Approximately 10 Maplewood residents came to the Nov. 12 city council meeting to vent about what they see as a dangerous situation on Cherry Street.
Cherry Street is near the train tracks off Sutton Boulevard. The residents said frustrated drivers end up on their street when a train goes through—driving much too fast.
“They shoot a quick left onto Pacific and start barreling up Cherry Street,” Karen Smith said. “They just seem exasperated, because the speed is unnecessarily high. I’ve seen some of them hit that sewer there at the corner and blow out a tire and keep going.”
She said she’s afraid to buy a new car because she’s already had her tail lights clipped.
Edie Sylvester said she and her husband have had two cars knocked across the street and into a fence by speeding drivers.
“They come flying around there, up on the sidewalk, and totaled our cars,” Sylvester said. “We’ve just about all got driveways now because they’re crazy. They think they’re taking a shortcut, and then going around the corner and back onto Sutton anyhow.”
Jennifer Brown requested speed bumps, but City Manager Marty Corcoran said Cherry Street doesn’t have enough traffic to merit speed bumps. Several residents said the quantity of cars isn’t the problem it’s the speed.
“When the trains come our street goes from a nice quiet street that only residents drive down, to anybody and their sister is flying around that corner and down the street, and they don’t take into account the residents on the street,” Brown said.
Mayor James White, a long-time Cherry Street resident, listened but had no comments about the situation. He suggested to Corcoran that a patrol car could sit on the street for several days, and the officer could remind people to slow down.
Why not make that piece of Cherry a one-way street? I wonder what residents think. My daughter lives on that street. I see what everyone is talking about. The street is very narrow, and cars can barely pass each other when there are cars coming in both directions.
Patrol cars rarely, if ever, work. I’ve been complaining to Richmond Heights about a dangerous traffic problem right near my house, and they haven’t done a thing. Thankfully Steve Kruse at the Maplewood Police Department is very receptive to traffic complaints. But there’s only so much a few stops by a police officer can do.
While we’re on traffic issues near Sutton, am I the only one who despises how drivers going north on Sutton and taking a left onto Manchester routinely cut off the driver going straight? It’s so common we’ve taken to calling it the “Maplewood left.” I avoid that intersection just because it irritates me so much.