ALTAMONT — Mya Sullivan says she’s seen a noticeable uptick in drivers barrelling through the village, not stopping for pedestrians. 
The reason she and her husband moved to Altamont 11 years ago was because it was such a walkable village. “And we knew when our kids were able to go to school, we’d want them to walk to school, and to walk to their friends’ house[s],” Sullivan said, and when they heard the fire department “whistle at five o’clock, they’d know to come home.”

 In those first 10 years, it seemed no one dared go above 30 miles per hour, “which we enjoyed, especially living on Main Street,” she said. But, over the past year, Sullivan said, she began seeing drivers flying down Route 146. 

 Sullivan said there appeared to be confusion whenever someone was at a crosswalk, one driver might slow down but another would sail right through, even when it’s a kid waiting to cross.

According to state law, pedestrians have the right of way if there is a marked crosswalk on a road and no traffic signals; drivers must yield, slowing or stopping, to allow pedestrians to cross.

Sullivan had an incident with her own kids, who were crossing over Main Street at Grand Street to visit friends when one of them was almost hit by a car because only one driver had stopped. 

She reached out to Altamont Police Chief Jason Johnston and Peter Brabant, principal of Altamont Elementary. “And I kind of just said, you know, in a village that is so local and wonderful, how do we make this happen?” she said. “How can we encourage more kids to walk and be able to do it safely?”

She then said she reached out to fellow Saugerties native state Senator Michelle Hinchey to voice her concerns. And she took to social media as well. 

Chief Johnston contacted the state’s Department of Transportation, which conducted a study that largely corroborated what Johnston saw sitting at the intersections over the course of a few days as well as from the reports of his own officers. 

By October, the transportation department in a letter to Johnston said it would take up his request to install a “solar/amber light to crosswalks at Route 146 and Grand Street and Route 146 and Sand Street ….” Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, which include flashing yellow beacons activated by a pushbutton, will be installed at each crosswalk on Main Street.

An installation date has yet to be determined. 

Brabant was surprised with how quickly the whole thing came together. 

He had been researching low-tech options used by other municipalities. 

“They have these orange flags on kind of a pole, a short pole, that pedestrians can hold up and it kind of signifies that they’re going to cross the road and drivers see it and they stop,” he said. “And that was my initial idea.”

But before he could get any further, Altamont Mayor Kerry Dineen told him the state’s transportation department said the flashing lights were a go. 

Both Sullivan and her husband, James, who is also on the village zoning board of appeals, are teachers. 

“Both of our school districts have crossing guards at every walkable spot,” she said.

On having crossing guards, Johnston said, “That’s just not something that we can budget for.”

He said doesn’t think the foot traffic would warrant a crossing guard. Brabant said between six and 20 students walk to school, depending on the weather. 

Sullivan’s observations had been more than anecdotal.  

Johnston wrote about the issue in the fall/winter edition of the village newsletter. 

“There has been a noticeable increase in violations of this law in recent months and the department has also been receiving civilian complaints about the ongoing issue,” Johnston wrote in November. “Some of the more disturbing complaints center around drivers’ failures to yield to young children walking to school on school days, in the morning before school and after dismissal.”