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New plan for horse crossing: Leave as is
(by Sue Reid - August 21, 2012)
New plan for horse crossing: Leave as is
By SUE REID
Flashers were taken out of the equation last month in discussions regarding improvements to the horse crossing at SOM Center Road and Hawthorn Parkway. Instead, combining the two crossings to one location was recommended by City Council’s safety and public properties committee.
Now it appears that no changes will be made after all.
“It’s over and done with,” Councilman William I. Russo said following last week’s City Council safety and public properties committee meeting. “Unfortunately, it took a lot of time to get to the same place we were before we started.”
The committee had recommended at its last meeting to combine the two crossings on SOM Center Road north of Hawthorn Parkway and not to install flashing lights. In subsequent discussions with Cleveland Metroparks, which owns and maintains the two trails, it was determined that combining the trails on the north side would not provide a significant safety benefit. Combining them on the south side was problematic as well.
“I think the notion of combining the trail crossing on the south side creates another issue of then having the horses cross the parkway twice, which I don’t like,” Richard J. Kerber, the park system’s director of planning, design and natural resources, said in an email to City Traffic Engineer Kevin Westbrooks. “The bike trail crosses the parkway from south to north anyway, so whether it crosses east or west of SOM doesn’t make a lot of difference.
“If you move the horse crossing to the south, you then require the horses to cross three times. We would not be in favor of that. All things being considered, without the warning light, it looks like the current arrangement is the best option.”
In theory, Mr. Westbrooks said, the idea seemed like a good one initially, but without significant benefit, it would not be worthwhile.
Cost estimates for improvements, including the flashers, totaled $40,000. The metroparks had committed up to $20,000.
The committee debated the issue for the past year, although sight distance issues at the crossing and potential hazards associated with it have been presented to the city as far back as the late 1990s.
“As it turned out, I think it was good discussion, and I think everyone understands why things are the way they are,” Mr. Russo said. “Anything more that would have been done still would not have changed the situation.”
Complaints have been raised by horse riders about their inability to cross the road. Mr. Russo noted that there has been no accident at that location “and no justification to do anything different than what is there now.”
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