Study: Traffic volume up near Marblehead Y

MARBLEHEAD – The second half of a concentrated traffic study on the major access roads to the new Lynch/Van Otterloo YMCA indicates increased volume, but little speeding, according to Police Chief Robert Picariello.?The volume of traffic has increased since the ?Y? opened,” Chief Picariello said, “But average speeds per day are 20-22 miles per hour. There?s no speeding issue on that street.”Traffic on Leggs Hill Road and Londonderry Road has generated frequent neighborhood speeding complaints for at least two years. Using state-of the-art traffic measuring devices, police clocked traffic headed toward the ?Y? and away from it on Leggs Hill Road for nine days – Oct. 14-22 – and performed the same study on Londonderry Road for six days – Oct. 26-31. The Londonderry Road study was shortened due to police concerns about Halloween vandalism to the traffic study equipment.The amount of traffic on Londonderry Road was far lower than the traffic on Leggs Hill Road. In the six days of the study, 969 vehicles traveled toward Leggs Hill Road and the Lynch-Van Otterloo YMCA compared to the 17,470 vehicles that traveled toward the ?Y? on Leggs Hill Road during the previous study.The average speed per day was 20-21 mph, compared to 27 mph on Leggs Hill Road. Only two Londonderry Road vehicles were clocked at 28 mph, the peak speed.There were 3,113 vehicles clocked at 29 mph or more on Leggs Hill Road.The study also counted 969 vehicles traveling away from Leggs Hill Road, compared to the 17,935 vehicles headed away from the ?Y? on Leggs Hill Road.Police made 56 traffic stops on Leggs Hill Road between January and October, but based on the study Picariello said no special traffic enforcement appears needed on Londonderry Road.