Residents voice traffic concerns in Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT – The Traffic Study Committee said that it would investigate adding resident-only parking and expanding a traffic island to alleviate concerns of residents living along Elmwood Road between Town Hall and Paradise Road.”Concerns have been going on for years, but now there are so many more cars and commuters. It just gets so frustrating,” said Elmwood Road resident Sue Sussman, who said she routinely sees cars speeding through the stop sign at the intersection of Paradise and Elmwood roads. “It’s a great neighborhood, we all love it, it’s just hard? it’s like a raceway off of Paradise Road.”A dozen residents of lower Elmwood Road and Thomas and Hardy streets met with the town’s Traffic Study Committee to brainstorm solutions for two major issues: speeding vehicles coming from Paradise onto Elmwood Road and non-residents parking along the street as they try to catch the commuter rail or do business at Town Hall and the Post Office.But for every suggestion – making certain streets one-way, restricting parking resident-only or to one side of the street, widening the street – there were corresponding concerns.”The parking issue is a constant thing,” said committee member and police Lt. Gary Lord. “But how far are you going to push them back and then where are they going to go? We push them back onto streets that are less capable of accommodating them.”Residents also appeared frustrated – but also resigned – to the difficulties of enforcing parking and traffic issues and making physical changes to the streets. They acknowledged the difficulty of catching the many patrons of the Post Office who park illegally but have driven off by the time residents call police. Drains and other infrastructure need to remain in place. Pedestrians depend on the sidewalks to safely walk to the beach.Eventually, committee member and Town Accountant Dave Castellarin said that they needed to look at short-term and temporary fixes. He said that the committee would investigate restricting parking on lower Elmwood Road to residents only between the hours of 6 and 10 a.m. and to putting a temporary traffic cone that effectively extends the traffic island at the intersection of Paradise and Elmwood roads. This will force cars to slow down in order to make a now sharper turn onto Elmwood. Castellarin said that the group would hold another meeting with residents once these and other options were researched.