There are all sorts of iterations of the traditional traffic intersection. Three-ways, four-ways, advance green, blinking yellow light: Concord has them all, and we take them for granted. But one Penacook family has to live with a unique stoplight situation, one that's all its own. The family's driveway is adjacent to a four-way intersection, and they have to have their own personal stoplight to deal with it.
The Smart family lived at 4 Village St. in Penacook for several years before a 2004 construction project began to connect Manor and Borough Roads via Village Street. Once the work was under way, however, Laura Smart could see there was going to be a problem. Their driveway was now facing a busy intersection, and if even one car was waiting at it, a left turn would be impossible.
“We had to have something,” said Smart, “or we never would have been able to get out of the driveway.”
She called up the city, and they agreed to put in a traffic signal facing their driveway to allow them to get out and about. City traffic engineer Rob Mack said that that is uncommon, if not unheard of.
“Sometimes that does happen,” Mack said, “when you're putting in a new stoplight at an old intersection. It's a way to share the right-of-way.”
Now, there is a electric eye sensor facing the Smart driveway, and at least in theory, it tells the traffic light to turn green when a car positions itself to leave. In practice, things don't run as smoothly as planned.
Smart said she often ends up turning right and driving around the block when the sensor doesn't trigger correctly.
“If it doesn't trigger the light, it's a major pain in the butt,” Smart said.
Michael Durgin, who rents a downstairs apartment, echoed that sentiment.
“If somebody walks by on the sidewalk, they trigger it,” Durgin said. “But when you want to pull out of the driveway, it won't.”
