Can you imagine a time long ago when there were no traffic lights? No McDonalds? No WalMart? That time still exists on Martha’s Vineyard, my home forty-five minutes off the coast of Massachusetts. We jokingly refer to being on Vineyard time when someone is late. Perhaps it’s because tourists and newcomers don’t understand Vineyard time that we have one of the most dangerous intersections in the state – at least in the summer. They think they have to be on time for appointments and so speed through the intersection of Barnes and Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Roads, which, until this summer, has been guarded by a blinking yellow light and stop signs on Barnes Road. This has proven inadequate, so the selectmen have made what they call a temporary solution: a four way stop.
The resulting traffic jams at peak times have resulted in front page articles in the local newspapers as well as a raft of letters to the editor. The letter writers are irked by the massive delay, which at peak times during the peak season of the year is all of two minutes. Some have even proposed the installation of traffic lights to speed up the traffic!
The powers that be, however, frown on this intrusion by the twenty-first century. They have convinced the state, when its coffers once more become full, to pony up $300,000 (about $299,000 more than the four way stop) to fund a “roundabout”, or what used to be called a rotary. This, they are convinced, is the perfect solution. It will speed up traffic at all times of the day and night, even in winter when, perhaps, 100 cars go through the intersection each hour. The traffic processing will be so fast that no more will we be able to use the excuse “I’m operating on Vineyard time”. But, at least, we won’t have any of those infernal traffic lights.
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