VERNON — Interesting that Kevin Maloney mentions the new downtown signal system [“Why won't Brattleboro do what's needed for pedestrian safety?,” Viewpoint, March 28].
When it was being installed and going through its lengthy shakedown cruise, everybody was suddenly a traffic engineer, complaining about how the system was actually slowing traffic down and suggesting how it might be improved to make the traffic speed up. I myself wrote a letter in praise of Slow Traffic, urging the engineers to preserve Brattleboro's perennial traffic jam as a positive asset.
As it turns out, the system seems to be running quite well. The jam is intact, but the backups are not as bad.
And how exactly is it pedestrian-unfriendly? Just push the button, and you can cross the street.
Better crosswalk markings would be terrific, but that's not a deficiency of the signal system.