Cannon: Four new stops along Del. 20 further choke eastbound traffic

(Not so) slowly but surely, the Delaware Department of Transportation seems intent on choking the west-to-east flow of traffic in Sussex County, especially from western Sussex to the beaches and inland bays.

A recent instance is the installation of multiple new, complete stops along Del. 20, between the intersection of U.S. 9 and Del. 20 (Hardscrabble) and the intersection of Del. 20 and U.S. 113 (Millsboro).

Since summer 2022, this 9.6-mile stretch of Del. 20 now has four new stops at basically dinky country roads.

The stops (going west to east) beyond Hardscrabble occur at 0.5 miles, then 1.8 miles farther, then 3.1 miles along the way, followed by another in 1.9 miles, before going 2.3 miles to reach the Del. 20/U.S. 113 intersection, just north of Millsboro. These restrictions, especially the line-of-sight stop just east of Hardscrabble, are simply ridiculous in what appears to be unincorporated, lightly populated areas! And all this to get you to one of the most congested/restricted stretches of road in Sussex  — from Delaware Avenue in Millsboro through four traffic lights past Lowe’s — on a good day and much worse on a beach travel day.

To us, there appears to be little obvious “gain” in traffic safety from the four new stops at the cost of aggravating the people of western Sussex trying to travel toward the Atlantic, while simultaneously decreasing fuel efficiency and increasing fuel costs.

All of this on Del. 20 is concurrent with the nearly intolerable congestion along the U.S. 9 corridor between Georgetown and Lewes/Rehoboth Beach — a highly dangerous and problematic situation that continues to scream for remediation, not more traffic lights and no-passing zones from Department of Transportation planners.

Accordingly, I have requested that DelDOT review what must be flawed “criteria” and recommendations that allegedly support the cited changes along Del. 20 and undo/redo some of the unjustified changes.

The department must refocus on the really serious problems of west-to-east traffic in Sussex County. Let’s have some really important changes.

Dan Cannon

Seaford