Traffic Light Not Warranted for Meetinghouse and 202

Due to the lack of high traffic on Meetinghouse Road in Lower Gwynedd, PennDOT found that traffic volumes were not met to warrant a traffic light at the road's intersection with Route 202.
Township traffic consultant Ken O'Brien, of McMahon Associates, revealed the results of a PennDOT traffic count study at the supervisors meeting Monday night in a packed community room at Foulkeways at Gwynedd. Supervisors took its show on the road, so to speak, to the senior housing community.
O'Brien said Route 202 and Meetinghouse was realigned two years ago, in conjunction with the Route 202 Parkway construction. The road was taken from a Y-intersection to a T-intersection.
"PennDOT agreed to look if a signal was warranted, and, if so, install it," O'Brien said. 
PennDOT follows the requirements of national criteria in the Federal Highway Administration manual on traffic control devices, he said. The reason PennDOT follows the guide when determining whether to install a light comes down to liability.
"If they approve a light that doesn't meet the criteria, PennDOT would be open to liability in case there is an accident at that location," O'Brien said.
He said Meetinghouse Road traffic volume was not sufficient to warrant installation of a signal; Route 202 traffic volume surpassed the number required per the national standard. O'Brien said PennDOT workers counted the number of cars through the intersection in one day and compared volumes to the standard.
"Traffic volume on 202 was high enough to meet the threshold. The issue is the volume coming out of Meetinghouse Road," he said.
An 8-hour standard required 140 vehicles to exit Meetinghouse Road every hour. O'Brien said traffic counts totaled between 30 to 78 vehicles per hour on Meetinghouse Road.
Furthermore, O'Brien said the peak hour had to net or surpass 1,000 vehicles an hour on 202 and 100 vehicles an hour on Meetinghouse; the former was met, but the latter was not.
Other warrants were looked at for the intersection, he said, but they were not applicable. For instance, there is no high pedestrian volume on either roadway, there are no school crossings on either road and there are no at-grade railroads.
Another important factor in determining the need for a signal was accident history.
O'Brien said the national standard requires five or more reportable accidents in a 12-month period. 
Meetinghouse Road only had five reportable accidents in a three-year period, he said.
PennDOT will return to do another count in the fall, after schools are back in session, to see if volumes increase, he said.
There is also a plan to install a flashing signal at the intersection by 2017, but it hinges on the relocation of the fire department: If the firehouse moves, then the flashing signal can be installed, he said.
One Foulkeways resident expressed concern that PennDOT has not yet installed street signage and yellow safety signage at the intersection. O'Brien said he would talk to PennDOT about that.
Another resident said there was inadequate sight distance at the intersection for Route 202. O'Brien rebutted that careful consideration was made for adequate sight distance, and there is enough to make desired movements.
Foulkeways resident Susan West said a new study of light timings needs to be done at Hancock Street and Sumneytown Pike. She said it is very difficult to turn onto Route 202 from Meetinghouse—once traffic is stopped in one direction, there isn't a break in traffic from the other direction.
O'Brien said his firm would ask PennDOT to look at the timing to see if it would help improve traffic flow.