In Swampscott, shifting the double-yellow centerline on Humphrey Street has turned into an annoyance with significant traffic-safety ramifications.
Anyone who has driven Humphrey between Redington Street and Fuller Terrace has been seeing double when it comes to the yellow centerlines. One of the centerlines is not quite as visible as the other because town workers painted it with black paint in an obviously-unsuccessful effort to cover it.
But the black paint is gradually rubbing off.
Drivers won’t stop seeing double — and steering dangerously close to ongoing traffic — until the town mills the road surface down a quarter inch in order to eliminate one of the centerlines.
We recommend that work be undertaken expeditiously. But the chances of anything happening anytime in February, or even March, are slim to none.
The story of the double-yellow lines on Humphrey Street is a tale of good intentions gone bad. The town exercised good intentions by shifting the centerline eight feet to accommodate outdoor dining along Humphrey Street.
Hindsight, of course, is 20-20. But Humphrey Street isn’t just another byroad traveling through Swampscott. It is the major commuter route to Boston and its heavy use makes the annoying prospect of drivers having to endure the inevitable road milling work even more frustrating.
