Town officials request to reduce speed limit on West Dryden Road

Kristina Endler has lived with her husband on West Dryden Road in the town of Dryden since November 2022.

The Endlers have seen their fair share of car accidents on the road. Kristina knew she had to take action after an Oct. 30 accident at the intersection of West Dryden Road and Sheldon Road resulted in the death of 63-year old Daniel L. Heath.

“I am here as a deeply concerned community member who no longer feels safe in my home due to the roads on which it is located,” Endler said at the Nov. 14 town board meeting. “The [Oct. 30 accident] was the second severe accident that my husband and I have witnessed on our front steps.”

Endler and a group of neighbors in the area of West Dryden Road collected over 70 signatures for a petition to reduce the road’s speed limit from 55 to 45 miles per hour.

“We intend to continue collecting signatures and spread awareness,” Endler said.

Town Deputy Supervisor Dan Lamb told Endler and Brian Earle, a West Dryden Road resident who also attended the meeting, that the board supports the petition.

Lamb, a professor at Cornell University, said that he uses West Dryden Road on his commute to work, noting that drivers on Sheldon Road sometimes ignore the stop sign and “go right through it.”

“You won’t have any push back from us on this [petition],” Lamb said. “We’re all very concerned about it. The county is aware of the problem. We need people to stop.”

Led by supervisor Jason Leifer, the town recently submitted a request form, with the petition and other documents attached, to Tompkins County to reduce the speed limit on West Dryden Road. 

Leifer, the town and the county, collectively, submitted a request to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) for the speed limit reduction.

Endler noted that the county quickly responded to the issue by installing flashing lights to notify drivers of an upcoming stop sign.

A hopeful Earle, who’s lived with his wife on West Dryden Road for 52 years, said it was “remarkable speed for any government agency” to implement the flashing lights.

“It was reassuring to see,” Endler said.

Endler provided data at the meeting based on information collected by the NYSDOT. She noted that in 2023, the Ithaca/Tompkins County Transportation Council analyzed the state’s vehicle accident data from 2018 to 2022.

When looking over the report, Endler noted that West Dryden Road was mentioned 10 separate times. The intersection of West Dryden Road and Sheldon Road, Endler said, is ranked fifth out of 20 locations in the county and third out of 10 in the town of Dryden with the highest severity rate of accidents.

Endler also mentioned that the area of West Dryden Road, Sheldon Road and Caswell has had 28 reported crashes — with four resulting in minor injuries, two with serious injuries and 22 resulting in property damage.

“Several of our neighbors have also had traumatizing experiences of vehicles running into their properties, into their buildings, and causing severe destruction,” Endler said. “It’s a sobering reality for our community that our lives and property are at an impending risk due to the high speed of vehicular movement on our road.”

Earle said one accident involved a dump truck knocking down a maple tree on his property. He added that cars in accidents took out his porch post and rail fence in three different instances.

“The accident wasn’t a fatality, but the car went through our rail fence in front of our house, and the upper rail of the fence went diagonally through his car from the driver’s side to the right rear passenger side. It’s a miracle,” Earle said.

Earle noted he never thought the speed limit would be an issue in his neighborhood. He remembered a time when his neighbors would ride horses down the road to visit people.

Earle mentioned that when there was recently heavy construction on Route 13, a handful of vehicles used West Dryden Road as a shortcut.

“And it never backed off,” Earle said.

Lamb noted that there’s a growing “map problem,” which involves people finding the fastest route to get their destination. But, Lamb added, this will sometimes result in traffic issues.

“Our lives should never be seen as collateral damage in the face of speed and traffic flow,” Endler said. “If you believe in the safety and rights of our community, I urge you to move forward with the resolution.”

Endler said that while reducing the speed limit would be a good start, more has to be done to ensure safety in her neighborhood.

“To me, reducing the speed limit to 45 makes it so these people who are T-boned don’t projectile into my front door,” Endler said. “Even if it’s reduced to 45, people will still go 55. Sometimes, people go 80 down that road. It’s so scary.”

Details on when the NYSDOT will respond to the request from the town and the county have yet to be determined.

Dryden Dispatch appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.