Dryden, N.Y. — An idea to redirect some truck traffic through Dryden will not be pursued by local lawmakers after it generated opposition among the village’s residents, according to Mike Lane, a Tompkins County legislator.
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Lane, also a member of the truck safety working group pursuing a range of reforms in the wake of the tragedy at Simeon’s, confirmed that the proposal has been removed from consideration.
It had only been previously reported that the plan seemed unlikely to pass. At last Thursday’s public forum, Mayor Svante Myrick said that it didn’t appear probable that the plan would be pursued.
The idea was to reroute truck traffic coming from the Tioga County town of Richford. Instead of having trucks coming directly into the city on Route 79, the detour would take the trucks to Route 13 through the village of Dryden.
As previously reported, Route 13 has less drastic slope changes than Route 79 coming into the city. The detour — as recently noted by the Fernando de Aragon, of the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council — would keep trucks off the road that leads most directly to the busy Commons hub.
de Aragon, who didn’t speak for or against the proposal, said that the detour — if implemented — would send about 30 more trucks through Dryden every day. The most recent data, from 2007, shows that about 550 trucks “with 3 axles or more” already pass through the village daily.
The plan was strongly opposed by Dryden Village Mayor Jim Zimmer. Zimmer said at last Thursday’s forum that there was alarm among his constituents over the idea to send more trucks through Dryden.
“The primary concern is that presently for years we have had a heavy traffic load through the village,” Zimmer said. “The safety of the residents of the village: That’s my primary concern.”