City officials agreed Tuesday to install a temporary radar sign, which flashes the speed a motorist is traveling, on 30th Avenue east of Lucille Drive for a couple of weeks to see if it will train drivers to slow down in advance of Prairie Hills Middle School.

 Staff also will use a device to record speeds near the intersection when the sign is up and then again in a couple of weeks after its removal to see if drivers altered their driving habits.

If that doesn’t work to slow traffic near the school, suggested City Engineer Jeff Schenk, the city might look at installing more permanent warning signs.

The measures were in response to an ongoing debate about the intersection after the city removed traffic signals installed temporarily about three years ago to aid traffic flow during the construction of the bridge over the railroad tracks west of Lucille Drive on 43rd Avenue.

But with the reopening of 43rd Avenue, officials said, the lights aren't legally justified.

City Councilman Steve Garza, formerly a city traffic signal technician, recommended the city reinstall the traffic signals at the intersection with timers that active them only during school hours and that other times they are on yellow flash.

The technology is available, Garza contended, to set the lights to only activate at the start of the day and when school lets out, and that poles were still there to hang them.

Schenk, however, said those poles are leased. If the city wanted to install permanent signals, it would cost at least $350,000, he said, because permanent poles have to be larger than the temporary ones, their anchors would have to be set deeper into the ground, and they'd have to widen 30th Avenue for a proper left turn lane.

A couple of weeks ago, the council suggested further traffic study to determine if the lights could be justified under traffic warrants.

But Schenk said Tuesday that such a study, doing speed and traffic counts, would cost more than $16,000.

“Personally, looking at it and going through everything at the different meetings, I think there are more effective options or benefits to not do another traffic study,” he said. “There have already been two. One by KDOT (Kansas Department of Transportation) and one by us that verified their same data.”

The city owns a sign that measures and shows a motorist their speed, but it is in use elsewhere until after the annual Rod Run downtown, Schenk said. It will be available after Oct. 6.

“After 10 days or two weeks, we can get rid of the signs and then see if speeds stay low,” Schenk said. “If they climb again, then we can look at the warrants for a speed limit sign like they have at Haven, where it's red and goes green when you get closer (to the proper speed.)”

Besides the cost, Schenk said, there is a danger in switching a light back and forth from active to flash in that it decreases the consistency of motorist speeds.

Schenk said he would try to have study results and cost estimates on more permanent signs if required for the council’s first November meeting.

At a previous council meeting, USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman agreed a traffic signal was probably not justified at the intersection because of the relatively limited amount of school traffic.

She proposed flashing yellow lights, though officials don't want to create a formal school zone.

However, a couple of school bus drivers who previously addressed the council spoke again on Tuesday, asking for the restoration of the signal light.

Dianne Cannon advised the board an online petition started by the Bretz law firm contained more than 1,500 signatures, and one by several bus drivers and parents going door-to-door gathered another 500.