Traffic Light

State Rep. Ronald C. Raymond (R., Sharon Hill) has asked PennDOT to reconsider a plan to remove a traffic light at High Street and Chester Pike as part of a project that would synchronize the timing of traffic lights along the pike. During a Sharon Hill Borough Council caucus meeting Thursday night, council President Charles Hollenden said Raymond sent a letter to PennDOT about a week ago at the request of several residents of High Street who are opposed to the removal of the traffic light.

Who should foot the bill for a traffic light at Sheree Boulevard and Route 113 was discussed at the Uwchlan Township Planning Commission meeting last week. Wawa Inc. has proposed building a market and a bank at the corner, but it does not want to pay the entire cost of installing the signal, which is estimated at $55,000. "We shouldn't necessarily bear the brunt of the traffic signal," said Peter F. Gilligan, a construction engineer for Wawa. Wawa presented a plan at Wednesday's meeting to build a 6,500-square-foot convenience store and a bank on a 1.3-acre lot at the southeast corner of the intersection, across Sheree Boulevard from the Heritage Shopping Center.

West Goshen's Board of Supervisors took the first step toward installing a traffic light at Concord Road and West Chester Pike by asking the state Department of Transportation if the intersection needed a light. The supervisors said several residents had asked them to investigate placing a light at the intersection, which is just west of the entrance ramps to Route 202. Under a new PennDOT policy, the department will not study an intersection unless the municipality passes a resolution ensuring that it will pay for the light.

No one's been killed in a traffic accident at the intersection of Penllyn Pike and Trewellyn Avenue in Lower Gwynedd Township. And, to keep things that way, the community of Penllyn, led by members of the Bethlehem Baptist Church on that corner, is doing everything it can to get a traffic signal there. "We shouldn't have to wait for an accident to get action," said the Rev. Charles W. Quann. It's hardly a new issue between locals and the state. Supervisors first applied to the state Department of Transportation for a signal there in 1968.

Plans for a traffic light to serve the expanding Willistown Woods Townhouse development on West Chester Pike have been approved by the Willistown Board of Supervisors. The board and other township officials on Tuesday night estimated that it would take until the end of the year to receive shipment of the traffic-light parts to begin installation. The traffic light at the entrance to Willistown Woods and a three-way light on the eastern end of the development were conditions of approval imposed by the board in permitting Willistown Woods to be expanded from 235 townhouses to nearly 500 townhouses.

Sharon Hill officials will meet Friday with an attorney from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to discuss a proposal to remove a traffic light at High Street and Chester Pike. At a Sharon Hill Borough Council caucus meeting Thursday night, borough solicitor Richard C. Tinucci said he would meet with an attorney from PennDOT Friday at 10 a.m. at the borough hall, Sharon Avenue and Spring Street. The council voted, 7-0, in May to rescind an agreement with PennDOT to remove a traffic light at the intersection.

Drivers on Darby Road in Haverford Township are about to find the unfettered, two-mile stretch from Ardmore Avenue to Route 320 punctuated by a traffic light. The new traffic light, which township officials said cost $26,000, will go into operation in mid-October at Darby Road and College Avenue. It was erected at the request of residents of the Quadrangle, 3300 Darby Rd., a retirement community. Its entrance is near the intersection but on the other side of Darby Road. Residents say that traffic makes it difficult to get in and out of the driveway, and that vision is often blocked.

The New Hope Borough Council is asking business owners and residents to make financial contributions for a traffic signal to be installed at the intersection of Route 202 and Sugan Road. Council President Ralph J. Prosceno Jr. said Monday that the total cost of the signal would be $59,500. Of that, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will contribute $50,000 and Solebury Township and New Hope Borough will split the balance. Prosceno said that a letter sent to area businesses on April 24 asking for donations had elicited only one response.

Neighborhood perseverance has paid off at a Hunting Park intersection near where a car struck and killed a 5-year-old girl and her grandfather last month. In response to the demands of neighborhood residents, city officials have agreed to install a traffic light and make other improvements around Erie Avenue near 2nd Street. Residents, along with parents and children from the nearby Roberto Clemente Middle School had been demanding pedestrian improvements in daily protests since Sept.

A statement made last month by Council President Charles Hollenden regarding a dispute over a Sharon Hill traffic light has been called a "bald- faced lie" by Mayor Anthony Raffaele. During a regular Borough Council meeting Thursday night, Raffaele said Hollenden's statement regarding the removal of a traffic light at High Street and Chester Pike "was made to give people the impression" that the mayor had approved of the light's removal. Last month, the Borough Council voted, 7-0, to rescind an agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to remove the traffic light.

T'was the Sunday before the Sunday before Christmas, and all through the stores, so few consumer-creatures were stirring . . . well, I barely waited for a food-court burrito, hardly broke a sweat for parking, and saw virtually none of the long checkout lines retailers expect and need during the holidays. Uh-oh , I thought to myself. That bad feeling I'd had on Black Friday, after retailers pulled out the stops with Thanksgiving store openings - only to see less-than-killer crowds the next day - had apparently been a sign of more troubling news to come.

A Clementon man was charged Wednesday in two carjackings committed in the last two weeks in Camden County. George Meyers, 43, was arrested by Lindenwold police after he tried to hijack two vehicles at knifepoint early Wednesday, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said. He has been charged with kidnapping and carjacking. Further charges are expected. About 8:40 a.m. Nov. 14, Meyers, with a box cutter, approached a driver at a traffic light at Branch Avenue and Blackwood-Clementon Road in Pine Hill, authorities said.

The Orlando Magic's latest makeover continues to have a youthful feel. The team on Saturday announced the hiring of Jacque Vaughn , 37, as its next head coach. Last month, the team hired 30-year-old Rob Hennigan as general manager. Vaughn replaces Stan Van Gundy , who was fired May 21 despite compiling a 259-135 regular-season record, franchise-best .657 winning percentage, and a 31-28 playoff record. A 12-year NBA player before retiring in 2009 with San Antonio, Vaughn's career included 80 games for the Magic in 2002-03.

A 21-year-old woman is recovering after a horse-drawn carriage she was operating struck two cars in a busy Old City intersection Friday afternoon, according to her employer. The driver was finishing up a shift about 3:45 p.m., heading back to the company's North Philadelphia stables, when she stopped her horse, Dutch, at a traffic light at Third and Callowhill Streets, according to Michael Kates, vice president of 76 Carriage Co. Suddenly, according to police and witnesses, Dutch became startled and pulled the carriage into the intersection, striking cars westbound on Callowhill.

A 21-year-old woman is recovering well after a horse-drawn carriage she was operating struck two cars in a busy Old City intersection Friday afternoon, according to an official at the 76 Carriage Company, where the woman is employed. The driver was finishing up a shift around 3:45 p.m., heading back to the company's North Philadelphia stables, when she stopped her horse, Dutch, at a traffic light at Third and Callowhill Streets, according to the Michael Kates, vice-president of 76 Carriage Company.

A 21-year-old woman was seriously injured Friday afternoon when a horse-drawn carriage she was operating hit a car in Old City, police and fire officials said. The accident happened about 3:45 p.m. at Third and Callowhill Streets, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman. The carriage was stopped at a traffic light on Third when the horse was startled and ran into oncoming traffic on Callowhill, Little said. The horse hit a Jeep, and the woman was flung onto the car's windshield.

Clergy should express contrition As penance for his involvement in the murder of Thomas Beckett, Henry II, king of England, walked to Canterbury Cathedral in sackcloth and ashes and allowed himself to be publicly flogged by the monks. Why, then, could not Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia simply have made a public admission of errant priests, rather than lead an apparent cover-up of his reassigning them without any punishment, thereby exposing other innocent children to clergy abuse?

Take 17 years' experience as an often-harried personal assistant to celebrities, combine it with the growing unwillingness of your typical 8-year-old to pick up his Legos, and what do you get? The Toydozer, Wyndmoor entrepreneur Amy Bradley's effort to capture a vast worldwide market of busy parents unwilling to crawl under beds to pick up what their children can't, or won't. Her creation has brought Bradley some of the fame once reserved for her glamorous clients in New York and L.A., with a recent appearance on Today, a big feature in Daily Candy, and favorable mentions on numerous "mom" blogs, as they're known.

The intersection at Frankford and Cottman Avenues in Northeast Philadelphia is closed after a car crash took out the traffic light about 7 a.m. today. Motorists are being advised to expect delays. Check back for updates.

To take the "stop" out of stop-and-go traffic, Philadelphia is spending about $90 million over three years to upgrade traffic signals and synchronize lights at more than 600 intersections along 21 major corridors in the city. The first streets to get the upgrades are Oregon Avenue, 29th Street, Verree Road, Belmont Avenue, Bustleton Avenue, Chestnut Street, Walnut Street, and Woodland Avenue, said Stephen Buckley, deputy commissioner for transportation at the Streets Department.