The intersection of Pope and Detroit streets will not become an all-way stop, the Warsaw Traffic Commission determined Wednesday.
However, the Commission will continue to look at the traffic to the south at the intersection of Detroit and Prairie streets to see if any improvements can be made there. Traffic Commission Administrator and Warsaw Police Department Capt. Kip Shuter reminded the commission that they first talked about a request to make the intersection of Pope and Detroit streets an all-way stop at the beginning of summer 2016. The board wanted further traffic information before discussing the intersection further.
The request to make the intersection an all-way stop was made by Dennis Broderick through Civic Plus, which allows citizens to make contact with the city online.
The west end of Pope Street ends at Detroit Street and the only stop sign is for westbound traffic on Pope. Traffic on Detroit does not stop. At the Detroit and Prairie intersection south of Pope, there is a stop sign for northbound traffic on Detroit. There is no stop sign for Detroit traffic heading south and turning right onto Prairie.
According to the traffic data collected over a two-year period ending last month for the Pope and Detroit intersection, there were five collisions at the intersection, including one with an injury. The primary factor for the crashes was listed as failure to yield right of way.
Data collected in 2013 and 2014 showed there were two collisions at the intersection, with no injuries reported. Failure to yield was a factor in one of the accidents.
Data from the Michiana Area Council of Governments shows that on Sept. 13, from 6 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., a total of 7,618 vehicles traveled either south or north on Detroit Street or westbound on Pope Street at their intersection. About 98 percent were passenger vehicles.
Shuter also supplied commission members with the “Multi-Way Stop Applications,” which provide guidelines as to when and where uniform traffic control devices, such as stop signs, should be placed. He specifically drew their attention to the criteria for a multi-way stop sign, including “five or more reported crashes in a 12-month period.”
“We do not have that. We only have three accidents in 2016, two in 2015, two in 2014 and none in 2013. So it does not meet that criteria,” Shuter said.
As for minimal volume, Shuter said the intersection does meet the requirement that “vehicular volume entering the intersection from the major street approaches averages at least 300 vehicles per hour for any eight hours of an average day” according to the Multi-Way Stop Applications. But the intersection does not meet the requirement that combined traffic entering the intersection “from the minor street approaches averages at least 200 units per hour for the same eight hours, with an average delay to minor-street vehicular traffic of at least 30 seconds per vehicle during the highest hour.”
Based on the criteria and data, Shuter said an all-way stop is not warranted at the Pope and Detroit streets intersection.
“I’d also be concerned with that particular intersection, that everyone’s familiar with, that making it an all-way stop may back traffic up down Prairie Street and then further up north on Detroit Street up to Winona Avenue, on the state highway, and we don’t want that to occur,” Shuter explained.
“Especially with a train,” WPD Capt. Joel Beam, Traffic Commission member, said.
Mayor Joe Thallemer stated that in Broderick’s request for an all-way stop, he talked about the gateless railroad crossing.
“But that will be repaired and improved, hopefully this year,” he said. Along with the railroad crossing at Pope, the crossings at Winona, Market, Main and Fort Wayne streets “are all scheduled to be improved. It’s been a long process. We were given funds to do that three years ago, and I won’t go into the details, but INDOT, I think they’re finally going to do something this year. So, at any rate, that won’t be an issue. That intersection will be gated at some point in the near future.”
Traffic Commission member Connie Fribley said she sat at the Pope and Detroit intersection about a week ago trying to turn left from Pope onto Detroit and she had to wait through three light changes. She said she didn’t even know how a stop sign would be put up there because the vehicles parked at Warsaw Cut Glass would block the view of one.
After some further discussion, Shuter made a motion to deny Broderick’s request for an all-way stop at Pope and Detroit, but to go ahead and look at the traffic at Detroit and Prairie and see if any improvements could be made there. The motion was unanimously approved.
In other business:
• The Commission tabled discussion on the MutualBank exit onto South Lake Street and changing two-hour parking to unlimited parking on the north side of West Market Street in the 200 block until more information can be collected.
• Thallemer gave City Planner Jeremy Skinner the oath of office as a member of the Traffic Commission.
• Steve Foster, the Traffic Commission secretary, was re-elected to the position. He was not in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting.
