Councilors hear crash counts, design limits on South Main merge near China Palace

Councilors on the Public Safety Committee raised safety concerns about a two-lane merge on South Main Street in front of the China Palace at the March 18 meeting, hearing both design and police data and agreeing to keep monitoring rather than approve an immediate fix.

Councilor Horn described motorists crossing lanes near the China Palace and said some drivers appear to "race" to beat other vehicles through the merge, creating a hazardous condition for drivers and pedestrians near businesses and a new hotel. Councilor LeRochon highlighted other bump-outs in Gonic that residents reported as causing tire damage and collisions, calling into question some traffic-calming features.

DPW representative Miss Norris described a lane-ends (MUTCD W4-2) sign placed where usable pavement narrows and said the sign's placement "appears to be in an appropriate location," adding she had "no recommendations at this location" without further investigation. DPW framed bump-outs and similar treatments as traffic-calming measures that trade off some collision/tire-risk for overall speed reduction.

The Deputy Chief provided local crash counts for the merge area: "In that little area there... we've had 10 accidents" in 2024–2025, and said one collision could be "pseudo-attributed to the merge." Police and DPW discussed alternatives such as converting the right lane to a right‑turn‑only lane, but officials noted the intersection lacks a left‑turn arrow and making that change could create queuing that shifts the problem elsewhere.

The committee did not approve an immediate engineering change. Members asked staff to continue evaluating options, consider possible sign or lane reconfiguration impacts (including queuing), and return with recommendations based on further review and safety analysis.