To the Editor:

I saw the letter from Bet Sanch about Rosedale Road and I just have to add my two cents, as I have driven Rosedale Road daily for over 30 years. Rosedale got my attention initially because of all the dead deer lining the road on a daily basis — meaning that many cars had hit them — damaging the cars and injuring the occupants of the cars as well.

Rosedale Road is Mercer County road, Route 604, and it is 2.5 miles long running from Carter Road to Elm Road. It has (no fewer than) 43 traffic signs instructing drivers what to do (or maybe distracting them from driving). It has one traffic light at Province Line Road. And it has five different speed zones (45 mph for 1.5 miles from Carter Road to the light at Province Line Road; and then 45 mph for 0.8 miles to the school zone at Johnson Park.; then 25 mph for 0.2 miles to the end of the school zone; and then 45 mph for 0.4 miles to Constitution Hill West; and then 25 mph for 0.2 miles up to Elm Road).

This gaggle of 43 signs and five speed zones, plus a variety of passing zones and the traffic light — coupled to the fact that most drivers seem focused on getting from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible, causes speeding, passing in no-passing zones, tailgating, and an aesthetically unpleasant road full of convoys of school buses, commuter cars, bikers, gardener vans, construction vehicles, parents dropping kids off and picking them up, and so on. No biker uses the bike path (Did you see the sign saying they have to “dismount” as they go over the bridge?); and I have almost never seen anyone walking on the sidewalk.

I had many conversations with the Mercer County Engineer’s Office about:

• installing Deer Crossing signs;

• making one speed limit on the entire road;

• reducing the speed limit;

• reducing the number of costly and distracting traffic signs; and

• correcting the passing zones to avoid the deer crossing lanes.

But the Mercer County Engineer’s Office told me their hands are tied by the state traffic regulations.

It would benefit all of us — human residents, willdlife residents, and travelers passing through, if appropriate traffic regulations for modern day Rosedale Road were in place. How do we make this happen?

Kathryn Trenner

Carter Road