City Discusses Traffic Woes On Parker St., Husky Trail
City Discusses Traffic Woes On Parker St., Husky Trail
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
City Discusses Traffic Woes On Parker St., Husky TrailConcern about U-turns on Parker Street at Husky Trail to return to U.S. 30 and Aldi’s led to further discussion on those three roads at the Warsaw Traffic Commission Wednesday.
Cindy Dobbins, city council representative to the Commission, said she’s received a few phone calls about people making U-turns at the Parker Street and Husky Trail intersection to either go to back to U.S. 30 or to Aldi’s, not realizing there’s another entrance to Aldi’s along Husky Trail.
She said one woman who called her “was very concerned because she’s seen some situations where those persons are making a U-turn at the same point in time that someone is coming east on Husky Trail and making a right turn to go out to the highway. She said she’s seen a few near-collisions there.”
Dobbins noted that it wasn’t illegal to make a U-turn there but maybe it was something to look at.
Mayor Joe Thallemer told her he and City Planner Jeremy Skinner met Tuesday with representatives of the Indiana Department of Transportation to talk about projects that are going to happen at Anchorage Road and Parker Street. They also discussed the increase in traffic on Husky Trail between the roundabout and Parker Street.
“I think the city’s going to take a closer look at some traffic details to see what types of improvements are warranted from the traffic data, but that’s probably just one of many problems up in that area, not to diminish it,” he said.
Skinner said there have been discussions over the last few years with INDOT regarding issues the city’s had with Parker Street and Anchorage Road. The city received grant funding from INDOT to make improvements to Anchorage Road. He said INDOT is making intersection improvements at Parker Street as well as Anchorage Road with U.S. 30.
“Those two intersections will be improved. Parker Street specifically will be adding another lane to cross U.S. 30 as you’re heading toward KCH and businesses in that park. The intent would be that there’d be two lanes – you’d have a lane that would be designated to go to town and continue on Parker Street and a lane that would be designated to go across Dubois (Drive). So in theory, you’re going to be able to push twice as many cars across that intersection every signal as well as re-establishing the right turn lane,” Skinner said.
He said there will be four lanes as a driver comes up to U.S. 30. Right now there are only three lanes – left turn, right turn and a thru lane.
“That will drastically improve that intersection, I think, in terms of pushing cars through the intersection,” he said, adding that the traffic continues to increase so it won’t solve all the issues.
The improvements INDOT and the city are doing to Anchorage Road will “certainly” help, but the city and state will continue to monitor the roads and intersections to see if anything else can be done.
Skinner said the city is resuming a traffic study to look at the whole area and see what improvements can be made.
Thallemer said the improvements at Parker Street and Anchorage Road will be the result of “quite a bit of work” between the city and INDOT to come up with a short-term safety improvement.
“We know there’s congestion, and traffic volumes and truck volumes are doing nothing but increasing. We know the long-term solution is the U.S. 30 limited-access or U.S. 30 freeway, that’s the long-term down-the-road solution. But we’ve been very adamant as a city, our administration has been very adamant with Fort Wayne, that we need short-term improvement,” Thallemer said.
“We can’t guarantee how much this is going to improve things, but hopefully by allowing those intersections to clear a little bit quicker, they’ll minimize (issues) in those areas. These are INDOT projects, INDOT solutions, and we’re just happy they’re finally doing something, at least short term, but we know really that’s not the long-term solution.”
Skinner said he “believed” INDOT was going to begin the projects the first or second week of July. The intersections won’t be closed but there will be lane restrictions.
He said the project was slated for 2022, but INDOT bumped it up because of the city’s concerns.
Warsaw Police Dept. Capt. Joel Beam said he’s received a request for the city to put signs up at the Husky Trail roundabout asking people to use their turn signal. A turn signal is only required at a roundabout when a driver is exiting.
“My thought is, you don’t put a sign up to remind people to use your turn signal,” he said.
Skinner said the city’s done some public service announcements on roundabouts and can “kick out” some more. In a few years, Warsaw and Winona Lake will have a total of five roundabouts so people will get used to them, he said.
“We just need to continue to educate. I don’t know that we need to put a sign up saying use your turn signal, because we don’t do that at a four-way stop,” Skinner said.
Thallemer repeated that the city has only had one accident at a roundabout in the last two years.
Traffic collisions in Warsaw were down a little in 2018 compared to 2017, according to an annual report given to the Commission by Police Chief Scott Whitaker.
There were 1,041 collisions in 2018, down 21 from 1,062 in 2017. Of the 1,041 collisions in 2018, 881 involved property damage, 211 had injuries and there were two fatalities.
December had the most collisions, with 108, followed by 106 in May and 101 in June. Fridays had the most collisions of the week with 207, with Sunday being the least with 91. The bulk of 2018’s collisions occurred between 11 a.m. and 6:59 p.m.
The biggest contributing circumstances to collisions were following too closely, 237; failure to yield right-of-way, 218; and unsafe backing, 189.
Traffic Commission Administrator Steve Foster asked if there were any “eye-openers” in the report. Whitaker said no, it was pretty consistent with past years, but he was “very surprised” U.S. 30 didn’t have more crashes.
There were 166 crashes on U.S. 30 in 2018, down from 167 in 2017. Detroit Street (Ind. 15) had 183 in 2018, up from 153 in 2017. Other streets with peak crash areas were Center Street (119), Winona Avenue (35), Market Street (57), Walton Boulevard (29), Buffalo Street (20) and Parker Street (22).
In other business, the Traffic Commission:
• Heard from Street Superintendent Jeff Beeler that if the weather holds up today, West Center Street from Columbia to Market streets will be closed for some “full-depth asphalt patching.”
• Discussed complaints with drivers turning left into Freedom Oil at Silveus Crossing (CR 150W) with U.S. 30. The gas station is a “right-in, right-out” only, Skinner said, but people are turning left in there, stopping traffic on U.S. 30. Skinner and Beeler will continue to look at the issue and get back to the Traffic Commission if it needs to do anything.
• Approved an ordinance enforcing no left turn from Canal Street onto North Detroit Street.
• Denied Zimmer Biomet’s request for temporary speed bumps along Bell Drive while sanitary sewer construction is occurring in the area.
• Heard the next meeting is 1 p.m. May 1 at city hall.
