SCRANTON — The city plans to make the offset intersections of Grandview Street and Capouse Avenue in Green Ridge safer by adding two stop signs there to make it a four-way stop, according to proposed legislation.
Both roads in the tight-knit neighborhood are fairly narrow two-way streets. Grandview is 30 feet wide with parking on both sides, while Capouse is 24-feet wide with parking on both sides, according to an April 30 traffic study report by city engineer Reilly Associates.
Capouse Avenue, which already has stop signs in each direction at Grandview Street, does not directly match up with itself at the intersection. The offset alignment with 85 feet between the two segments of Capouse Avenue poses a problem in terms of parked vehicles and sight distances, and some homes along the roads also have driveways, the report says.
Some of its other details include:
Grandview’s nearest stop signs are 400 feet west at Boulevard Avenue and 1,200 feet east at North Washington Avenue. Some residents of Grandview Street who live near Capouse Avenue requested the city look at the traffic situation at the offset intersections toward improving safety there. The result is a plan calling for making the Grandview/Capouse intersections an “all-way stop” by adding a stop sign in each direction of Grandview Street.
“Given the offset nature of the intersections, providing an all-way stop could provide safer traffic operation,” for vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists, the report said.
Reilly Associates also recommends adding a “Stop Ahead” sign on westbound Grandview Street because this approach has a relatively steep downgrade of 10%.
Vehicles on the Grandview Street approaches would stop only once in whichever direction they are heading. They would stop not at each leg of the offset Capouse Avenue intersections, because having motorists stop at two spots within 85 feet of one another would become frustrating to them.
Reilly also recommends adding crosswalks at the intersections. Crosswalks and stop signs would improve sight distances because much of the parking between intersections “could effectively be eliminated” under state law prohibiting parking within certain distances of crosswalks and stop signs.
Scranton City Council introduced the ordinance from the administration of Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti on May 21 and advanced it on second reading this past Tuesday, according to Electric City Television videos of the meetings posted on YouTube. The ordinance likely would come back before council for a third vote on adoption at the next weekly meeting this coming Tuesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.