WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The community is calling for a change after multiple people expressed concern about some intersections outside of Wichita.
In response to these concerns and recent incidents, Sedgwick County Public Works is conducting a traffic study at 21st Street North and 167th Street West to see if they can implement a traffic light or traffic circle.
Carrie Patton is one of many people speaking out about concerns.
“Our concern here is that we’ve had several fatalities and many crashes at 167th and 21st,” Patton said. “The main reason is people are either running to that stop sign or not paying attention. Signs going north, south, east and west come at a high speed.”
Sedgwick County is conducting a traffic study due to these concerns and recent crashes. They have also implemented short-term solutions.
“We added the bigger stop signs, we added the flashing beacon, we recently added the rectangular yellow cross traffic don’t stop below stop sign,” said Mark Borst, a county traffic engineer. Sedgwick.
Sedgwick County workers stress they need to have an accurate count to get the data. They caution residents not to try to inflate the amount of traffic during the study.
They say bad data could lead to traffic changes that wouldn’t just be a nuisance. But a different safety concern. Lynn Packer is the acting director of public works and county engineer.
“When you stop people at nine in the evening, 2:00 p.m., and they consistently get to a red light or stop sign where they used to go, and there’s no traffic around,” Packer said. “They’re more likely to use those devices because there’s never anyone around.”
If the county finds irregularities in your study, it may require you to start over, delaying any action.
The meters will be picked up on Friday, and Borst expects to make a recommendation in a few weeks. What will depend on whether the numbers meet any of those federal benchmarks.
