Fowler’s Crossing, where the Adirondack Rail Trail crosses state Route 86 outside the village of Saranac Lake, is seen on Tuesday. The stop sign is for rail trail users, not motorists. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — David DeGirolamo was driving into Saranac Lake from Ray Brook on Sept. 1 when he stopped at the Adirondack Rail Trail crosswalk at Fowler’s Crossing to let five kids on bikes cross state Route 86.

The car coming the other way from town stopped to let them cross. The children were walking across the road when DeGirolamo said he heard an engine roar and a car he estimated at going around 50 mph got on the wrong side of the road and started to pass him.

“I just laid on my horn, so the kids stopped right in front of my car,” he said. “They couldn’t see that car coming.”

This car blew through the intersection and almost had a head-on collision with the car stopped on the other side, DeGirolamo said, adding that the kids just turned around and rode back to town. They didn’t want to risk it, and he left with a disgusting pit in his stomach.

“That was one of the most horrific things that could have happened. And it was inches from happening,” he said. “It would have been horrifying, man. … I would have been scarred for life.”

DeGirolamo’s friend, Frederic “Fritz” Ellers, of New Mexico, was visiting his hometown of Saranac Lake on Sept. 4. An avid cyclist, Ellers was biking the rail trail from Saranac Lake to Lake Placid when he heard the sound of metal crunching on metal near Fowler’s Crossing. He looked up and saw a state trooper had rear-ended a car that had stopped on the Saranac Lake side of the crosswalk for a biker to cross.

He said the trooper must have swerved and caught the corner of the stopped car. Ellers watched as the trooper and the driver spoke and assessed the damage.

State Police spokeswoman Brandi Ashley said the NYSP did not have a record of this crash that she could find to confirm it. Neither did the Essex County Sheriff’s Department.

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Request

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Both DeGirolamo and Ellers are requesting the state Department of Transportation to make some changes to this crosswalk for safety — a speed reduction and a flashing yellow light.

“Nobody knows what to do in there,” DeGirolamo said — rail trail users and motorists alike.

He lives in Ray Brook, so he said he sees this all the time now. Some people stop, some don’t.

The speed limit on this portion of road is 45 mph — too fast, according to DeGirolamo. That stretch right before the intersection is where all the animals get hit, he said.

“That’s animal crossing there,” DeGirolamo said. “Skunks and raccoon and deer.”

He’s wanted the speed limit dropped just for the sake of the animals. Now there’s humans crossing there, too.

He doesn’t think the people who can take action on this know the gravity of the situation.

“This is one of those things that is going to go on and on and on until there is a tragedy,” DeGirolamo said.

DeGirolamo said he wants to see the speed limit near Fowler’s Crossing brought down to at least 30 mph and eventually have a flashing yellow light to tell drivers to be cautious.

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DOT study

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In December 2023, the village of Saranac Lake Parks and Trails Advisory Board sent a letter to the state DOT identifying three potential problem areas in town where the saw safety concerns and proposed solutions. This letter was co-signed by the village board.

One of these requests was for the state to reduce the speed from 45 to 30 mph on state Route 86 at Fowler’s Crossing, basically extending a 30 mph zone from the village past the rail trail crossing for another quarter mile. In total, it would add a half-mile to the 30 mph zone heading eastbound on state Route 86.

“An extra 20 seconds driving time at speed limit, or 15 seconds at the more typical 5 mph over speed limit,” the letter read.

In May, the DOT responded, saying it determined that a reduction of the speed limit there is “not warranted.” The DOT’s letter essentially said that lowering the speed limit would not lower speeds.

“Simply lowering the number posted on a speed limit sign does not necessarily reduce the operating speed. A very small minority of motorists will blindly obey the new speed limit,” DOT Regional Traffic Engineer Michael Fenley wrote. “Most drivers will drive at a speed that they feel safe and comfortable at, which is usually the 85th percentile speed.”

The DOT did a traffic study on this area, measuring vehicle speeds with radar in the 45 mph zone. They found the 85th percentile speed was 46 mph.

Fenley wrote that when a speed limit is “unjustly lowered” that creates a significant difference in driving speeds. If a consistent driving pace is not kept between drivers, that can lead to more crashes, aggressive driving and road rage, he said.

The DOT cited crash history data from that section of road from 2020 to 2023 and found four deer collisions within the half-mile corridor.

Because there were no human or vehicle collisions, the DOT said there was not a human safety concern there.

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Concerns continue

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Parks and Trails Advisory Board Chair Charlotte Lomino said she thought this reasoning was “silly,” pointing out that this phase of the rail trail only opened to the public in December 2023. The rail trail is the reason people are asking for the speed reduction at Fowler’s Crossing, and it was not taken into account in this DOT study.

DOT Region 1 spokesperson Scott Cook said that the department has installed “Trail Crossing Ahead” signs approximately one-10th of a mile prior to the crossing in each direction, “out of an abundance of caution and to help alleviate concerns.” There were also existing neon yellow reflective “Trail Crossing” signs at the intersection.

Cook said the crosswalk at Fowler’s Crossing is in full compliance with existing engineering and safety standards.

“Upon completion of the (state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Adirondack Rail Trail) project, NYSDOT will continue monitor this crossing and any others that cross state roads to determine if enhancements should be considered,” Cook wrote in an email.

In the meantime, Lomino said Fowler’s Crossing doesn’t feel like a safe place for a cyclist. It’s a wide road to cross, with a bit of a blind corner on the Saranac Lake side.

“It’s not a safe intersection,” she said.

Fowler’s Crossing and the Adirondack Rail Trail intersection on Old Military Road in Lake Placid are the crossings she’s most concerned about.

Ellers also said the crossing near the fire station in Lake Placid at the bottom of a hill is dangerous.

“Personally, I won’t have any trouble with that crossing because I don’t trust anybody to begin with,” Ellers said.

Lomino said the Parks and Trails Advisory Board is focusing on other things now. There is lots to do around the village and they choose to prioritize their volunteer time on actually getting things done. She said the odds are low that pushing for action at Fowler’s Crossing will be fruitful.

“DOT has historically always been very resistant to doing anything,” Lomino said.

The DOT has limited resources, too, she said, and people clamoring for changes from every town in the state. All the department’s decisions are life-or-death ones.

But Lomino added that the DOT is viewed as slow to catch on to new ideas in traffic engineering — specifically, a newer focus on pedestrians over vehicles.

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Safety tips

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Saranac Lake Police Chief Darin Perrotte said, according to state law, a pedestrian in a crosswalk has the right of way. But a bicyclist does not meet definition of a pedestrian. Someone walking bike counts as a pedestrian.

“It really just comes down to everybody paying extra attention,” Perrotte said. “It doesn’t really matter who had the right of way if you get hit.”

The village of Saranac Lake recently installed a new sign on the corner of Brandy Brook Lane and Pine Street, which turns into McKenzie Pond Road. Before, the three-way intersection had stop signs on the Pine Street and McKenzie Pond Road sides, but drivers turning left or right onto those streets off of Brandy Brook Lane did not need to stop. Since the rail trail runs parallel with the two other streets and intersects across Brandy Brook Lane before the intersection, the sign was added.

Perrotte said he hates to say the word “controversy,” but the new stop sign has had a mixed reaction. People aren’t sure what to do there, he said. He didn’t know the sign was going up until the day it was installed.

He said a crosswalk at a three-way intersection like at that location is supposed to have a stop sign anyway, since the crosswalk line doubles as a stop line — so the sign’s addition was more of a formality after the crosswalk paint was laid down.

He said to treat the crossings like a school zone or Main Street during tourist season; people will be crossing there and it is impossible to know for certain everyone will act the way they’re expected to.

It is all about being cautious at these intersections, Perrotte said. The trail is there. People have to adapt to it, he said.