Efforts To 'Calm' Traffic On Bucks County Road Causing Controversy

NEWTOWN, Twp., Pa. (CBS) -- The yellow lines on Penns Trail North in Newtown Township are supposed to swerve around the road. It is called a chicane. But drivers on the residential road have a few other words in mind.

"It's absurd and it's dangerous," says Jack Osmers, who lives off the road.

Newtown Township installed the $6,000 road configurations as a way of making a half mile stretch of road safer. But neighbors say it makes the road more dangerous. And a township supervisor says the traffic calming measures are not the right solution.

Township Manager Joe Czajkowski says the changes were put in as a temporary measure to be studied in a few months. The plastic reflective posts and curved lines are supposed to force drivers to slow down on the 25 mph road. But Eyewitness News spotted cars speeding straight through the middle of the road, crossing all the lines.

"Cars are going straight through," says Jennifer Dix, who lives just past the chicanes. "They're playing a game of chicken."

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The road has become a popular cut-through after the township closed nearby Upper Silver Lake Road. Neighbors say they would like the township to find some way to slow down traffic, but they say a speed bump would have been enough.

A town hall meeting scheduled for Wednesday night has Penns Trail North on the agenda. The township manager says most of the feedback received so far has been negative.

Reported by Oren Liebermann, CBS 3