MANCHESTER has a traffic congestion problem. Main Street can back up for a mile during rush hour. Left-turning vehicles block the roadway, as do parked cars along the sides. Downtown intersections rate as "failing." It's way past time to address this daily flow of 18,000 vehicles through the town of 3,200 residents.
If the 30-year-old plan for a bypass -- cost: $70 million -- is dead, then Manchester, county and state officials should move swiftly to choose other remedies.
A half-dozen options proposed by the Maryland Department of Transportation are a good place to begin. Town officials support the elements, estimated to cost only one-tenth the price of the bypass. Eliminating up to 20 on-street parking spaces to allow turning lanes on the Route 30-York Street intersection could be done by summer, if everyone agrees. That would be a major improvement, without much expense beyond highway striping. Downtown revitalization projects would accompany the work.