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The Springfield News-Sun digs into important stories about public safety issues, including recent coverage of a spike in traffic fatalities and crashes in construction zones.
Urbana traffic engineers are asking the state to fund a stoplight project with the goal to reduce the number of crashes along the Route 68 corridor through the city.
Nearly 250 crashes were reported on U.S. 68 in Urbana between 2012 and 2014, said Tyler Bumbalough, city engineer.
Many of those crashes were rear-end crashes, which the engineer believes could be reduced by re-timing the 12 traffic signals that run through city on the U.S. route.
The timing of the lights was not re-adjusted after the roundabout was installed in the center of town in 2009, Bumbalough said.
“They’re in sequence when they’re turning green, so they’re not all at once, but go in sequence so you can move a plug of traffic through town,” he said.
As many as 20,000 vehicles pass through the town square every day, according to data from recent traffic studies.
Because traffic flows more quickly through the roundabout than it did when there were lights, the timing of the light along the corridor needs to be adjusted, engineers said.
The city planned to budget $33,000 for the project, Bumbalough said, but then discovered it could be paid for with with grant money from the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Systematic Timing and Phasing Program.
Some drivers in the city said the upgrades to the traffic lights would make traffic flow more smoothly through town.
“It will hopefully slow down traffic into the square a little bit so nobody’s getting stuck or having to sit there a long time,” said Edie Goldsberry, who works on Monument Square.
She said she has seen crashes happen along that route in town and often hears cars honking at near-misses or bad driving.
Drivers said they will appreciate the update to the mile-and-a-half stretch of roadway that has stop lights at almost every block, if it makes the commute through town easier.
But some people, like Kaitlyn Lebo, think the best way to fix the problem of rear-end crashes on the road is for drivers to simply pay attention.
“Some people always sort of just assume the light’s going to be green, and they aren’t paying attention, and it is red,” she said.
The city has submitted a grant proposal to ODOT, which will then take it to the central office for approval in the next few weeks, Bumbalough said.
If the state approves the grant, traffic studies and re-calculation of the lights will begin as soon as possible, he said.
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