10/12/98

Want a tip on avoiding road hazards in Arlington?

 Just ask Paul Schlichtman.

 Or better yet, type in an Internet search using the key words "Ignore this sign . . .Please!" and take a look at Schlichtman's Web site warning drivers of serious goofs on official traffic signs in the suburb.

 "There are so many signs that are misleading or improperly posted in Arlington. The worst ones I put on the site," said Schlichtman, a nine-year town resident and doctoral candidate at Harvard's Graduate School of Education.

 A two-time unsuccessful candidate for selectman, Schlichtman decided to run on the sign platform while standing outside a polling place in 1996.

 "A guy asked me 'What do you stand for?' and I said 'I stand for fixing the signs around here,' and pointed to a missing street sign across the street. He said 'You're right,' and walked into the polling place. I think I got his vote."

 That satisfied voter notwithstanding, Schlichtman was well on his way to becoming Arlington's answer to perpetual presidential candidate Harold Stassen when he discovered the secret resource that would transform him into the town's resident expert on proper traffic signage.

 "I was arguing in Town Meeting about getting this traffic light fixed at Mass. Avenue and Pleasant Street," said the 45-year-old testing coordinator at Boston's Madison Park High School.

 "I wanted to put a right red arrow on it and was told it wouldn't fit the rules of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. So I said. 'OK, if they want to play by the rules, let's find out what the rules are.' "

 Schlichtman found a copy of the manual at a Harvard library. In it, the official rules and regulations, complete with miniature pictures of signs, stop lights and road markings, brought him back to his childhood passion of drawing make-believe maps with road signs on them.

 And the tables were turned.

 "It turns out that light was on a waiver the way they had installed it and it doesn't fit the manual anyway," he said. "After that, I decided to go around town and look for some of the most egregious violations. There were just such good pickings!"

 One of the worst is the "Keep right of island" sign posted on a far right-hand-side of Mystic Valley Parkway in a wooded stretch of the road.

 "Obey this sign . . . and you land in a guardrail," Schlichtman's Web site warns, going on to quote the manual's directive that the sign be placed only in medians and traffic islands in the middle of the roads, not to the right of them.

 The page also shows the intersection of Summer and Mystic streets, where a right-arrow-pointing "keep right" sign is erroneously posted in an island between a right turn lane and a through lane. The intersection should have a double arrow directing traffic around the island.

 Even more dangerous, the Web page says, is a green right arrow for eastbound Summer Street, which is illuminated even when the Summer Street light is red and opposing traffic on Mystic Street has the green.

 Making it clear who's responsible, the Web page concludes: "It's time for the Arlington Board of Selectman to take their responsibilities for traffic safety seriously. Call or write to the Board of Selectman and ask them to correct these dangerous traffic signs."

 That's easy, since Schlichtman lists the board's home phone numbers on the page.

 "Oh, it is, is it?" said selectwoman Kathleen Kiely Dias when told that her number was on the site.

 "He's not too bad. He usually has a fairly good sense of humor about things," she said, though she said that it would be more effective for Schlichtman to bring his sign complaints to the board or police chief.

 Although he has done just that, usually to no avail, his original traffic protest is finally bearing fruit. The town has granted $5,000 to fix the improper red arrow on Mass. Avenue and Pleasant Street that first led him to the manual.

 "At first I thought he was wrong but we looked into it and he was right," said board chairman Kevin Greeley.

 "I admire Paul, but he can be a pain in the neck sometimes. But I've kind of begrudgingly come to respect him," Greeley said, adding that Schlichtman's thorn-in-the-side tactics made him an ideal choice to represent the Town of Arlington in the multi-community Minuteman School Committee.

 So has political success spurred the local hero into taking on street signs and signals in other communities?

 "Well, Lexington is just as bad," Schlichtman said. "But I don't live in Lexington."

Got a commuting gripe? Write to Roads Scholarat onyourside@bostonherald.com

Return to Ignore this sign... PLEASE!

Visit Robin Washington's website.