In the June 26 edition of the Reporter, our editorial asked readers to send in their ideas for how to improve the worsening traffic congestion in the neighborhood. We received several responses, of which four are printed below.

To the Editor:

There is no question the traffic is getting worse. I live on Granite Ave and in the morning and at night I have a heck of a problem getting in and out of my driveway. When coming up Granite Ave from Gallivan Blvd. and I put my signal on to take a left into my driveway, I hold up the traffic up behind me because the traffic is backed in the opposite direction and nobody will let me into my driveway. And the people behind me start verbally abusing me or my wife because I want to go home? Of course the traffic exiting and entering McDonalds and Hollywood Video and now a bank opening at the video store only adds to the mess.

Also, about 15 years ago, the lights at the intersection of Gallivan and Granite used to have a delayed green light both ways when you are traveling on Gallivan Blvd. When the MDC installed new lights, only those traveling east on Gallivan Blvd. got an initial 10 second green light to take as left on Adams St. before the west bound also got the green light. But they took away the 10 second green light that Gallivan traffic had at the end of the cycle to take a left onto Granite, thus causing a back-up. I called the MDC the week after this happened and they denied there ever was a delayed green light both ways on Gallivan Blvd., even though me and my neighbors know it was there for years. It would be a small fix but it's a start to put that delayed green light back in.

Thanks for listening...

Jack Ryan

To the Editor:

I can't speak to the other neighborhoods to which you refer in your article, but I sure can tell you from whence come at least half of the Upham's Corner traffic woes, and they can be laid directly at the feet of whatever idiot in the city's street planning department reconfigured the Hancock Street/Columbia Road merge last year. Once upon a time, Hancock Street northbound was two lanes, and there was a right-turn arrow at the light. Traffic turning right (northbound) onto Columbia could proceed, even though the light was red. Now someone's gone and put a great big cement something, hard to tell what or why, as it was never finished.

Now traffic on Hancock Street is strangled down to one lane and the cars coming north on Hancock are backed up for blocks waiting to merge onto Columbia. Not only that, but the greatly enlarged cement thing means that cars going south on Columbia turning left onto Hancock must move well into the intersection and then make a hard backwards swerve in order to negotiate the cement thing jutting out into the intersection. Typical of the city, it took something that was working just fine and ruined it. I live on Upham Avenue and I cannot go down to the bottom of my street and turn right onto Hancock; I would be waiting forever for my turn to come.

In a related issue, several years ago, the traffic department made it illegal to make a left turn onto Cushing from Columbia road southbound. Any resident of Jones Hill must now join the other hordes of cars down at the aforementioned Hancock/Columbia intersection in order to get home. Maybe this was done at the behest of residents of Cushing Ave., to keep motorists from using it as a shortcut (in order to avoid the bottleneck at Upham's Corner), but all it's done is make that bottleneck worse.

Perhaps the Reporter knows whom to contact down at City Hall and inquire about this mess? I'd sure be interested to read all about it.

-Susan Byers Paxson

Upham Avenue

To the Editor:

One traffic improvement suggestion I noticed was at the intersection of Dorchester Avenue and Park Street. It seems wide enough now or would certainly be if they took out the curve of sidewalk into the road, to have a left turning lane in both directions so that traffic going back and forth on Dot Ave can continue rather than being held up for a smaller number of cars that need to make left turns&emdash;this is especially needed when going down Dot Ave in the direction north through Fields Corner.

-Lew Finfer

Adams Street

To the Editor:

The Reporter's June 26th piece (Where Is All the Traffic Coming From?) is both timely and to the point. However, in its mention of tie-ups at Adams Corner, the danger to public safety due to the absence of three left-turn green arrows on the traffic-lights is an important omission.

Anyone attempting a left turn from Granite Avenue to Gallivan, or left turns from Gallivan either to Granite or Adams is risking a serious accident. Now, despite a public hearing held some time ago in St. Brendan's hall during which I had strongly urged the placement of these arrows at Adams Corner, and despite the presence at that meeting of representatives from the Boston and State Police, the M.D.C., as well as from the Legislature and City Council, absolutely nothing has been done to address this safety issue!

I trust a fatal accident will not have to occur before the powers-that-be will correct this obvious necessity in Adams Corner.

Sincerely,

Joe Dillon