there are stop signs posted on Dock and Arcola for cars that are about to enter Route 20. But vehicles on Route 20 travel through the intersection without stopping.

In the 2022 traffic study, eight-hour, four-hour and peak-hour vehicle volume at the intersection all were below the volumes needed to warrant a traffic signal, Blaney wrote.

The study also showed that crash experience at the intersection fell short of ODOT’s standard for warranting a traffic signal.

Blaney explained in his email that the crash-experience warrant category “establishes a minimum threshold for ‘x’ number of ‘correctable’ crashes to occur before a traffic signal can be installed; that number is a minimum of five crashes in a 12-month period.” Blaney said he calculated the number of correctable crashes at the intersection in 2022 and 2023, to see the most recent trends.

“I found five crashes since 2022, including the recent serious crash from 12/15/2023,” Blaney wrote.

Gauntner said the despite ODOT’s assessment of statistics, the intersection still presents dangerous conditions, especially for motorists on Dock Road who are trying to turn left, or east, onto Route 20.

“If you sit at that intersection (Dock Road at Route 20) and look out to the west, there’s a curve in the road there,” he said.

He also said there’s a building on the northwest side of Route 20 and Dock Road that poses visibility challenges for motorists.

The building, which was constructed in the 1800s, sits close to Route 20 and has a front porch that further obscures the view of motorists on Dock Road looking west onto the highway.

Gauntner said the position of the building and porch, and the curved section of Route 20, also make it difficult for motorists to check for eastbound traffic if they’re attempting to go from Dock to Arcola roads. Those roads are not aligned straight with one another.

Trustee Peter Wayman added that there have been fatal crashes over the years involving motorists who have attempted to enter Route 20 from Dock Road.

Gauntner said he wanted residents to know that trustees have tried to secure ODOT’s help in making the corner of Dock Road and Route 20 safer for motorists.

“I just wanted to go on record, because people were saying on social media, ‘Why doesn’t the township do something about this?’ We have and we’ve asked, and it’s not changing.”

Gauntner, who began serving as a trustee in 2014, said prior Madison Township trustee boards also have asked ODOT to install traffic lights at the same intersection. But none of those requests have been approved.