Thu, 05/25/2017 - 04:20 pm

Holly S. Edwards

CAMDEN — It’s been just shy of four months since the state Department of Transportation began work to rebuild Bakery Bridge on Washington Street, at the intersection of Mechanic Street, but as they told PenBayPilot.com on May 15, the bridge work is complete and the road is open again. And let’s not forget that there is one addition to the intersection: A shiny, red STOP sign for traffic heading southeast on Washington into downtown, which now makes the intersection a four-way stop.

The addition of the stop sign just as people cross the bridge is something that many drivers will need to get used to, and so far today, video evidence is showing that half of the drivers witnessed during a 10-minue window were coming to a full stop and the other half were slowing and rolling through it. In one case, three cars were lined up at the new stop sign, with cars at two of the other oncoming and/or adjacent stop signs. The first two cars stopped and took their turn, while the third car attempted to follow the second car, only to be cut off by an oncoming driver and a driver to the right, both of who had waited their turn.

The new stop sign was installed to help ease the number of accidents that regularly happen, often when people entered the intersection not knowing that one direction of travel didn’t have to stop. Also, that intersection has seen its share of accidents involving pedestrians, albeit not always due to the lack of a stop sign at the bridge.

Just like when the new traffic light was installed on Route 1 and the Old County Road intersection in Rockport, this new traffic device will take some time to get used to. In the meantime, use caution when entering the intersection, in case you encounter someone who fails to stop at the stop sign. The good news is that new visitors to town this summer won’t know there wasn’t a stop sign there before.