I have often thought the lights ion the mentioned places couold be improved upon. I'm glad you brought it up longtimer. I have also always felt that the traffic light at Wal Mart was unfair to regular traffic. I have been on my way to or from work many times, only to have to stop because someone was shopping. The turn lanes you spoke of would be great, but I seriously doubt that the city would put some in after doing all the work to install the stop lights and sidewalks and such. Although this is the city that built a bypass TWICE!

I've presented the problem at Skyline Rd to the city manager (Mr. Freeland) in the past but the situation remains. Mr. Freeland passed the issue to Mr. Archer who contacted the city's traffic engineer. Mr. Archer forwarded the engineer's reply to me. The engineer advised against allowing an unprotected turn because, he advised, the speed limit for southbound traffic is 55 MPH at that point and unprotected turns aren't recommended above 45 MPH. I replied to both that the engineer was incorrect about the speed limit. The southbound traffic speed limit is clearly marked as 45 MPH. My communication was ignored by all. At no time was the issue of stopping northbound traffic for a vehicle turning south addressed by Mr. Archer or the engineer. The purpose of this posting is to try to motivate others with the same concerns to speak up. One candle in the darkness doesn't cast much light. Who do I contact at the Street Department?

There must be some confusion.  The city does not have a traffic engineer.  Complaints and suggestions go to a traffic safety board made up of city employees and citizens.  If the traffic safety board sees merit in the concern then KDOT engineers are involved to help determine traffic flow (using observation, traffic counters, and other means).  KDOT would not necessarily come down, but advise our streets department on what to do.  KDOT might supply the necessary equipment.

The lights mentioned were put in by KDOT when Summit was a state highway.  The light at Wal-Mart was paid for by Wal-Mart but KDOT established the programming.  The KDOT engineers set the roadway at Wal-Mart as 4 lanes.  A fifth middle turn lane could have been installed but was not recommended by KDOT.  It would have been a huge sum of money rerouting the drainage and raising the edges to widen the road.  The city was not going to spend the large sum necessary without a recommendation from the engineers.

As for who to make recommendations to now, it would be the City Manager and the head of the streets department Gary Baugher.  There is also a new method of suggestions provided by our new Mayor.  You can get suggestion forms at the city utility billing office, fill it out, and drop it in the locked suggestion box.  The Mayor picks up the suggestion slips herself and follows through on them.

In the past 2 years I have seen 2 intersections changed after the traffic conditions were observed.  Neither was changed to the suggestion, but in both cases I think the solution was better.  When traffic changes, sometimes it is necessary to go back and look and see if improvements need to be made.

Patrick McDonald
Arkansas City Commissioner

Bruce:

Thank you for your comments.  In one previous post you mentioned that you'd like to see other City Commissioners on this forum.  The majority of us DO pay attention to what is going on in the blogs, but I believe Pat is the only one who actively posts.  I commend him for this.  He does a great job, and most of the time, there really isn't much need for any of the others to make additional comments after he has already done so.  The real catch is that according to the KOMA laws, we can't discuss city business except at a public meeting.  That would rule out more than one commissioner being able to post on the same topic on a forum like this.  So, if you have specific questions or anything any of us can help you with, below are our email addresses.

scott.m@myfuss.com; pmcdonald2005@sbcglobal.net; joelh@kan-pak.com; dottysmith@cox.net; mkuhn@terraworld.net

Thank you for your interest and involvement.

Scott Margolius

Some Commissioners will always find a way to not talk to the public, or misinterpret the laws.  (Sounds a bit like the V.P.)

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Two of the biggest causes of air polution and poor gas mileage are stop & go driving and excess idling (0 miles per gallon). The city can help in both respects by using some common sense in it's use of traffic stoplights.

Starting north and working south.

The traffic light at Skyline Road should allow an unprotected left hand turn onto Skyline Road off of Summit St. Traffic both ways is 45 MPH at that point. The sightline for oncoming traffic is more than far enough to allow a safe left turn without waiting for the light to change. The times I've seen cars sitting at the intersection waiting to turn when nobody is coming are beyond count. The light could be set to allow turns without waiting when no vehicles are coming but stop traffic to allow a left turn when traffic is heavy enough to warrant it.

The traffic light at Skyline Road is also set to stop northbound traffic when a vehicle wanting to turn south has to wait on southbound traffic. It's impossible for northbound traffic to interfere with a southbound turning vehicle. Setting the light to stop only southbound traffic when necessary for a south turning vehicle to enter the roadway will prevent a lot of unneccessary stop & go and idling.

The traffic light at the Wal-Mart store would be unneccessary if turn lanes were added. Look at the supercenter in Ponca City. It is a larger traffic store on a busier street and has no traffic lights to interrupt traffic because there are dedicated turn lanes. The current light in Ark City forces traffic exiting Wal-Mart to stop and wait, even when no traffic is coming, then when the light does change it forces traffic on Summit to stop. Turn lanes would prevent both problems.

The new traffic lights at Kansas and Summit work well except for traffic turning left onto Kansas. For decades traffic has been allowed to turn left without waiting when oncoming traffic allowed. Now vehicles have to sit and idle with no traffic coming, waiting for the light to allow a left turn. An unprotected turn is allowed when turning onto Summit, why not onto Kansas?

The traffic light at Maple & Summit is unnecessary. A simple stop sign on Maple would suffice.

The stop light at Madison & Bst is no longer necessary. It could be set to flash yellow for Madison traffic & red for Bst traffic if not removed entirely.

The only changes noted above that would require the city to spend money would be to add turn lanes at Wal-Mart. All of the proposed changes would save Ark City drivers an enormous amount of stop & go driving and needless idling thereby saving gasoline and reducing air polution as well as improving the orderly flow of traffic.