The Beachwood City Council passed a motion on Sept. 5th amending the City’s charter to enable northbound traffic from Richmond Road to turn left into the BHS parking lot.

The motion, penned by Councilman and Chair of the Safety and Public Health Committee Justin Berns and passed with a unanimous 7-0 vote, eliminated the following text from section 414.11 of the city ordinances:

“No left turn shall be permitted from Richmond Road into the Beachwood High School driveway.”

This amendment will add a left-turn light and lane leading into the high school from Richmond Road, both of which will be operational in the next few weeks. The light will cost $5,800, allocated from the Beachwood Police Department’s budget for maintenance of traffic.

The additional price of restriping Richmond Road to add a new lane will come from the City of Beachwood’s striping budget.

Councilman Berns believes this amendment will reduce traffic at the Richmond and Fairmount intersection.

“This will enable more vehicles to make the left turn on Fairmount and Richmond more easily, as it should lessen the burden on that intersection tremendously,” he said.

The new lane with be inaccessible to bus traffic.

Berns further suggested that this diminished traffic will improve traffic patterns when the Beachwood Elementary School consolidation plan is implemented.

This change, suggested by the Beachwood Police Department, responded  to rising safety concerns about high school patrons turning around or backing out in residents’ driveways in order to avoid the traffic light at Richmond or Fairmount.

“When people are coming southbound on Richmond Road, they are going at a rate of speed over that hill that they can’t see other people backing out, and there have been many close calls,” Berns said.

C.J. Piro, Beachwood police officer and Director of Security for Beachwood Schools, explained that the concern for the lack of a left turn lane was prompted by an accident that occurred years ago at the Fairmount-Richmond intersection, where a southbound car traveling over the hill on Richmond Road was unable to see a car backing out of a Richmond driveway.

Succeeding this accident, the Police Department received numerous complaints from Richmond Road residents about drivers turning around illegally in their driveways in order to more conveniently access the high school. This elicited the Police Department to begin a traffic study, which occurred in the past twelve months.

“In order to change any type of traffic law, you have to have a traffic study done,” Piro said. “You need a company to come out, count cars for several days and turn in a report in order to justify, ‘hey, this is needed. It is safer to add a left turn as opposed to keeping it the way it is.’”

The study concluded that the intersection at Richmond and Fairmount would be significantly safer with the additional lane, which enabled the Police Department to suggest the motion to City Council.

Piro agreed that the amendment would create a safer and more convenient route to the High School, but wanted to remind students and faculty that safety is always a concern.

“Don’t text and drive,” he said. “Don’t be distracted. There still is a slight limited visibility here, so make sure that you’re clear to make your turn safely.”