October 26, 1998

Leroy M Zimmerman
State Representative, 99th District
609 E. Main St. Box 59
Ephrata PA 17522

Dear Mr. Zimmerman,

I need your help in addressing the traffic congestion at the intersection of State Route 222 and State Route 772 in Brownstown. I am writing to you because all of the roads in question are state roads. Traffic is so bad at rush hour that traffic can only exit left from 222 South onto 772 East by motorists traveling West on 772 being kind enough (usually) to leave a gap at the intersection when they are backed up from the light at 272. And this only works by using the middle island on 772 as a waiting area until there is a break in traffic on 772 East.

This intolerable situation is certain to get worse as traffic increases, eventually getting to the point that traffic is going to back up and block the right lane of 222 south. One reason we moved to Brownstown was due to the large amount of congestion in other areas of Lancaster county. We figured that with a bypass and Route 272 parallel to it this was about the best place to move. Now that I am commuting to the Reading area it has become apparent that even this did not avoid the problem. In this case the poorly designed exit ramps and exit locations are the main culprit.

Lancaster boldly claims that instead of building new roads they will improve existing roads in the hopes of discouraging the development of farmland. Here is a place they can put that policy to work, hopefully before we have gridlock and/or frequent serious accidents.

One long term solution that I had thought about was recently made almost impossible by the new construction behind Schaum's corner. Part of the reason 772 West backs up is due to the large amount of traffic exiting 222 South trying to merge onto 772 West. Rather easily a second 222 South exit ramp could have been made a few hundred feet before the current exit ramp that would intersect 272 between Schaum's corner and the bowling alley. Then a short road could have been made opposite the exit ramp that would run behind Schaum's corner and meet up with 772 west of 272. This would have eliminated much of the traffic at the intersection 772 and 272 with a minimum of excavation and no new bridges.

I assume that since this rather simple solution was ignored that there must be another long term plan in the works. Would you please find out what the future plans are or, if there aren't any, would you please make sure some plans are started? Thank-you.

Sincerely,

Dave Noyes
9 Groffs Dr. Box 514
Brownstown PA 17508

PS (Handwritten) - Lancaster wants more people to carpool to cut down on traffic. Well, in this case the poor roads are straining my carpool because the two people who car pool with me don't like waiting in the traffic when they wouldn't have to if we didn't carpool.