During the past 15 years, Bernie Ruchin hasn’t opened his windows facing Tinker Road because of the dust flying off the road.

“We don’t even use the front door anymore because of that dust,” he said.

He’s also lost about eight mailboxes and had two hit-and- run accidents with his car parked in front of his 2 Tinker Lane home.

Ruchin has had enough and is asking the town to make Tinker Road one-way.

The road isn’t long -- about 1,400 feet -- and is paved for a few hundred feet from New Boston and Joppa Hill roads, while the rest of the road is gravel.

“It’s your typical gravel road in Bedford,” said Jim Stanford, public works director.

Tinker Road is one of a handful remaining in Bedford. It isn’t as wide as regular town roads, which are paved to 22 feet with up to three feet of gravel on either side, Stanford said.

“When the town plow truck comes through, they plow four feet into my land,” Ruchin said.

The road can be used as a shortcut to Joppa Hill Road from New Boston Road, and traffic may increase when the now-approved subdivisions on Pulpit Road begin construction.

He said Tinker Road residents started petitioning in 1987 and 1989, when they asked to have the dust and commercial traffic on the road addressed, he said.

“Last fall, I talked with the Town Council and the result of that talk was Keith Hickey, then the town manager, and town Councilor Michael Scanlon coming out to look at the road,” Ruchin said. A subcommittee of the Highway Safety Committee also looked at the road.

Fire Chief Scott Wiggin said the committee is neutral on whether the road should be one way.

“I don’t know if having the road be a one-way north or a one-way south, at this time, is really a solution,” Wiggin said.

Stanford said the committee didn’t take a formal vote. The Highway Safety Committee only makes recommendations to the Town Council, and residents need to ask that board for a solution, he said.

Wiggin said there are some “quality-of-life issues” for residents of Tinker Road.

“It’s time now to resolve these things,” Ruchin said.

A temporary fix might be best for now because the town is spending a lot of money on a new high school, he said.

“One-way streets are really not conducive to our modern living, but, then again, it’s not efficient for two cars to drive side by side out here,” Ruchin said.