Town Hill Road past the Holt place.

This is a story of how a once quiet dirt road is slowly becoming a major route and could become a deadly one, if attention is not paid sooner rather than later.

When I started working on our house on Town Hill Road in 1989, things were generally pretty quiet, traffic wise. This probably had to do with the fact that the northern half of the road was unpaved and, at times, unpassable.

Drivers in the area were either unaware of the road at all or had made a decision to avoid it because there were paved road alternatives.

In the early 2000s, the Town decided it was time to pave Town Hill Road up to the Otis line. We were in favor of this, as it made trips to Lee and Great Barrington much easier for everyone, particularly in "Mud Season."

Predictably, having the road paved brought more traffic, but the increase was not significant as the new traffic was mostly local drivers who certainly enjoyed the improved roadway.

Years later, we started to notice a dramatic increase in the volume of traffic on the road.

Navigation apps such as Waze, Google Maps, and Apple Maps started to be omnipresent on cellphones and in vehicles. I was surprised when I searched for driving directions with these services between such cities as Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Toronto, Canada, that the route frequently included Town Hill Road!

This route was suggested because it was the shortest mileage. Of course, the results would shift based, for example, on the time of day. Very often, however, all of the navigation providers would use Town Hill Road as part of a routing.

This change not only brought more traffic, but changed the nature of that traffic. Now we frequently see large trucks that are obviously not doing local deliveries.

Also, passenger vehicles seem to be driven at much higher speeds, as if the drivers are impatient and frustrated with having been routed up or down this narrow country road.

Driving on Town Hill Road, cars have passed me or my wife Pam on many occasions. Once, we were run off the hard surface by drivers taking a turn wide. We even had a pickup truck drive onto our lawn as it passed another car in front of our house. Pam has had to jump off the road while walking as cars passed each other. She won't risk walking on the road anymore.

I bought an inexpensive radar gun and have measured traffic in front of our house at over 60 mph. Interestingly, some of the navigation providers don't show a speed limit for Town Hill Road at all.

I suspect that these drivers would much rather be on Route 8 where there are paved shoulders, markings, reflectors, and guard rails designed to keep them safe. Routing traffic from New Boston to Lee via Route 8 is a mile and half longer than via Town Hill, but takes the same time, or less if speed limits are observed. We have contacted town officials on many occasions with little result.

Can anything be done? I have contacted the navigation app providers and managed to get Waze to at least add posted speed to Town Hill Road. This may make the route less attractive.

Better signage might help. It's not very clear what the speed limit is on certain sections of the road. In fact, the speed limit is a moving target. Coming up from 57, it starts at 25, but by Jeff Marres' place there is a new 30 mph sign. When the road gets narrow and twisty by Billy O'Brian's there is a 35 sign. Later there is another 25 sign and ultimately, by Ron Kimberley's, there is an old 20 mph sign that looks homemade.

The fact that two large trucks would have a hard time passing each other in the narrowest part. Large trucks must, as well, do a great deal of damage to a road that is famous for its potholes. More enforcement would help, but it is understood that resources are limited. Perhaps a combination of these fixes might calm traffic a bit.

With no change in the present landscape, a bad accident seems only a matter of time.

Subjects should be of interest to most of us and have a strong link to Sandisfield, written by and for Town residents. Address either PO Box 584, Sandisfield, or email.