#comprehensive plan

Are you feeling stuck in a life rut, desperately longing for change and progress? It’s time to shift gears, regain control, and steer your life back onto the path of success and fulfillment. Whether you need a little challenge or a major overhaul, these five strategies will help you get your vehicle (your life) back in the race toward your desired destination. Let’s dive into the details and…

5 Science-Proven Ways to Improve Your Memory

Source | LinkedIn | John Boitnott | See my work at jboitnott.com – Writer at Entrepreneur Media, Inc.com and Readwrite.com

From people’s names to sales data, there’s a lot of information entrepreneurs need to be able to remember at any given moment. Here’s how to improve your memory and retain more information.

Memory creation and management is a complex process where the human brain collects,…

As someone who lives off Purchase St, the Dilla St/Purchase St intersection is a perpetual aggravation.  Dilla St is the primary way to get to and from 495 for a large percentage of Milfordians.  So in the mornings, cars are backed up on Purchase St waiting to turn onto Dilla St (and consequently backed up on Fountain St waiting to take a left onto Purchase St).  And then in the afternoons, cars are backed up on Dilla St waiting to turn onto Purchase St.  This backup is especially annoying, as it can stretch the entire length of Dilla St, spilling into the Rt. 85 intersection and thus arguably impacting flow on and off 495.

This is not a new problem.  The town's 2003 comprehensive plan identified this intersection as one of seven areas in need of improvement, saying:

During the afternoon peak, the signal timing functions opposite of traffic needs.  Although the westbound traffic volume is often double the northbound or southbound volume, the signal timing provided to the westbound movement is approximately half of that provided for the north/south movement. Additionally, many northbound vehicles take a right onto Dilla Street but the current pavement markings make them share a lane with through traffic which increases vehicle delay on all approaches.  One recommendation is the re-striping of the northbound approach to provide a dedicated right turn lane and through lane.

However, since that time little has been done to address these issues.  When the casino was under discussion in 2013, Foxwoods agreed to a number of traffic improvement projects, including at Dilla St/Purchase St:

Prior to Operations Commencement, at the intersection of Purchase Street and Dilla Street, Developer shall complete the design, permitting and construction of  (a) pavement marking modifications at the Dilla Street approach to remove the yellow hatched island and replace it with white extension lines (which improvement is expected to increase the  left turn lane storage by approximately 100 feet and allow more right turning vehicles to by-pass the left turn queue) and (b) improvements on Purchase Street to create a  dedicated northbound thru lane and right turn lanes at the intersection.

As we know, Milford voters rejected the casino and so most of those improvements never happened.  But in 2014, the highway department did complete some of the proposed work.  At that time, highway surveyor Scott Crisafulli told me, the left turn lane on Dilla St was extended, allowing more cars to take a right onto Purchase St.  But, according to former police chief Tom O'Loughlin, the highway department did not add a right-turn lane to Purchase St, saying that the road was too narrow to add that extra lane safely.  Widening Purchase St to accommodate this extra lane would require land takings, similar to what the town had to do to improve the Rt. 16/Rt. 140 intersection (over by the hospital).

The other improvement suggested in the comprehensive plan relates to changing the signal timing.  Right now, the signal timing is the same all day because the traffic light controller is an older model that doesn't allow for different timings in the morning and the afternoon.  As a result, if you make the green light for Dilla St longer (to alleviate traffic in the afternoons), you have to shorten the green light for Purchase St (making traffic worse in the mornings).  Chief O'Loughlin's back-of-the-envelope estimate of the cost of a new controller was "more than $50,000, because there is no doubt you would have to change out the light systems."

BRUSSELS | Eurozone ministers reach compromise deal on reform package

BRUSSELS  — Eurozone finance ministers have agreed to strengthen the single currency bloc’s defenses against any future financial crisis.

Eurogroup President Mario Centeno said early Tuesday that “after several months of intense negotiations and a very tough and long meeting we delivered a comprehensive plan to strengthen the euro.”

Centeno said that new measures will be introduced to keep on top…