WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The community is calling for change after multiple people have raised concerns about some intersections outside of Wichita.
In response to those concerns and recent crashes, Sedgwick County Public Works is conducting a traffic study at 21st Street North and 167th Street West to see whether they can implement a traffic light or a roundabout.
Carrie Patton is one of the many people speaking up about concerns.
“Our concern out here is that we’ve had several fatalities and a lot of accidents at 167th and 21st,” Patton said. “The main reason is people run that stop sign or don’t pay attention to the signs going north and south and east and west come at a high rate of speed.”
Sedgwick County is conducting a traffic study because of those concerns and recent accidents. They’ve also implemented short-term solutions.
“We added the larger stop signs, we added the flashing beacon, we most recently added the cross traffic does not stop yellow rectangular sign under the stop sign,” Mark Borst, a traffic engineer with Sedgwick County, said.
Workers with Sedgwick County emphasize they need to have an accurate count to get data. They warn residents not to try to inflate the amount of traffic during the study.
They say wrong data could lead to traffic changes that would be not just a nuisance. But a different safety concern. Lynn Packer is the interim director of public works & county engineer.
“When you’re stopping people at nine o’clock at night, at 2 p.m., and they’re constantly coming 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 run those devices because no one’s ever around.”
If the county sees irregularities in its study, it could require to start over, delaying any action.
The counters will be picked up Friday, and Borst expects to make a recommendation in a few weeks. What that will depend on if the numbers meet one of those federal benchmarks.