Town of Amherst Traffic-Safety Board·June 10, 2026
A busy coffee-and-taco driveway rattles a school crossing · An all-way stop that the numbers won't support · A school district's non-compliant crosswalk · A mosque's Friday overflow, left to the liaison
The Town of Amherst Traffic-Safety Board spent much of its 63-minute June session on a single busy curb cut — the shared Starbucks and Mighty Taco driveway on Sheridan Drive at Mill Street, where crossing guards say drivers roll through a school crosswalk and a member's own site visits found sight lines so poor "how in the world can a driver see a pedestrian?" The board voted to draft a letter pressing the developer to discuss a dedicated crossing guard and site fixes before school returns in the fall. Elsewhere it declined an all-way stop at Cottonwood Drive and Pin Oak Drive (the traffic counts fell far short of the warrant), received and filed a complaint over a school district's non-compliant raised crosswalk on Westmoreland Road that the town has already told the district to tear out, referred a Paradise Road pedestrian-crossing request to the sidewalk review committee, and punted a mosque's chronic Friday parking overflow on Fair Woods Drive[*] back to its Town Board liaison for an update rather than impose new restrictions.
The board's longest fight was over a driveway. A recently built commercial lot at Sheridan Drive and Mill Street — a Starbucks paired with a Mighty Taco — sits within a block of Mill Middle School, and its single right-in/right-out curb cut cuts directly across the path that crossing guards walk students through each morning. The request, Traffic Safety Coordinator Chris Schregel[*] explained, came from the crossing guards themselves: children who are safely walked across the intersection then have to thread past cars pulling in and out of the busy lot.[1]
Because there is no town standard for a crossing guard at a private driveway, staff applied the intersection criteria and found the pedestrian counts easily cleared the threshold — 33 children crossing in the busiest half hour — while vehicle volumes did not.[1] The complication was a condition attached when the site was approved: the developer had agreed only to "consider contributing funding" toward an additional crossing guard if one were deemed warranted. As one member put it, "the 'shall consider contributing' is really not very forceful … I don't know what teeth we have for that."[1]
Member Dan Rider[*] had made three trips to the site and photographed it from behind the wheel of his pickup. The grade of the driveway rises then falls, he said, so that from a stopped vehicle a driver simply cannot see the sidewalk — "how in the world can a driver see a pedestrian?"[2] He wanted trees and landscaping in the sight triangle removed ("a monkey is allowed, and they brought a gorilla" was how one member later summed up a different site's overreach), and warned that simply throwing more signs at the problem risks distracting drivers further.[2] A police representative agreed the core problem is drivers ignoring the "do not block sidewalk" sign, forcing kids to weave between moving cars.[2]
After weighing raised medians, stop bars and stop-here signs, the board settled on the one lever it clearly holds: a letter. It voted to have a letter drafted from the board to the petitioner, invoking the site-plan condition, requesting a discussion by August — before the school year resumes — about a dedicated crossing guard at the driveway and other possible site improvements.[3]
The Traffic-Safety Board is an advisory body with no lawmaking authority, as the vice chair reminded the room at the outset. It reviews traffic and pedestrian-safety requests — stop signs, speed complaints, crosswalks, sight lines — against the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and New York's supplement, then makes recommendations. Anything requiring a legal change (for example, a speed limit under the town's 30 mph default, or a new parking restriction) is passed to the board's Town Board liaison to carry to the elected Town Board, which actually holds the decision. So a "no" here often means "the numbers don't meet the standard," and a "yes" is usually a recommendation, not a final order.
A resident asked the board to make the intersection of Cottonwood Drive and Pin Oak Drive an all-way stop, citing speeding and concern for younger pedestrians. The intersection has history: a 1980 review by this board and the Town Board switched the stop control so that Pin Oak, the minor street, stops and Cottonwood flows freely — the reverse of the original setup — consistent with the MUTCD.[4] Staff's counter told the story: the 85th-percentile speed on Cottonwood was 31–32 mph, barely over the 30 mph limit, on roughly 280–314 vehicles a day. An all-way-stop warrant wants 300 vehicles per hour entering on the major legs; the busiest hour saw about 127. The minor approach needs 200; its peak hour drew 14.[4] The lone reported crash — an Amazon delivery truck pulling from the curb into a turning vehicle — would not have been prevented by a stop sign. "These are unremarkable speeds," a member observed; "there are streets in this town that would love to have speeds that are 31 to 32 miles an hour." The board voted to receive and file.[4]
The board took up a raised crosswalk recently installed by the Amherst Central School District on Westmoreland Road, between Washington Highway and Berryman Drive, as part of its sports-complex project. The problem, staff said, is that the crosswalk as built does not match the approved design: it ramps up and plateaus rather than holding a constant grade, exceeds the maximum crosswalk slope (measured grades of 8.5% and 5.2% against a 4.5% ceiling), is not ADA-compliant under federal accessibility guidelines, lacks detectable-warning panels, and has produced drainage ponding beside the catch basins.[5] The district, a higher jurisdiction, never sought a town permit for the right-of-way work; staff had already sent a May 15 letter demanding corrective action and asking the district to halt related work on Kings Highway[*] until the issue is resolved. "They're going to have to tear that out," one member said; "I think my letter was clear. We're not accepting." With the town's demand already out, the board voted to receive and file pending the district's response.[5]
A resident at the corner of Paradise Road and Haymarket Square asked for pedestrian-crossing signage — a warning sign or beacon like the rectangular rapid-flashing beacon (RRFB) at Whisperwood Drive to the south — after watching children cross to catch a school bus and to visit friends in the neighborhood's older, filling-in homes.[6] "It only takes a second for something stupid to happen," she told the board, adding she did not necessarily want a flashing light, just some recognition that children are present.[6]
The board's difficulty was structural: Haymarket is a dead-end cul-de-sac that does not connect through to the Whisperwood beacon, and there are no sidewalks on either side of Paradise or Haymarket, with large trees making new ones hard to install. The stretch to Williamsville High School is a third of a mile with no walkway, and staff found no pedestrian or cyclist crashes from 2018 to 2024.[6] A beacon or crosswalk with no sidewalk to connect it, members worried, would only invite crossing in a dangerous spot. Rather than deny the request, the board voted to refer it to the town's sidewalk review committee, which can weigh whether a sidewalk is even feasible — the missing piece the signage depends on.[6]
The resident asked for a sign, but the board concluded a sign wasn't the real problem — there is nowhere safe to cross to, because there are no sidewalks. So instead of rejecting the request outright, it handed the underlying question to the sidewalk review committee, the body that can study whether a walkway can physically be built. It's a "no" to the beacon that keeps the larger safety question alive rather than closing it.
The session's most delicate item was a request to restrict parking on Fair Woods Drive[*] — "No Parking" Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., along the stretch from the raised island to Heim Road[*] — to relieve overflow parking from a nearby mosque whose Friday services fill both curbs and narrow the road to a single lane. Staff photos from the prior Friday showed cars lining both sides; a public canvass came back split, with those in favor slightly outweighing opponents (roughly four to three), and at least one resident objecting on religious-liberty grounds under RLUIPA (the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act).[7] Staff and members stressed the mosque has been cooperative — posting its own security and cones, meeting repeatedly with the board — and that the parking is legal; the root problem, as one member put it, is "too many people, not enough parking," and each new restriction just pushes the overflow further down the street.[7] Warning against action "on someone else's right to worship," the board declined to impose a restriction and instead voted to refer the matter to Councilmember Michael Szukala[*], its Town Board liaison, for an update on progress since an earlier community "summit" and, if warranted, a second meeting of the parties.[7]
Every recorded action carried by voice vote ("all in favor" / aye); no roll-call tallies or dissents were audible, so no numeric margins are shown. Vice Chair Cara Biddlecom[*] chaired in the chair's stead; members present per the opening introductions were Patricia Dunne[*], Kevin Cantwell, Dan Rider[*], Joseph Lojacono[*] and Nicholas Alterio[*]. The board is advisory; see the Editor's Note on roster/attribution status. Agenda item numbers differ from the order discussed (the board took Item 4 first to accommodate a sign-up).
Motion (as revised and re-stated) to contact the petitioner requesting a discussion by August — invoking site-plan Condition 12 — regarding potential changes to the driveway and/or placement of an additional crossing guard to address pedestrian conflicts at the private curb cut serving the Starbucks / Mighty Taco lot. Seconded; carried on a voice vote.
Motion to receive and file the request for an all-way stop. Staff's warrant analysis found traffic volumes far below the MUTCD thresholds (peak-hour major-leg volume ~127 against 300 required; minor-approach ~14 against 200), 85th-percentile speeds of 31–32 mph, and the single nearby crash not correctable by a stop sign. The existing stop control (Pin Oak stops, Cottonwood free-flow, set in a 1980 review) is properly signed. Seconded; carried on a voice vote.
Motion to receive and file, the corrective action already being underway. Staff reported the Amherst Central School District's raised crosswalk between Washington Highway and Berryman Drive was built inconsistent with the approved design, exceeds the maximum crosswalk grade (8.5% and 5.2% vs. 4.5% max), is not ADA-compliant, lacks detectable-warning panels, and causes drainage ponding. A town letter dated May 15 demanded corrective action and asked the district to halt related work on Kings Highway[*]; no formal written response had been received. Seconded; carried on a voice vote.
Motion to refer the request to the town's sidewalk (technical) review committee. With no sidewalks on Paradise Road or Haymarket Square, a dead-end cul-de-sac disconnected from the Whisperwood Drive beacon, and no pedestrian/cyclist crashes 2018–2024, the board concluded a beacon or crosswalk would encourage crossing where there is no safe connection; the feasibility of a sidewalk is the prerequisite question. Seconded (Patricia Dunne[*]); carried on a voice vote.
Motion to refer the matter to Councilmember Michael Szukala[*], the board's Town Board liaison, for an update to the board on progress since an earlier community meeting and, if warranted, a second meeting of the parties — rather than adopt the proposed "No Parking" Friday 11 a.m.–5 p.m. restriction from the raised island to Heim Road[*]. Public feedback split (roughly 4 in favor, 3 opposed), with one RLUIPA religious-liberty objection. Members declined to restrict legal parking tied to Friday worship. Seconded (Patricia Dunne[*]); carried on a voice vote.
Motion to approve the minutes of the May 6, 2026 Traffic-Safety Board meeting, taken at the top of the session with no discussion. Seconded; carried on a voice vote.
This is the first automated Listening Post brief for the Amherst Traffic-Safety Board. The board's roster was verified on June 17, 2026 against the Town of Amherst's official board pages, but it has not yet been human-confirmed against this meeting's official minutes, which had not posted at publication (Amherst minutes lag on the IQM2 / Minutetraq portal). Attributions, roll and outcomes here are therefore provisional and should be reconciled against the official minutes when they appear.
Names. Proper nouns were cross-checked against the June 10, 2026 agenda (which governs spelling) and the town corrections file. Members and staff heard only in imperfect audio are footnoted [*]: Vice Chair Cara Biddlecom (audio "Kara Biddlecum"), members Patricia Dunne ("Dunn"), Dan Rider ("Ryder"), Nicholas Alterio ("Altario") and Joseph Lojacono (audio "Jola Jacono"; spelling per the agenda), Traffic Safety Coordinator Chris Schregel ("Chris Regal"), and liaison Councilmember Michael Szukala ("Zucalla"). Chair Eric Fraas did not appear to be present; the vice chair ran the meeting. The audio does not resolve which members were absent, and votes were taken by voice ("all in favor"), so no numeric margins are reported.
Streets. Two street names were corrected against the agenda and the town street index and are footnoted [*]: Fair Woods Drive (audio "Fairwoods") and Heim Road (audio "Haim"). "Kings Highway" is the board's likely reference for the district crosswalk work rendered simply "Kings" in audio. Statements attributed to public speakers (the Paradise Road resident) and to individual members are drawn from audio and should be verified before quoting formally. Per house practice, this note carries no disclosures into the published copy beyond sourcing.