Study suggests removing Sixth Street stop signs

A study presented to the city's Traffic Commission Monday night suggested that removing stop signs and traffic signals from Sixth Street will speed up traffic without endangering pedestrians.

The study, conducted by HNTB, found that four-way stops at Sixth and College and Sixth and Park are unnecessary. Instead, two-way stops at the intersections are enough to control traffic now and in 20 years, according to a report given to the commission. The report concluded, however, that further study on the issue was needed.

About a quarter-mile of Sixth Street between Grand Avenue and Main Street is scheduled to be rebuilt. The city studied the traffic flow on Sixth Street by shutting down traffic lights at the intersections along the Downtown Street in hopes of making it easier for people to drive through the area. Cross streets on the stretch of 6th Street include Villa, Park, College and Wisconsin.



Removing the traffic signals saved drivers as much as 20 seconds per trip along Sixth Street without impacting pedestrian traffic along the street, according to the study. But the study also noted this is not the public perception. People surveyed about stops signs on Sixth Street strongly favored four-way stops at Sixth and Park and Sixth and College. That could setup a political fight on the City Council over the need for stop signs along Sixth Street.

The study found that there 92 12-second gaps without traffic at Park and Sixth on a typical day - 12 seconds being the acceptable amount of time it takes someone to cross the street. There were 76 12-second gaps at College and Sixth.

According to state standards, a traffic signal should be considered at an intersection when there are fewer than 60 gaps per hour. Based on that standard, the study concluded that there was not enough traffic on Sixth Street to warrant traffic signals.

The study did find that two-way stops on Sixth at Park and College did speed up traffic along the road. When there were four-way stop signs at the corners the average traffic speed was between 17.9 and 23.5 mph. When there were two-way stops at the intersections the average speed was between 23.2 and 29.0 mph.

The accelerated traffic did not seem to sway the engineers in charge of the study. The report said:

There is strong public support for installation of all way stop control at both intersections however, surrounding property owners and the public perceive existing speed and safety concerns that are not supported by data.

Click here for a PDF of the full report.