(Red Oak) -- Red Oak city officials seek state approval to lower the speed limit along U.S. Highway 34 in town and discussed the possibility of pedestrian crosswalks in the future.
Meeting in regular session Monday evening, the Red Oak City Council unanimously approved a resolution requesting that the Iowa Department of Transportation lower the speed limit from 765 feet east of Eastern Avenue to the East Nishnabotna River Bridge from 50 miles per hour to 45 miles per hour. City Administrator Lisa Kotter says the state agency has the final say on the speed limit for the highway, which recently saw new stop lights installed at the intersection with Highway 48. Red Oak Police Chief Justin Rhamy says the discussion originally started due to concerns over larger vehicles coming down the hill westbound on Highway 34 stopping in time, initially seeking "be prepared to stop when flashing signs."
"You can see them Highway 370 in Nebraska the 'be prepared to stop' flashing signs," said Rhamy. "Because we were really concerned about the traffic coming down the hill, especially truck traffic that's pushing 80,000 to 90,000 pounds, and probably even more than that, getting down here and getting whoad up in time to get stopped. (Iowa DOT officials), they are the ones that encourage us to go before (the council) to say, 'hey, let's maybe look at the speed limit there.'"
Much of the discussion also surrounded pedestrian crosswalks on Highway 34, with Councilman Brian Bills suggesting an even lower speed limit due to the current lack of crosswalks and existing pedestrian and bicycle traffic crossing the major thoroughfare. However, City Administrator Lisa Kotter says they would need to have sidewalks on both sides of the highway. While sidewalks and the trail exist on the south side, Kotter says the city would also need to install sidewalks to the north at the intersections of 4th or 8th streets.
"You don't have to go all the way to Ratliff (Road), for example, but you have to go somewhere--because you may not legally cross people where there's no place to cross to," Kotter explained. "So it's all about timing and it's all about keeping that on our radar. There's not gonna be an underpass, there's not gonna be a bridge going over it, and it's not gonna happen at the intersection with the light because there's too much crisscrossing where there's a better chance of somebody getting hurt."
Kotter says that she, along with Rhamy and Street Superintendent Chris Baird, met with Iowa DOT officials on the most feasible options for pedestrian crossways at 4th or 8th streets. While a traffic study would be needed, Kotter says state officials indicated a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon would be the best option. When activated by a pedestrian, LED flashers would light up in a "rapid pattern" attempting to increase driver awareness and yielding rates.
"It would probably be like a 15 to 20 second interval, so you're going to hit (the button) and then it knows, from an engineering standpoint, that for every foot you have to travel, you get this many seconds to walk," said Kotter. "The downside to this is this does not legally force people to stop like a stop and go light does. It's saying, 'attention, attention,' but it's difficult. So you have to weigh what you think is safer to or just say, 'you should drive, not walk.'"
Bills pointed out that the speed limit on Highway 48 in town is reduced to 30 miles per hour. But, Kotter says it is a "different situation and consideration" for the DOT, due to the higher volume of entries and driveways to businesses on 48. While acknowledging that there are still some safety concerns with the pedestrian and bicycle traffic along Highway 34, Rhamy says the latest data from the Iowa DOT indicates that foot traffic has decreased crossing the major highway.
"I think we all argued that 8th and 34 was probably gonna be our major crosswalk and then we found out what 4th was," said Rhamy. "Now, (the Iowa DOT) pulled that data up again, and it's actually lessened than what it was. 4th (Street) is still the major crosswalk, but you can definitely see with the data that he provided us that the whole entire walking trail is the most used thing in our community."
Kotter adds that since the Iowa DOT cannot provide much financial assistance in terms of installing sidewalks, the city will need to make sidewalks and crossings a future budget item and monitor grant opportunities, particularly through Regional Planning Affiliation programs. More from Monday night's Red Oak council meeting is available with this story at kmaland.com.